Page 15 - Decoding Culture

8 DECODING CULTURE
does not necessarily imply an overall progression. The fact that at
each transition specifiable difficulties are addressed does not mean
that they are actually resolved. Nor does this dynamic produce a
linear process of intellectual evolution, however much it may look
like that in the schematic narrative that I shall provide. As the
more detailed discussion of later chapters illustrates, the road-map
of cultural studies is not without its byways, diversions and motor­
way interchanges.
I do believe, however, that there is a key 'moment' in the emer­
gence of cultural studies without which this history would be so
markedly different as to constitute quite another intellectual enter­
prise. This moment reflects the extraordinary impact of
structuralism on the nascent field of study. While it is conventional
to single out the early contributions of the likes of Richard Hoggart
and Raymond Williams as constitutive of the cultural studies pro­
ject - and I too will consider them in that light in Chapter 2 - the
real turning point comes later. In the latter part of the 1960s many
disciplines were affected (and affronted) by a body of ideas and
analytic methods imported from France. Ultimately rooted in
Saussure's structural linguistics, these seemingly arcane ideas
were to alter for ever the direction and character of cultural studies.
It was structuralism that offered a flag under which an otherwise
motley collection of inter-disciplinary mercenaries could unite,
however precariously. And it was through the terms of structural­
ist theories that, at least for a time, diverse inputs could be
synthesized into a larger endeavour. There is a real sense in which
cultural studies is a child - a bastard child, perhaps - of struc­
turalism.
But I get ahead of myself. To appreciate the magnitude of the
impact of structuralism it is first necessary to consider the kinds of
views of culture and cultural analysis that preceded its interven­
tion. Aspiring cultural analysts of my generation were faced with a

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