Page 234 - Communication Cultural and Media Studies The Key Concepts

STYLE

way of understanding the world. The nineteenth century was notable
in many different fields for work that sought causes and origins
(Darwinism, Marxism, Freudianism) as the framework of explanation.
Structuralism shares with other twentieth-century enterprises – in
physics and astronomy especially – attention to relations and systems as
the framework for explanation. Instead of treating the world as an
aggregate of things with their own intrinsic properties, structuralism
and physics respectively seek to account for the social and physical
world as a system of relations in which the properties of a ‘thing’ (be it
an atom, a sign or an individual) derive from its internal and external
relations.
See also: Difference, Discourse, Postmodern, Semiotics

Further reading: Culler (1983); Hawkes (1977); Norris (1982); Sturrock (1979)

STYLE

The display of difference. Style can be understood as the combining of
pre-existing codes and conventions in the formation of identity.
While style can be personal, it also refers to cultural and historical
identity. Meyer (1987: 34) distinguishes among cultural styles (as
discerned by anthropologists, for instance), the style of an epoch
(Baroque, Renaissance), as well as aesthetic styles (impressionism,
surrealism).
The production and consumption of fashion illustrate the
functioning of style in contemporary culture. Fashion is one of the
means by which individuals mark out notions of the self and personal
identity. Yet fashion, like all aspects of style, is constrained by rules,
codes and conventions. As much as an individual’s writing style is
guided by the rules of grammar, so fashion design is restricted as well
as enabled by the function of clothing. Nevertheless, top fashion
designers may push the limits of what is wearable by showcasing outfits
that can’t be worn on the high street. Here they are acting as
visionaries of style, not designers of clothes. They are the R&D arm of
the consciousness industry, much like radical film-making styles such
as surrealism or French newwave. Such avant-garde movements
challenge and change what is possible in their medium.
Style is concerned with distinctiveness, another aspect of fashion.
This is not limited to appearing personally different from those who
surround us; it may differentiate between being at home and being ‘on
display’ in public (Wilson, 1985: 27). Entwisle (1997) has suggested

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