Page 128 - Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies

116 THE THEORY AND METHOD OF ARTICULATION

ARTICULATION IS…: A MOMENT OF ARBITRARY
CLOSURE
In order to begin on some common ground, I offer a few definitional
statements, helpful moments of ‘arbitrary closure’. Articulation is

the form of the connection that can make a unity of two different
elements, under certain conditions. It is a linkage which is not
necessary, determined, absolute and essential for all time. You have
to ask, under what circumstances can a connection be forged or
made? The so-called ‘unity’ of a discourse is really the articulation of
different, distinct elements which can be rearticulated in different
ways because they have no necessary ‘belongingness’. The ‘unity’
which matters is a linkage between the articulated discourse and the
social forces with which it can, under certain historical conditions, but
need not necessarily, be connected.
(Hall, 1986b:53)

Articulation is the production of identity on top of differences, of
unities out of fragments, of structures across practices. Articulation
links this practice to that effect, this text to that meaning, this
meaning to that reality, this experience to those politics. And these
links are themselves articulated into larger structures, etc.
(Grossberg, 1992; 54)

The unity formed by this combination or articulation, is always,
necessarily, a ‘complex structure’: a structure in which things are
related, as much through their differences as through their
similarities. This requires that the mechanisms which connect
dissimilar features must be shown—since no ‘necessary
correspondence’ or expressive homology can be assumed as given. It
also means—since the combination is a structure (an articulated
combination) and not a random association—that there will be
structured relations between its parts, i.e., relations of dominance and
subordination.
(Hall, 1980d:325)

Articulation is an ‘old word’ and predates cultural studies by several
centuries. It has had a variety of dental, medical, biological and enunciative
meanings. But in every case, the word suggests some kind of joining of
parts to make a unity. Even the articulation of sounds or utterances
suggests the ‘clinging together’ of notes (Oxford English Dictionary, 1971:
118). It is interesting to note that ‘articulation’ is not in Raymond
Williams’ Keywords (Williams, 1976); it was not a term in the lexicon of