Page 15 - Cultural Studies Dictionary

DICTIONARY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

in classical Newtonian physics an electron is envisaged as a particle that orbits the nuclei
of an atom (protons and neutrons) while in quantum mechanics it is held to be a wave
surrounding the atom’s nuclei. Both descriptions ‘work’ according to the purposes one
xiv has in mind; physical phenomena are put ‘under the description’ (Davidson, 1984) of
different models to achieve divergent ends.
Thus, I am recommending an approach that recasts problems away from an emphasis
on representation, that is, the question ‘what is . . .’, to the more mundane and
pragmatic issues of language use, that is, ‘how do we talk about X and for what
purposes?’. As Wittgenstein puts it, ‘Grammar tells what kind of object anything is.
(Theology as grammar)’ (Wittgenstein, 1957: 373). What something ‘is’ becomes
constituted by the use of language within specific language-games. This therapeutic re-
casting of the question ‘what is cultural studies’ into an inquiry about how we talk about
cultural studies and its purposes enables us to see that cultural studies is not an object.
That is, cultural studies is not one thing that can be accurately represented, but rather
is constituted by a number of ways of looking at the world which are motivated by
different purposes and values.
Historically speaking, cultural studies has been constituted by multiple voices or
languages that nevertheless have sufficient ‘family resemblances’ to form a
recognizable ‘clan’ connected by ‘kinship’ ties to other families. Thus, cultural studies
can be understood as a language-game that revolves around the theoretical terms
developed and deployed by persons calling their work cultural studies. In a similar
argument, Stuart Hall has described cultural studies as a discursive formation, that is, ‘a
cluster (or formation) of ideas, images and practices, which provide ways of talking
about – forms of knowledge and conduct associated with – a particular topic, social
activity or institutional site in society (Hall, 1997: 6). That is, cultural studies is
constituted by a regulated way of speaking about ‘objects’ that cultural studies brings into
view and that cohere around key concepts, ideas and concerns.
Indeed, cultural studies has now developed to a stage where there is at least some
agreement about the problems, issues and vocabulary that constitute the field. As
Grossberg et al. have argued, there are a series of concepts that have been developed
under the banner of cultural studies that have been deployed in various geographical
sites. These form ‘a history of real achievements that is now part of the cultural studies
tradition. To do without them would be to willingly accept real incapacitation’
(Grossberg et al., 1992: 8).
If, as many cultural studies writers argue, words give meaning to material objects and
social practices that are brought into view by language and made intelligible to us in
terms that language delimits, then the vocabulary of cultural studies performs cultural
studies. Cultural studies is constituted by the language that we use when we say that we
are doing cultural studies and can thus be understood in terms of performativity. That
is, as we use a particular language so we name cultural studies and perform it.
Consequently, this dictionary is in part an answer to the question ‘what is cultural
studies’ while simultaneously performing it, manifesting it and bringing it into being
in a particular way. This dictionary is a manifestation of the language-game of cultural
studies that contributes to bringing its very object of inquiry into being.