Cultural Studies and Cultural Value (Cornell East Asia Series; 70) - Softcover

Frow, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 019871128X ISBN 13: 9780198711285

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1995

Synopsis

Cultural studies has generally organized itself around the opposition of high to low culture, reversing the traditional hierarchy of value, but leaving intact the polarity and the direct correlation of culture and class. Through detailed readings of the work of Pierre Bourieu, Michel de Certeau, Stuart Hall, and Ernesto Laclau, John Frow challenges this key assumption. He argues that the field of culture now has multiple centers and multiple domains of value and that these are irreducible to a single scale. Intellectuals play the crucial role in the mediation of the cultural field; their possession of cultural capital endows intellectuals with specific class interests which are distinct from those of the classes of groups for whom they claim to speak. Cultural Studies and Cultural Value seeks a revitalized and "poststructuralist" account of social class, a basis from which cultural studies can effect a much-needed reorientation.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Cultural Studies and Cultural Value is a major critique of the important new discipline of cultural studies. Cultural studies has generally organized itself around the opposition of high to low culture, reversing the traditional hierarchy of value, but leaving intact the polarity and the direct correlation of culture and class. Intellectuals play the crucial role in the mediation of the cultural field, and their possession of cultural capital endows them with specific class interests which are distinct from those of the classes or groups for whom they claim to speak.

About the Author

John Frow is Professor of English at the University of Queensland.

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 019871128X
• ISBN 13: 9780198711285
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200