Mike Nix Faculty of Law Welcome to Cultural Studies

Why study culture? Why do you think is it interesting or useful to study culture? What do you think we can learn from studying culture?

Why study culture? Culture and civilisation tradition ( 教養） : to learn about “ the best that has been thought and said ” (Matthew Arnold, 1867) in literature, art, philosophy, etc Cultural anthropology ( 文化人類学） & intercultural ( 異 文化） approaches: to learn about the social relationships, roles and ways thinking of specific societies and the differences between them Cultural studies approach ( カルチュラル・スタディーズ ): to learn about why certain relationships, roles and ways of thinking are dominant/powerful in specific societies (and to try to change them)

What is culture? What differences do you notice between the following definitions of culture? Which approaches to the study of culture do you think they come from? Which do you think are interesting or useful?

What is culture? 1.“ Everything that is produced by human beings as distinct from all that is part of nature? ” (A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory) 2. “ The arts and other….human intellectual achievement; a refined understanding of this; intellectual development ” (Oxford English Dictionary) 3. “ Culture is…particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour ” (Raymond Williams)

What is culture? 4. “ Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action ” (Clifford Geertz) 5. “ Culture is the way the social relations of a group are structured and shaped; but is also the way those shapes are experienced, understood and interpreted ” (Working papers in Cultural Studies 7 & 8) 6. Culture is “ the site of negotiation, conflict, innovation and resistance within the social relations of societies dominated by power and fractured by divisions of gender, class and ‘ race ’” (A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory)

What is culture? 1.“ Everything that is produced by human beings as distinct from all that is part of nature? ” (A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory) = CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY & CULTURAL STUDIES 2. “ The arts and other….human intellectual achievement; a refined understanding of this; intellectual development ” (Oxford English Dictionary) = CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION 3. “ Culture is…particular way of life, which expresses certain meanings and values not only in art and learning but also in institutions and ordinary behaviour ” (Raymond Williams) = CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY & CULTURAL STUDIES

What is culture? 4. “ Culture is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human beings interpret their experience and guide their action ” (Clifford Geertz) = CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY & CULTURAL STUDIES 5. “ Culture is the way the social relations of a group are structured and shaped; but is also the way those shapes are experienced, understood and interpreted ” (Working papers in Cultural Studies 7 & 8) = CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY & CULTURAL STUDIES 6. Culture is “ the site of negotiation, conflict, innovation and resistance within the social relations of societies dominated by power and fractured by divisions of gender, class and ‘ race ’” (A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory) = CULTURAL STUDIES

Cultural Studies is concerned with…. Culture The ideas and values expressed in art, literature, philosophy, etc, but also in ordinary life, popular culture, and the mass media Ways of thinking and interpreting the world, but also social relationships, roles and institutions And politics Which ideas and ways of thinking are powerful or dominant in a society, but also which groups of people (gender, class, ‘ race ’, etc) are powerful or dominant in a society, and why?

Cultural Studies is very interested in…. Identities: sex (female/male) gender (femininity/masculinity) sexuality (homosexuality/heterosexuality) age/generation (child/adult;teenager/middle-aged/old) social class (working class/middle class/upper class) nationality (Japanese, Korean, British, etc) ethnicity (Japanese, Ainu, Okinawan, Korean, British, etc) race (African/Caucasian/Asian, etc) How they are represented (in images, stereotypes and discourses) in the mass media and popular culture How this shapes our understanding of what is ‘ normal ’ or ‘ natural ’ for different identities

Cultural Studies looks at how…. Representations of identity can reproduce traditional and dominant ideas about identity as well as challenge them or play with them Identity tends to be represented in terms of differences between binary opposites (e.g. men and women are represented as different) and relationships of superiority and inferiority between groups Different identities are combined together in representations (e.g. masculinity and heterosexuality)

What do these images represent about identity?

For Cultural Studies…. Identities are social & cultural - we learn our identities as we grow up in society and from the culture of those societies, but We often confuse cultural and biological aspects of identity (e.g. sex and gender), and Representations often make identities seem natural by repeatedly showing them in certain ways or by associating social and biological aspects of identity, so We need to keep showing that identities are learnt, not given, social/cultural not biological/natural and therefore can be changed.

Your interests in identity and representation… What is interesting for you about identity and representation? Which identities are you interested in thinking about? Which kinds of representations would you like to think about? Which kinds of mass media or popular culture would you like to look at?