Cultural Literacy, Cultural Practices, Cultural Studies, and the Curriculum in Foreign

CULTURAL LITERACY, CULTURAL PRACTICES, CULTURAL STUDIES, AND THE CURRICULUM IN FOREIGN RICHARD YOUNG University ofAlberta Cultural studies, for good or ill, is everywhere. Its worldwide popularity marks out a deeper realignment in the constellation ofdisciplines and scholarly interests (Paul Gilroy) The impact ofcultural studies on the curriculum offoreign language and literature programs in North American universities during the last two decades or so is wide and varied and has been felt at the same time as cultural studies itselfhas taken shape and acquired a more commanding presence on the academic scene.1 Few foreign language and literature programs can have remained totally unaffected , although in many, perhaps most, the impact may well have been as much the product of accident as a design, a point I will explain in due course. It also seems safe to assume that were a survey taken on how the implications ofcultural studies have found their way into teaching and learning in foreign languages the results would show not only that no single paradigm stands out immediately as the one most frequently adopted, but that responses to cultural studies have been irregular and are more likely to have been dictated by local circumstances than by a universal model or what has transpired in disciplines at large. Having said as much, in the commentary that follows I am not about to propose a model or formula for the missing paradigm. Moreover, this paper is not the product ofany sounding of opinions or research into the status of language and literature programs in North American universities.2 Nor does it have any particular theoretical value, but has more the character ofruminations prompted by a particular Canadian context and the experience ofworking in programs in Spanish and LatinAmerican Studies in a department that, by styling itselfas a Department ofModern Languages and Cultural Studies, appears to combine the two pursuits in question in its activities. Even so, my comments on this experience might perhaps be read may more as a desideratum rather than an account of an actual state of affairs, or perhaps as a condition from which it is possible to extrapolate some conclusions about© 2000-2001 NUEVO TEXTO CRITICO Vol. XIII-XIV No. 25/28 256_______________________________________________RICHARD YOUNG the relation of foreign languages and literatures to cultural studies in general. Before discussing the circumstances ofthis particular case, however, it is appropriate first to establish the terrain on which the discussion might take place, to set its limits, and identify the issues at stake. What exactly does it mean to speak of cultural studies in relation to the study offoreign languages and literatures? Although a reply to this question might lead immediately to an analysis ofcultural studiesper se, its objectives, objects of study, and methods, I propose a different route. This is not to deny the importance of those whose work, whether in foreign languages or other disciplines, has led them to theorize cultural studies in relation to their teaching and research.3 Their work is all the more significant in light ofthe origins ofcultural studies itself in a predominantly English-speaking environment and the risk that it could be colonially applied to other language environments. For the purposes of this commentary , however, I wish initially to take cultural studies as a given in order to focus on its general impact in critical practice. Rather than critique perceived virtues or shortcomings, I wish to highlight the consequences of its existence and development in Academia. From this point ofview, foreign languages and literatures have felt the influence of cultural studies in two broad aspects: the contexts in which language and literature are studied and the objects of study. Reduced to its basics, cultural studies might be considered simplistically as the study of culture as a social phenomenon or product. Ifculture is a product, then "our knowledge of it," to borrow a comment from Henri Lefebvre about social space, "must be expected to reproduce and expound the process of production ."4 Seen from this perspective, cultural studies might be viewed as the study of how culture is formed within a social context, embracing notjust the processes of cultural production and transformation, but also how culture is consumed or practiced . Although it...