The Everyday Life of Cultural Studies

DAVID CUTHBERT aca,delmy Lonsl~qtlenltly a common refrain within cultural SrulQl~~S that if the field is to maintain its OP1Po~Ut1Jomil ofhegemony" it cannot 1T'I&l.,.Alu nrO'illdle but must remain ~,...t·'''tT'::!lI''tT are u.u..u'U'.:n. an affirmation had best not exist at alL The call to fundamental opleratmg ~'~~T"1'¥1 .... h,..."1""I!'rI~'1T Q'u.oY'-':Jrl"l'!O-.:, as the unconscious ........,.......J.,J. LI"\ its dialectical transformation. But in the COlotE!m'po:rary context of Lefor a cultural seems as odd as his faith that PflJUm;OpifieJrS can lead the Inthe workof the .l"'H'~ra.lnl- r't'\l~'T.Qt" 394 DAVID CUTHBERT these overtures to .Q,,(Y'::>1""I!'rI~'1T transformation. But in the COJntE~mporaI'Y for a cultural re'VrOHlocm PflJUm;OpifieJrS can lead the TI-IE EVERYDAY UFE OF CULTURAL STUDIES 395 ('Theoretical Legacies/ 278), then it is the intractable whlch traction. SPE~ClllC context SVInOI:::>ill~e an immanent in the matter of the orical deferenceto the particular and thelocal adumbrates the cultural 'real' by the world's detritus and towards its sublime For this romantic enables a virtuoso critical performance, an of the appropriate details, to stand as a simulation of political practice. While he does not pursue Liu temfor this rhetoric can be fOlUld of J transcendental everydayness' The poet described in 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' at once identifies with a local, quotidian context - choosing 'incidents and situations cornman liie' (596) - and affirms his or her own a unique to see into the heart everyday events, 'tracing in them, not ostentatiously,' the shared forms of ........11"'0"\ ~~".'(T laws nature' in the incunabula of cultural there is a bracing whlff of Wordsworth in the conviction that is ordinary: through every change let us hold to thae (,Ordinary/ 6). Williams has been criticized for commonalities over conflicts in his discussion and his own on the O''H,..... nryOf''l considerably over the years, but his initial that pO,um:s of a social formation must be divined from the pnlct),cal experience of daily life is still a fundamental tenet for cultural .:;IL ........J..\J.:;I. The frequently defines itself in an idiom straight out of Grasrnere: its as Richard declares in a pr10gJrarrurtatJlC statement 'What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?,' is 'to abstract, describe and reconstitute in concrete studies the social forms ~h"·n." ..... h which " become sustain "'h£'1"Y\,~oh.,oc TI-IE EVERYDAY UFE OF CULTURAL STUDIES 395 ('Theoretical Legacies/ 278), then it is the intractable whlch traction. SPE~ClllC context SVInOI:::>ill~e an immanent in the matter of the orical deferenceto the particular and thelocal adumbrates the cultural 'real' by the world's detritus and towards its sublime For this romantic enables a virtuoso critical performance, an of the appropriate details, to stand as a simulation of political practice. While he does not pursue Liu temfor this rhetoric can be fOlUld of J transcendental everydayness' The poet described in 'Preface to Lyrical Ballads' at once identifies with a local, quotidian context - choosing 'incidents and situations cornman liie' (596) - and affirms his or her own a unique to see into the heart everyday events, 'tracing in them, not ostentatiously,' the shared forms of ........11"'0"\ ~~".'(T laws nature' in the incunabula of cultural there is a bracing whlff of Wordsworth in the conviction that is ordinary: through every change let us hold to thae (,Ordinary/ 6). Williams has been criticized for commonalities over conflicts in his discussion and his own on the O''H,..... nryOf''l considerably over the years, but his initial that pO,um:s of a social formation must be divined from the pnlct),cal experience of daily life is still a fundamental tenet for cultural .:;IL ........J..\J.:;I. The frequently defines itself in an idiom straight out of Grasrnere: its as Richard declares in a pr10gJrarrurtatJlC statement 'What Is Cultural Studies Anyway?,' is 'to abstract, describe and reconstitute in concrete studies the social forms ~h"·n." ..... h which " become sustain "'h£'1"Y\,~oh.,oc 396 DAVID CUTHBERT own rhetoric. another retreat to qW)UCUaJ economy that Liu so...