Reading Response 2: What is Culture and Society?

In the text Cultural Theory and Popular Culture, John Story explores the definition of the word ‘culture’ and the ways in which the human population both influences and is influenced by culture. Rather than giving an absolute explanation of this word, Story recognizes that it can be defined in many ways because there is no right definition; instead, it varies by perspective. In order to provide readers with an understanding of ‘culture,’ he explores the possible definitions of ‘ideology,’ ‘popular,’ and ‘popular culture,’ and he provides a detailed look at each of these from multiple angles – citing the ideas and opinions of various others who have also studied these topics. In the Reader text, Story focuses on the topic of ‘cultural studies,’ which – like the word ‘culture’ – has no absolute definition. Instead, he draws attention to the fact that the field is ever changing and evolves with time and new ideas and research. However, he does attempt to explain cultural studies through the three ‘significant breaks’ (Leavisism/mechanistic forms of Marxism; French structuralism/post-structuralism; discovery of the works of Gramsci/hegemony). Story notes that, despite the many conflicting and intersecting views of ‘cultural studies,’ today’s understanding seems to prefer the Gramscian approach, but postmodernism continues to seep its way in and challenge this.

Similar to the ideas of John Greene’s “Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument,” John Story seems focused on the importance of recognizing multiple perspectives of an argument. By including various references in his writing, Story inserts himself into the scholarly conversation and is able to arrive at new ideas and ways of thinking. Rather than focusing on a single definition of ‘cultural studies’ and replicating the ideas of past sources, he explores the topics thoroughly in order to develop a deeper, more enlightened explanation. Additionally, like Greene, Story seems to employ inquiry, issue, situation, and framing in his researched writing. He recognizes that the conflicting points of view on ‘culture’ creates a situation that calls for a response, and he sets up questions throughout his text in order to arrive at a new understanding of ‘cultural studies.’

Though I saw both pros and cons within each ‘definition’ of cultural studies that Story explored in his writing, the approach I favor best is looking at the topic through the lenses of structuralism and postmodernism. I agree that the hegemony theory is an excellent way of looking at popular culture; however, I do not think that the ideas of power struggle and class battle can justify every cultural practice. Story briefly mentions the “mass culture perspective” and says that, “In this sense, cultural practices such as Christmas and the seaside holiday, it could be argued, function in much the same way as dreams: they articulate, in a disguised form, collective (but repressed) wishes and desires” (9).  There seems to be much validity in this perspective, and viewing popular culture as a sort of shared human dream world seems less cynical than viewing it in a Marxist way.

Reading Response 1: Greene

In “Argument as Conversation: The Role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument,” Stuart Greene explores the ways in which researched writing mimics a “scholarly conversation.”  Greene writes, “By this, I mean that making an argument entails providing good reasons to support your viewpoint, as well as counterarguments, and recognizing how and why readers might object to your ideas” (149).  Rather than replicating ideas, and listing them off in an article, good writing should plug itself into an ongoing scholarly argument and twine together different resources – whether it is people or texts – in order to arrive at a new idea or advancement.

In addition to this central topic, Greene explores the importance of inquiry, issue, situation, and framing. From his perspective, these key terms are essential to a good research paper. Asking questions (inquiry) is essential to researched writing, and it is employed when the conflict (issue) and situation calls for some sort of answer. Framing is identified as the perspective that the writer takes when responding to these.

Seemingly, Greene has followed his own advice in this article. His writing draws upon various references and includes the ideas of others, thus engaging himself in a pre-formed scholarly conversation.  The structure of this piece seems to have been created with a strong focus on the idea of framing, since Greene names his position, uses key terms to help the reader, clearly identifies his argument, and organizes his writing in a seemingly helpful way. Additionally, Greene arrives at a place of advancement, and he seems to present new ideas in a way that is engaging to readers – inviting them into the scholarly conversation as well.