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Theory in Cultural Context

Theory in Cultural Context Whose Theory? Although culture (used in its broadest anthropological sense) has now become one of the most commonly used terms in the popular lexicon, enormous confusion remains about what the word means. Similarly, though “cultural differences” are often invoked to explain interpersonal and intergroup dynamics, precious little emphasis is given these days to questions of ideology, theory, and scholarship. My point in this essay is simply that Marxism and postmodernism need to be culturally contextualized, so to speak, if we are ever to grasp the reasons for the apparent ideological collapse of the political Left in the Western democracies and the meteoric rise of “cultural studies” as a fashionable new field in Anglo-Saxon countries. Indeed, as I positionj 4:’0 1996 by Duke University Press. positions 4: 1 Spring 1996 will argue, Marxism and postmodernism are inextricably linked theories, and as a consequence, comparing the one to the other allows clarification of their ties and common premises. At the core of the modernisdpostmodern question is the matter of science. As Bruno Latour has established, specific communities in western Europe, positing a great divide between human (culture) and nonhuman (nature), and arguing on that basis that science allowed the former http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png positions asia critique Duke University Press

Theory in Cultural Context

Cerroni-Long, E. L.
positions asia critique , Volume 4 (1) – Mar 1, 1996
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Publisher
Duke University Press
Copyright
Copyright 1996 by Duke University Press
ISSN
1067-9847
eISSN
1527-8271
DOI
10.1215/10679847-4-1-172
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Whose Theory? Although culture (used in its broadest anthropological sense) has now become one of the most commonly used terms in the popular lexicon, enormous confusion remains about what the word means. Similarly, though “cultural differences” are often invoked to explain interpersonal and intergroup dynamics, precious little emphasis is given these days to questions of ideology, theory, and scholarship. My point in this essay is simply that Marxism and postmodernism need to be culturally contextualized, so to speak, if we are ever to grasp the reasons for the apparent ideological collapse of the political Left in the Western democracies and the meteoric rise of “cultural studies” as a fashionable new field in Anglo-Saxon countries. Indeed, as I positionj 4:’0 1996 by Duke University Press. positions 4: 1 Spring 1996 will argue, Marxism and postmodernism are inextricably linked theories, and as a consequence, comparing the one to the other allows clarification of their ties and common premises. At the core of the modernisdpostmodern question is the matter of science. As Bruno Latour has established, specific communities in western Europe, positing a great divide between human (culture) and nonhuman (nature), and arguing on that basis that science allowed the former

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positions asia critique – Duke University Press

Published: Mar 1, 1996

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