Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History (Stuart Hall: Selected Writings) Kindle Edition

This is probably one of the most insightful writings/lectures on cultural studies's deeply complex relationship to Marxism as well as its founding fathers like Richard Hoggart, Raymond Williams, and EP Thompson. I suspect that this book will become a primer for graduate students being introduced to cultural studies. Stuart Hall is by far one of the most sophisticated theorists of its earliest generation. Hall, perhaps better than anyone else, addresses the dialectics of theoretical influences that allows him to both praise certain theoretical breakthroughs and limitations. He perhaps does this best regarding Althusser and Gramsci. He clearly documents Althusser's breakthrough in establishing a much more complex base/superstructure model of cultural theory that is not overtly reductive and attempts to theorize a relative autonomy of the cultural sphere from more basic practices of the economic. Yet he also clearly charts how Althusser's insights get compromised by his overly abstract understanding, failing to take into account of historical specificity in his quixotic quest to create a scientific theory of Marxism.I would argue that no one unpacks the theoretical and political insights of Gramsci like Hall. He admits throughout his lectures (the book is a transcription of his lectures at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983,which have not dated at all).that Gramsci colors much of his thinking and critique of earlier theorists and the Marxist tradition. Without Gramsci, there would be no Hall. Perhaps most amazing of all is the way Hall unpacks some of Gramsci's core theoretical concepts while simultaneously asserting that they emerged from a very specific historical location so need to be revised and updated to become applicable to present conditions. He understands that Gramsci is not only a theorist, but also deeply committed politically. Because Gramsci was deeply linked to political organizing in Italy, his writing has a nuance to it that remains cautious of how specific historic conjunctures allow certain theories to bloom and the tentative nature of the applicability of any theory. To understand Hall, one must understand Gramsci. Gramsci allows Hall to theorize the semi-autonomy of racial and ethnic categories from economic ones so one does not simply dismiss such categories as secondary concerns to class struggle. Race, he states, "is not free or independent of determinations. But it is not reducible to the simple determinacy of any of the other levels of social formations in which the distinction of black and white has become politically pertinent and through which the whole ''unconsciousness' of race has been articulated."Much like Foucault's recently translated lectures from the 1970s, Hall's 1983 lecture reasserts the intelligence not just of Hall as well as the potential of what a fully instituted cultural studies project might begin to look like if present day scholars heeded some of the insights that Hall bestowed more than 30 years ago.

What thrilled me in reading these set of lectures is the needed direction to arrest the misuse of cultural studies to reflect rather than to question and puncture neoliberal politics that turn students into becoming robots.

Stuart Hall is so brilliant. If I have one complaint, it is that his writing is a bit circuitous. There is a lot of throat-clearing. But the brilliance of his insights more than makes up for it.

if u r looked for a comprehensive historical introduction to the field this is the text to read

An invaluable collection from a 20th and 21st century intellectual giant. Not be missed.

Great. Thanks!