Postmodernism and Popular Culture (original) (raw)
1995, The British Journal of Sociology
Cultural studies started life as a radical political project, establishing the cultural centrality of everyday life and of popular culture. In a postmodern world where old certainties are undermined and identities fragmented, the way forward for those working with popular culture has become less clear. In contrast to more pessimistic readings of the possibilities of postmodernity, Postmodernism and Popular Culture engages with postmodernity as a space for social change and political transformation. Ranging widely over cultural theory and popular culture, Angela McRobbie engages with everyday life as an eclectic and invigorating interplay of different cultures and identities. She discusses new ways of thinking developed with the advent of postmodernism, from the 'New Times' debate to political strategies after the disintegration of western Marxism. She assesses the contribution of key figures in cultural and postimperial theory-Susan Sontag, Walter Benjamin and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak-and surveys the invigorating landscape of today's youth and popular culture, from secondhand fashion to the rave scene, and from moral panics to teenage magazines. McRobbie argues throughout for a commitment to cultural studies as an 'undisciplined' discipline, reforming and reinventing itself as circumstances demand; for the importance of ethnographic and empirical work; and for the need for feminists to continually ask questions about the meaning of feminist theory in a postmodern society.