From Class Struggle to the Politics of Pleasure: The Effects of Gramscianism on Cultural Studies (Fallen Leaf Ref Books in Music; 21) - Softcover

Harris, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415062241 ISBN 13: 9780415062244

Publisher: Routledge, 1992

Synopsis

This book examines the rise of cultural studies and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. The author raises searching questions about the originality of cultural studies and its political motivation. Written with zest and a judicious sense of purpose it is a landmark work in cultural studies media and the sociology of culture.

About this title

Review

"This is a fine study . . . I recommend this book strongly."
-Roland Robertson, University of Pittsburgh
"This is by far the most complete and critical analysis of cultural studies which we possess. It is organized logically and written in a clear and accessible style. The criticisms of Gramsci's legacy with respect to data, narrowness, exclusive definitions of truth, elitism, circularity of argument, posturing etc., are well developed. An obvious undergraduate textbook."
-Bryan S. Turner, Essex University
"Harris not only offers us a glimpse into their [Gramscians'] individual and collective intellectual growth, but also raises critical and perceptive questions about the strengths and weaknesses of appropriating Gramscian theory as a model of political praxis and cultural contestation."
-"Harvard Educational Review

Synopsis

From Class Struggle to the Politics of Pleasure artises from reading and teaching Gramscian work in cultural studies, education, media studies, leisure and politics over the last twenty years. It argues that Gramscian work is undoubtedly powerful and persuasive. Indeed by the 1990s one can almost say that it has become the governing orthodoxy. Harris reads the work critically and in detail, tracing arguments across time and across different specialisms, assessing them, and trying to examine how they deal with critics and with new challenging topics. He maintans that cultural studies contains many absences, silences and closures, and that it deploys a number of narrative techniques to remain credible. Wide-ranging and critical, From Class Struggle to the Politics of Pleasure provides an ideal critical assessment of one of the most fashionable and powerful intellectual traditions in contemporary social science. This book will help students to critically read Gramscian work and decide where its strengths and weaknesses lie for themselves, and make them less dependent on the Gramscians' own accounts and agendas.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0415062241
• ISBN 13: 9780415062244
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 244