Cultural Theory

Cultural Theory: Classical and Contemporary Positions. Edited by Tim Edwards. Sage Publications, 2007. 284 lk

Kohutavalt sisutihe kogum artikleid, mis sobib suurepäraselt sissejuhatuseks kultuuriteooriatesse. Käsitleb Frankfurti ja Birgminghami koolkondi, autoreid nagu Bourdieu, Foucault ja Baudrillard ning nähtusi nagu feminism, prostitutsioon, popmuusika ja kodanlik tarbimine. Väga põhjalik ja kergestimõistetav - väga vähe jääb arusaamatuks ja teemad on niivõrd huvitavad, et kord alustades on raske raamatut pooleli jätta. Esimest korda saan seda öelda mõne teadusliku artiklitekogumiku kohta.
Et ma teaksin hiljem selle raamatu poole pöörduda vastava teema puhul, rivistan siia artiklid nende esinemise järjekorras: (1) Kultuurianalüüs Marksistlikus humanismis; (2) Georg Simmel; (3) Frankfurti koolkond; (4) Stuart Hall ja Birminghami koolkond; (5) Giddens ja kultuurianalüüs: puuduv sõna ja keskne kontsept; (6) Zygmund Bauman, kultuur ja sotsioloogia; (7) Foucault: tõlgendav analüütika ja ühiskondliku konstitutsioon; (8) Bourdieu raamimine; (9) "Spekulatsioon surmani": Jean Baudrillardi teoreetiline vägivald; (10) Esitise rekontseptualiseerimine ja identiteet: mured transkulturalismis ja transnatsionalismis feminismi ja kultuurisotsioloogia ristumisel; (11) Feministlik teadmus ja sotsiokultuuriline uurimus: etno-mimees, feministlik praksis ja visuaalne pööre; (12) Populaarmuusika; (13) Cultuuriline kodanikkond: Küsimused tarbimiskultusest, tarbimisest ja määrustest.
Mida mainiti päris mitmes artiklis ja minu jaoks oli uueks avastuseks, oli Theodore Adorno muusikakriitika: "It was Schönberg's view that music is a rational, intellectual articulation of objective cultural truths; it is not a mere expression of subjective emotions. Musical intellect is exercised through its specific forms of expression, and musica creativity involves the use of the 'grammatical' forms of a particular musical language in innovative ways."
Kuigi mõnele neist olid pühendatud eraldi artiklid, mainiti Barthesi, Bourdieud, Foucaulti, Baumani, Stuart Halli ja Baudrillardi päris mitmes artiklis. Kohe esimeses antakse möödaminnes ka kergestimõistetav selgitus Baudrillari hüperreaalsest: "The aim of film producers, for example, is to ensure that people see the world outside the cinema as continuous with the film. It is what Baudrillard (1981) would see as 'hyperreal'."
Mõistuspärane on ka Giddensist kõnelevas artiklis esitatud lühikokkuvõte Saussure lingvistika kursusest, mis tabab suurepäraselt pointi, mis mul endal (järgmisest raamatust) Saussure katkendit lugedes tabamata jäi:

The distinction between unobservable structures and the observable patterns they produce is something that Giddens developed from his readinf of structuralist theory. With the structuralists, he turned to Saussure's account of language (De Saussure, 1916) as a basis for understanding all other social phenomena. According to Saussure, the speech patterns found in everyday talk and conversation result from the application of definite rules of grammar (rules of syntax, semantics, phonology, etc.). These rules do not exist anywhere separately from the speech, but they can be identified and formulated by linguists as ways of explaining that speech. Competent speaker of English, for example, are able to form plural expressions in real time by adding appropriate endings to root words and making certain other regular changes to them. Linguists, for their part, can formulate the rules that govern this: when to add 's', when to add 'en', and so on. These linguistic rules, however, are not present in the consciousness of the individual speakers as they speak, and individual speakers may be completely unaware of the rules that they follow unreflectively. Nevertheless, it is because the members of a linguistic community share these rules that is is possible for them to speak and to understand the speech of others.

Jäädvustan siia ka samas peatükis esitatud arutluskäik teraapiatest:

This chronic anxiety about the self is bound up with the rise of the academic disciplines of psychology and sociology, which allow the development of expert systems available to advise, instruct, and discipline individuals. Alongside the growing number of economic and political experts is an expansion of those who claim expertise in relation to social relations and self-identities. At one level, psychotherapies are a response to the egoism and anomie of modern culture, but they are also a means through which reflexivity can be organized: 'Therapy is not simply a means of coping with novel anxieties, but an expression of the reflexivity of the self' (Giddens, 1991: 34). There has been a massive growth in the number of counsellors, therapists, and consultants who specialize in managing the reflexive self (ibid.: 33; see also Rose, 1998). Radical doubt about expert systems, however, means that individual must choose their own experts. They must choose, for example, from among the range of cognitive, behavioural, and psychoanalytical therapies with no real guidance from the character of the expert knowledge itself.

Veel väärib mainimist see, et leheküljel 169 esitatakse Baudrillardi seisukoht, miks ta peab tänapäeva massimeediat "mittesuhtluseks".
Kokkuvõttes ülihariv lugemine. Närisin seda kaks päeva järjest, aga see-eest oli see lugemist väärt. Võib-olla kunagi vanema ja targemana uuesti!