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Background on Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

The field of English Studies is broad, encompassing several disciplines, and one of the most important to scholarship is Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. Beginning with Critical Theory, it was created and/or defined by the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt, Germany by a group of students and professors. Originally, its definition was the “dialectal social criticism created by members of the institute [that it was established in]”. Over time its definition was changed to describe any and all criticism based on ideology or social commentary, stemming from areas inside or outside of literature. When it came to America, some saw Critical Theory as an attack on Anglo-American values, but others saw it as a revitalizing component of English Studies that ties together the various areas found within.

 Cultural Studies is left wing politically, and seeks to be ideological in its aims, with its core values found within culture. It is the study of different historical objects, artifacts, and “specific cultural trends” originating within Critical Theory, focusing not only on literature, but in other areas like science and politics in their entirety. It overlaps with Postmodernism, which is the increased standard of living since the Cold War in First World nations and their politics. Both serve as new approaches of interpretation and seek to extend English studies beyond the literary canon and the university level. Both Critical Theory and Cultural Studies seek to fight detractors and gain support in current political systems and attempt to do so on a more global level. They have a rich history within English departments and have a large impact on several ideas and ideologies within English Studies.

Dominant theories, concepts, and questions in Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

It can be difficult to understand what Critical Theory and Cultural Studies are, but they do have very distinct aspects. Critical Theory has four main branches; Marxism, Freudian Psychology, Feminism, and Race Politics and Social History, each one overlaps with the other while still retaining essential differences. They all ultimately focus on the same thing: the consideration of (social) culture and its influence on reason for creation and meaning within a text. Marxism comes from the political theories of Karl Marx, who emphasized how a society’s production of material goods created social classes, indicating an economic structure. In addition, he claims that one can’t analyze a society without considering social context, because economic systems and classes in particular are a determining factor in their identity as objects or ideas. Marx stated that class conflict was what drove all history and concepts through time, and later, Antonio Gramsci added hegemony (domination by consent), and Mikhail Bakhtin added dialogues (which is multivocal, or various different voices interacting and trading ideas). The second branch, Freudian Psychology, emphasizes how psychology affects critical judgment. While this branch is not overly ideological, it deals with ideological implications. It does so by contesting and seeking to understand what humans are, how they much they know themselves, what motivates them, and what their abilities to write, read, and understand texts mean and are. Textual criticism within this area believes that texts contain the author’s unconscious desires and fears. The next branch is known as feminist theory, gender studies, and sexuality theory, all formed by Marxist theories. Feminism, while popular in modern culture, wasn’t the actual term for the theory until the 1890s, when it was coined to describe women’s rights theories, along with legal and cultural rights. Feminist theory studies how different texts represent women and men differently, how this has changed over time, and how women’s writing differs from men’s (and how biological influences affect that). Gay and lesbian theories later stemmed from feminism, and focus on social power, freedom, and sexuality, and the way literature seems to dominantly represent heterosexual pairings of couples and how that is nearly forced upon its readers, attempting to overcome that. The last branch of Cultural Studies is Race Politics and Social History. This analyzes how other races and ethnic groups are portrayed and written about in different texts. This branch looks beyond the beauty of a piece to find and interpret its ideology, and attempts to break the stigma against diversity, urging authors to display diversity with the richness of culture it has to offer, rather than fearing other peoples. Cultural Studies is well-established in the University system within international studies programs and English departments, studying how culture influences every aspect of life. It looks at the past, the present, and the future of nations, observing the erotic, social, political, and economic aspects of life. Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, while being somewhat hard to understand, encompass a large range of studies and ideologies that branch off into integral parts of English Studies, making them one of the most important areas of study.

Courses taught within Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

            In the academic setting, it can be challenging to figure out which courses fit under the umbrella of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies. Fortunately, the upper-level and undergraduate English courses of many universities, including North Dakota State University, Clemson University in South Carolina, and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have Critical Theory and Cultural Studies included within their primary concepts and coursework. The NDSU English department offers courses such as; Native American Literature, Women and Gender Studies, Animal Studies, Multicultural Literature, Early American Literature, British and Women Writers, Social and Regional Varieties of English, Language Bias, and several others, showing a diverse field of study that can allow a student to find and pursue a topic that interests them during their time at the university. These are all widely accepted as being part of the Cultural Studies and Critical Theory area found within English Studies. Clemson University offers a more modest selection, consisting of: The Major Forms of Literature, World Literature, British Literature, American Literature, Literature in the 20th and 21st Centuries, and African American Literature, displaying a wide selection of voices from across the world for students to engage in. The University of Alaska Fairbanks offers many of the same courses as NDSU and Clemson University, but includes courses that pertain more to its location in the geographical and historical sense, with courses such as: Contemporary Native American Literature, Contemporary Alaska Native Literature, Voices of Native American Peoples, Multi Ethnic Literatures of the United States, and Northern and Environmental Literature. Each university offers courses based on not only their beliefs in what is relevant to literary canon, English Studies as a whole, and the modern world, but also the history of their university, state, and the United States altogether in order to offer meaningful studies for their students. NDSU does a fine job of displaying courses that are meaningful in relation to the world at large, such as British and Women Writers, Women and Gender Studies, Animal Studies, and Early American Literature, and to the issues that pertain to the state itself, like Native American Literature, and Social and Regional Varieties of English. However, NDSU may benefit from offering more courses to increase the range of voices being presented, like African American Literature and Multi Ethnic Literatures of the United States to offer perspectives from outside of the state and broaden the horizons of readers. Regardless of the university, when one dives into upper-level or undergraduate English, there is no worry about being unable to find courses related to Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, as they are deeply integrated within nearly campuses and courses.

Evaluation of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies

A scholar in this area would definitely need to value culture and really understand the importance of its role in social context and understanding of literature and writings. This person would probably best fit if he or she practiced some sort of social or political beliefs, such as adhering to the democratic, or left-wing party; or standing up/believing in social justice movements, such as Black Lives Matter or Feminism, but does not necessarily need to do so. I personally do not believe that I would fit very well into the area of Cultural Studies and Critical Theory for a few different reasons. One would be, simply, that my greater interest lies elsewhere in the field of English Studies. The second would be that my political beliefs tend to lean a bit more conservative and a few of my personal followings are just a bit different than those recognized here. I believe that people working in this field or studying these things would need to have a broad understanding of the issues of culture, not only today, but as they have evolved over time. This specialty is ever changing and will likely become far broader in its representations over the next several years and continuing forward in time.