406
PARTISAN REVIEW
Prominent among the curricular innovations inspired by the postmod–
ernists is "cultural studies" (invariably used as a singular noun by the
exponents). The movement as far as I can see originated in Britain among
young leftis ts of the 1980s and then spread rapidly elsewhere, particularly to
America and Australia. An international conference on "Cultural Studies" at
the University of illinois in 1990 attracted over nine hundred people. They
published a volume of eight hundred pages of papers there delivered and the
discussions of them. The book is entided
Cultural Studies,
though without
agreeing upon a definition of culture or "cultural studies." A delegate from
Australia did say, "I do not think cultural studies is or ever has been defin–
able as a specifically national tradition or as a school of thought." It was made
clear, however, that the cultures studied were primarily of the present and
were contemporary, largely popular culture:
film,
television, radio, tabloids,
and popular music, along with Aboriginal, Latino, and Afrocentric studies.
The subjects included appeared to be virtually without limit. In the words
of ardent proponents, speaking for the whole movement in this volume I
referred to, "Cultural studies entails the study of all relations between all ele–
ments in a whole way of life."
It
follows that "Cultural studies is thus
committed to study the entire range of societies, arts, beliefs, institutions, and
communicative practices." This would seem to render the old question,
"What is your field of specialization?" quite obsolete.
The field of history takes the worst beating. We are assured that "there
is nothing deader and colder than old history," and that history is "the
most unstable" and "the most impermanent of written forms," that there
is no distinction between history and fiction, and that aside from the imag–
ination there is no access to the past whatsoever. History suffers the most
severe assault, but it is not the only discipline under fire from cultural stud–
ies. In fact we are assured by the theorists of cultural studies that they are
"actively and aggressively anti-disciplinary" and that this "more or less
ensures a permanendy uncomfortable relation to academic disciplines."
And yet the radicals among the cultural studies seem to have made them–
selves quite at home and comfortable in the modern academy. The new
type of poli tical defiance is almos t invariably in the name of some good
cause, which, given modern assumptions, are held in favor. As two astute
observers have pointed out,
"It
is radicalism without risk.
It
does not
endanger careers but rather advances them."
I am of course aware that radicals in cultural studies and their post–
modern precursors are by no means the only causes for the decline that
history and some of the other humanities have suffered in the academy in
the last few years. I focus upon them here because the subject under dis–
cussion is education in Europe and America, both of which share some of
these concerns. But a more important reason is my conviction that unless
