Contemporary Cultural Theory

“Contemporary Cultural Theory” provides a general introduction to the increasingly complex international debates within the burgeoning field of cultural studies. The past 20 years have witnessed an extraordinary expansion of interest in culture, much of it self-consciously “radical” in political intent and purpose. The book is a deliberately controversial, and at times polemical, intervention into current debate. The book identifies six paradigms in cultural studies: utilitarianism; culturalism; Marxism; structuralism; feminism; and postmodernism. Andrew Milner illustrates how each of these has been imported into Australia: utilitarianism through the dominant cultural institutions; Marxism and feminism through the socialist and women’s movements; culturalism through, on the one hand, the discipline of “English” and on the other through radical nationalism; and structuralism and postmodernism through the contemporary radical academy.