How to (Re)discipline Literature through a Cultural Studies Lens

Abstract

Starting from Valentine Cunningham’s dichotomy between “good reading” (107), i.e. the ideology-free reading of the literary text, and “bad reading” (88), that is, reading theory against the textual grain, this article aims to discuss the lures and ruses of cultural studies, once applied to the study of literature. I shall focus on the literature-cultural studies dyad, which in the past four decades has led to a revision of academic curricula and the literary canon and, most importantly, to the socio-political understanding of literature as text in context. Special attention will be paid to the lack of consensus on cultural studies as a well-established discipline: while some scholars and critics take the discipline as a means whereby literary study can mirror different ideologies, power relations, hegemony, social practices and humanity in general, others vilify cultural studies because it makes literary studies impure. As I argue, literature can be read through a cultural studies lens as long as their knowledge and methods of analysis are duly appropriated and employed by their practitioners.