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In the first chapter to Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige characterizes subcultures as classed youth formations. He articulates the ways in which subcultures challenge hegemony through resistant and “unnatural” style rather than simply through overt ideological articulations. I am particularly curious about Hebdige’s investment in the first chapter in drawing a lineage from … Continue reading Hebdige: Style, Subculture, and the Unnatural

In Dick Hebdige’s introduction to Subculture: The Meaning of Style, he places faith in the fact that subculture movements use style to interrupt ideological structures – perhaps more specifically the American conservatism and middle class suburban mundanity during the mid-to-late 20th century. I want to dig deeper into Hebdige’s own detailed understandings of “ideology” and … Continue reading Hebdige and The Significance of Style

“The citizens whose lives are split between business and private life, their private life between ostentation and intimacy, their intimacy between the sullen community of marriage and the bitter solace of being entirely alone, at odds with themselves and with everyone, are virtually already Nazis, who are at once enthusiastic and fed up, or the … Continue reading Intimacy, Friendship, and the Culture Industry

I suspect that one reason that Benjamin’s “Work of Art…” essay is so rich is that its nineteen theses are not strictly accountable to one another. In fact, they advance proposals that are at times incompatible. One point of tension that I find particularly compelling is in Benjamin’s diverging accounts of the politics of technologically-mediated … Continue reading Blog Post: Benjamin

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