Challenges for Cultural Studies Under the Rule of Global War
Neferti Xina M. Tadiar: University of California-Santa Cruz
DOI: https://dx.doi.org/Abstract
Based on a lecture delivered not long after the US launched its so-called war on terror in Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11, the paper addresses the challenges for cultural studies in the midst of “the emergence of a global network of quasimilitary states in tributary relations to the US super security state” and “the emergence of a global counter public or constituency.” With a note of urgency and particular attention to the Philippine context, the paper expresses the need “to interpret, articulate, and participate in the social struggles taking place in and through cultural practice” which begins with the recognition of “the continual subsumption of people’s labor—physical, mental, experiential, and psychical—into systems of domination and exploitation.” It asserts that “the realms of freedom” are “getting smaller” even as “small spaces of creativity and freedom are won,” thus, the challenge is “to locate and extend these spaces as well as their political potential and to extricate these cultural practices … from those that contribute to the containment, expropriation, and alienation of people’s labor, processes which operate everywhere, even in the most politically radical sectors.” In these spaces, cultural practice becomes “not only the means of a transformation” but “part and parcel of that very transformation we hope and strive for.”
Keywords
9/11, cultural studies, political economyPlease login first to access subscription form of article
Kritika Kultura
Department of English
School of Humanities
Ateneo de Manila University
The Philippine Commission on Higher Education (CHED) declares Kritika Kultura as a CHED-recognized journal under the Journal Challenge Category of its Journal Incentive Program.
An open-access semi-annual peer-reviewed international electronic journal of literary, language, and cultural studies of the Department of English of the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.
© 2024 All Rights Reserved
Contact Us
- kk@ateneo.edu
- Kritika Kultura Department of English School of Humanities Ateneo de Manila University Loyola Heights 1108 Quezon City, Philippines