Study The Historical Evolution Of Western Culture And Cultural Symptoms

Thanks to the foundation of CCCS, cultural studies had its own position in western academic system and affected the western traditional human-social science as its characters, such as strong practical spirit, radical and critical attitude and inter-subject method. Now cultural studies has become an international thought movement.The thesis aims at trying to discuss and card the theoretic skeleton of western cultural studies through the symptomatic reading to the representative person' s representative articles or works.Four parts makes up the thesis. Part one introduces culturalism tradition of western cultural studies. First, it narrates the rising root of western cultural studies; then it inspects the relationship of cultural studies and culturalism ; last it presents the background and characteristics of western cultural studies. Part two expounds the paradigm crisis of western cultural studies because of the intervention of structuralism. The crisis brings the " Gramsci Turn" of western cultural studies. Part three elaborates the cultural studies of New Gramsci as Williams and Hall for example. They have the aid of Gramsci cultural hegemony theory to discuss the social crisis in the late of 60s of 20* century. Then it briefly discusses the influence of the theory to class, sexuality, race and body etc. Part four represents the new phrase of western cultural studies, moves toward pluralism and openness in theory and method. About study object, cultural studies even more dives into the study of media and popular culture, forms the new character of western cultural studies, that is, contemporary cultural studies pays more attention to popular culture and everyday life. It hopes to explain all the phenomenon of the world.