Cultural studies and Africa: excavating the subject-matter.

Abstract

This article examines some of the issues arising from the proliferation of cultural

studies as a form of national-identity research. Looking at the case of the recent

rise of culture studies in South Africa, we examine how certain items of received

wisdom about cultural studies have obscured some of the academic dynamics

that have actually driven the growth of cultural studies. In contrast with some of

these aspects we consider cultural studies as a form of inquiry, driven by the

reality of its subject-matter, and review some of the normative concepts that govern

the communication of research findings. Based on C.S. Peirce's pragmatic

conception of the logic of scientific communication, and on pragmatic trends

arising among African writers like D.A. Masolo and Kwasi Wiredu, we consider

just what has become the subject-matter of cultural studies. We offer an alternate

formulation based in communication practice and provide an example of how

this was presented in conference on the African Renaissance. We conclude

with suggestions about how cultural studies might recover Its original radical

democratic impetus in a world where socialism has lost much of its intellectual

integrity.