"Culture is Ordinary"

Paper Summary:

In this essay, the author explains William's claim that "Culture is ordinary, in every society and in every mind." First, the paper discusses cultural materialism and William's discourse. This is followed by a presentation of examples and cases that explain how the culture is ordinary. Specifically, two cultural objects-film and television-are used to achieve the objective of the essay. Trainspotting is used to discuss the interplay between the author (filmmaker), cultural medium (cinema), and society. Teletubbies, on the other hand, is used to explore the "ordinariness" of culture in a highly globalized environment.

From the Paper:

"The New Left of the late 1950s and 1960s, which wanted to find a critical mode of analysis that offered an alternative to the ideologies of the Cold War, inspired the modern materialist examinations of higher and popular culture. This came about as dissatisfaction with both the individualistic, market-cantered doctrines of the West and the structural central planning of the East grew, encouraging a search for different, fresh perspectives. The New Left centred on culture because it connects individuals and society, thus overcoming the conflict of individual agency and social structure."

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