CMCstudent, Hebdige

I really enjoyed this reading because not only did it bring back around a lot of things we learned in CMC 100 brought home some of the theories we have recently been studying in CMC 300. In other words it is giving me a way to really tie the information together and make since of it all.

I was surprised to come across all the multiple meanings of “culture.” I found the most interesting part of the article to be Raymond Williams “dream of the ‘organic society’— society as an integrated, meaningful whole” (144).

When we are little we learn that it is important to be worldly and understand cultures other than our own. Many young girls participate in ballet, and even elementary schools are starting to offer second language courses. As we get older we attend ballets, operas, theatrical plays, and gallery openings so we can learn of the excellence of both our own and other cultures.

I strongly believe in the second definition William describes culture being the “particular way of life which expresses certain meaning and values not only in art and learning, but also in institutions and ordinary behavior” (145) I think this is the essence of culture that is overlooked. I feel like culture cannot be defined by just looking at just one aspect.

T.S. Elliot decides to broaden the definition’s range even more by saying that the characteristic activities and interests of a people” should also be studied (145). William has to come up with a new theory, to “study of the relationships between elements in a whole way of life” (145). He does not want to compare or create a scale with his subjects, rather than study “their modes of change to discover certain general causes or “trends” by which social and cultural developments as a whole can be better understood” (145).


Something that caught my attention was that Louis Althussar says, “ideology has no history,” meaning it replaces history with myth. Althussar goes on to say that ideology is “an essential element of every social formation.” This is very alarming because if all history is replaced with myth how will anyone ever make a distinction of what is real? If this mythical formation happens in all societies ideology will completely dominate the existence of history.