Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
Cultural Theory and Popular Culture
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Doctor Who is a franchise that has actively embraced both the technical <strong>and</strong> cultural<br />
shifts associated with media convergence since it returned to our television<br />
screens in 2005. Its producers have attempted to provide extra-value content <strong>and</strong><br />
narrative complexity for both a hardcore fanbase <strong>and</strong> a mainstream audience by<br />
deploying a series of evolving <strong>and</strong> changing storytelling strategies across a wide<br />
range of media platforms (488).<br />
Afterword<br />
Postmodernism has changed the theoretical <strong>and</strong> the cultural basis of the study of popular<br />
culture. It raises many questions, not least the role that can be played by the student<br />
of popular culture: that is, what is our relationship to our object of study? With what<br />
authority, <strong>and</strong> for whom, do we speak? As Frith <strong>and</strong> Horne (1987) suggest,<br />
In the end the postmodern debate concerns the source of meaning, not just its relationship<br />
to pleasure (<strong>and</strong>, in turn, to the source of that pleasure) but its relationship<br />
to power <strong>and</strong> authority. Who now determines significance? Who has the right<br />
to interpret? For pessimists <strong>and</strong> rationalists like Jameson the answer is multinational<br />
capital – records, clothes, films, TV shows, etc. – are simply the results of<br />
decisions about markets <strong>and</strong> marketing. For pessimists <strong>and</strong> irrationalists, like<br />
Baudrillard, the answer is nobody at all – the signs that surround us are arbitrary.<br />
For optimists like lain Chambers <strong>and</strong> Larry Grossberg the answer is consumers<br />
themselves, stylists <strong>and</strong> subculturalists, who take the goods on offer <strong>and</strong> make their<br />
own marks with them (169).<br />
The next chapter will consist mostly of an attempt to find answers to some of these<br />
questions.<br />
Further reading<br />
Further reading 211<br />
Storey, John (ed.), <strong>Cultural</strong> <strong>Theory</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>Popular</strong> <strong>Culture</strong>: A Reader, 4th edition, Harlow:<br />
Pearson Education, 2009. This is the companion volume to this book. It contains<br />
examples of most of the work discussed here. This book <strong>and</strong> the companion Reader<br />
are supported by an interactive website (www.pearsoned.co.uk/storey). The website<br />
has links to other useful sites <strong>and</strong> electronic resources.<br />
Appignansesi, Lisa, (ed.), Postmodernism, London: ICA, 1986. A collection of essays –<br />
mostly philosophical – on postmodernism. McRobbie’s contribution, ‘Postmodernism<br />
<strong>and</strong> popular culture’, is essential reading.
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