Consider this statement from Hall: “Against the urgency of people dying in the streets, what in God’s name is the point of cultural studies? […]I think
anybody who is into cultural studies seriously as an intellectual practice, must feel, on their pulse, its ephemerality, its insubstantiality, how little it
registers, how little we’ve been able to change anything or get anybody to do anything. If you don’t feel that as one tension in the work that you are doing,
theory has let you off the hook.”
What does this mean to you? What is “ephemerality”, or “insubstantiality”, and why does Hall refer to the serious intellectual practice of cultural studies
this way? Describe in your own words the “tension” Hall is talking about, and whether or not you think there is a point to cultural studies in the midst of
that tension. If there is a point, what is it?
Sample Solution
