Cultural Landscapes
Bibliography
Return
to Bibliography
Schudson, Michael.
"Paper Tigers: A Sociologist Follows Cultural Studies into the Wilderness."
Lingua Franca (August, 1997).
In this piece, which
is in part a review of Donna Haraway's essay, "Teddy bear Patriarchy," and part
diatribe against Cultural Studies, Schudson begins by arguing that cultural
studies is "not sociological enough," noting in particular that it is too reflexive
and self-conscious about its politics and not enough so when is comes to reviewing
scholarship. After offering a brief summary of Haraway's reading of the
Museum of Natural History's African Hall, and an even briefer description of
what he takes to be the vocation of cultural studies, Schudson admits that his
quarrel is not so much with Haraway's article but with its "celebrity" in the
field. Despite this admission, he then goes on to critique Haraway's article
"on its own terms," bringing up several valid and insightful criticisms, without
ever offering sufficient evidence of the article's canonical place in cultural
studies. Ultimately, Haraway falls short for Schudson in her lack of historical
knowledge of the which may very well be a valid claim (one should have a sufficient
knowledge of Haraway's piece before engaging Schudson), but Schudson himself
fails to show that the article is indicative of some larger shortcoming of cultural
studies. In the end, Schudson's assertions that cultural studies scholarship
should be more self critical may ring true with many in the field, but Schudson's
own lack of rigor in engaging the discipline with such little depth offers little
in the way of a useful starting point for this project. [E. Martini.]