Cultural Studies
A cultural study is an academic work that is studied within the arts, social sciences, the humanities and science and technology (Sardar and Loon, 2005). There are numerous way culture is seen, and one of them is seen to be a type of a social behavior. According to Wendy Grisworld (1994), when sociologists talks about culture it usually means four things, which consists of norms, values, beliefs or expressive symbols. Norms is define as a way a person behaves in a particular society, values on the other hand is what the people is a belief that they think is valuable to them, beliefs is how they think the world operates, and lastly expressive symbols are representations.
Visual culture, is important because it is a study of a society, group or community share the same practices in which meanings and messages are made out through visual and textual world of representations, and the way in which is engaged though communicative and symbolic activities. Here is an example of a society of Harry Potter fans, which can be seen as a culture of its own.
Sir E.B Tylor an anthropologist however define culture as something that is complex which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs, and other capabilities and habits acquire by man as a member of society (Sardar and Look, 2005).
To understand cultural studies further, the major concept in cultural studies is that of signs, which consists of a signifier and the signified. This is important in cultural studies because language is a cultural phenomenon, which produces meaning by a system of relationships, by having a network where there are similarities and differences. For example, the way a person eat or dress or communicate between one another, can be studied as signs, in which is the key to understand social life.
Durkheim too, saw the society as a structured system which consists of institutions, established pattern of behavior and a shared language which shapes our lives ( Billington et al, 1991).
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Discourse: Sleeping Beauty
Sardar, Z., & Loon, B., V. (2005). Introducing cultural studies: A Graphic Guide. Cambridge: Totem Books. Available from Ebrary.
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