This course follows and maps the critical renegotiation and redefinition of the key concepts of our cultural identity ("culture",
"the high" vs. "the low" cultures, "canon" etc.), as was striven for and achieved in the context of cultural studies (Hoggart,
Williams, Hall, Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies). The course presents the methodological and theoretical positions of cultural studies, its concept of culture as "ordinary" and as "a whole way of life", as well as its democratisation effotrs.
Simultaneously, the course attempts to uncover the various limitations and ideological blind spots that were pointed out
(also) by feminist theoreticians. Apart from the mapping of the conceptual and theorerical background of cs, the course also opens the ground for the common exploration our shared cultural identity and preconceptions about "culture". In this sense, the course strives to offer a space and a floor for self-reflective practice.