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Introduction: Why Cultural Studies? Why Stuart Hall?

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Blackness as a Defining Identity

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Abstract

This book provides a thorough and critical engagement with Stuart Hall’s theories of media, discourse, race and ethnicity. It is my intention to present Stuart Hall’s version of Cultural Studies, his significant contributions to the field, alongside some of the limitations that are present in his research theorisations. In my engagement with Hall, my intentions are not to highlight the superficial acclaims commonly associated with his physical and oratory attributes. Rather, my emphasis is placed on Hall as a product of colonisation, a British immigrant and a racialized subject suffering from a crisis of identity. In this book, Hall’s experience as an outsider with an insider’s perspective on a cultural phenomenon mirrors my own, as I seek to situate myself as both the researched and researcher. By having an African background as well as being a recent immigrant to Australia provides me a unique viewpoint in which I am placed in the Australian context. Stuart Hall’s biography is useful in providing a ‘roadmap’ for conducting a ‘significant analysis and understanding of the functioning of particular cultures’. It is through the conjuncture of the past and present theoretical perspectives that one can better understand the context of the lives of African immigrants in Australia.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This term has received vast theorization (Abric, 2001; Deaux & Wiley, 2007; Hall, 1997a; Nunn, 2010; Saptefrati, 2008; Trebbe & Schoenhagen, 2011). Definitions of this term come from numerous fields of study such as psychology, media studies and politics. Thus, the meaning of the term can vary depending on its usage. For instance, representation could be taken to mean ‘an accurate depiction of an object or person’ (Ahmed & Matthes, 2016; Rasinger, 2010). Representation could also be ‘the mirror of society and its core values’ (Fabian, 1990; Gale, 2004; Shaw, 2013). Representation can also be the re-presentation of on object or person in the desired way that the producer of the message wants it to be read (Deaux & Wiley, 2007; Doise, Spini, & Clémence, 1999; Nunn, 2010). In this book, I am using representation to mean the (re)presentation of Africans. Representation is not intended to mean the depiction of African individuals but the composition of images, audio and ideas that depict these images. What are the active agendas being put forward and what informs these agendas?

  2. 2.

    In this book, I am using the term African immigrant as an inclusive term of all Africans in Australia. I acknowledge that there are different entry pathways into Australia such as through work visas; student visas and marriage, asylum. Some of the African population have become Australian citizens. The use of the African immigrant is being used to reflect that this African population is not indigenous to Australia.

  3. 3.

    I deploy the term ‘Africanness’ to refer to a bundling of media political and social discourse (Biliuc, McGarty, Hartley, & Muntele Hendres, 2011; Hier & Greenberg, 2002). The term Africanness to a degree is loaded, in that its definition is not stable (Cohen, 1994; Helms, 1990; McIntosh, 2015; Windle, 2008) and is subject to interpretation by the user and the reader.

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  1. Living Cultural Studies and Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Runyararo Sihle Chivaura

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Chivaura, R.S. (2020). Introduction: Why Cultural Studies? Why Stuart Hall?. In: Blackness as a Defining Identity. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9543-8_1

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