Cultural Studies, Romanticism, and the New Media J. David Black A
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Wiring Birmingham: Cultural Studies, Romanticism, and the New Media J. David Black A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies in partial f'hlfilment ofthe requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought York University North York, Ontario May 1999 National Library Bibliotheque nationale I*m of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington OtiawaON KlAON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde melicence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliotheque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, preter, distibuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fonnat Bectronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propnete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial extracts flom it Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Wiring Birmingham: Cultural Studies, Romanticism, and the New Media by John David Black a dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of York University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 0 Permission has been granted to the LIBRARY OF YORK UNIVERSITY to lend or sell copies of this dissertation, to the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF CANADA to microfilm this dissertation and to lend or sell copies of the film, and to UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS to publish an abstract of this dissertation. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the dissertation nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's written permission. iv Abstract Romanticism, a literary and philosophical tradition developed primarily in Germany and England at the turn of the nineteenth century, has recently been the subject of scholarly attention aimed at restoring its contemporary relevance to media and cultural criticism. Cultural studies, an interdisciplinary intellectual movement with singular Romantic origins, is adapted as a vehicle for making this inchoate effort at "using" Romanticism comprehensive. Arguing that cultural studies has overidentified with Enlightenment or rationalist sources in social theory at the risk of reification, and that competing post- industrial and post-structuralist critical traditions have preempted cultural studies in the study of important subject areas, this adaptation has two principal aims. First, it demonstrates how Romanticism has been generally suppressed or appropriated by rival theoretical traditions, and how Romanticism as a form of %on-reifjling modernism" can be of general benefit to cultural studies. Romanticism, that is, offers cultural studies a theoretical language that is modem, yet sensitive to the conditions and phenomena such as the image, subjectivity and the "information society" which theory identified with postmodernity has claimed for its own. Returned to its Romantic origins, cultural studies is reconnected with modem intellectual history so as to greatly expand its theoretical range beyond the terms established by Enlightenment rationalism. Second, to ground the argument for romantic renewal in actual criticism, a platform v for the more systematic use of Romanticism is provided, using Romantic concepts relating to language, the body, the nature of community, the sublime and social totality, among others, as the basis. These Romantic concepts are then applied to enduring and related issues in cultural studies, including the nature of the aesthetic, ideology and discourse, then digital media and political economy. Taken together, this romantic criticism is organized in what amounts to a prototype for a romantic theory of media and culture. The argument concludes by offering that cultural studies, its authenticity and relevance challenged by critics both inside and outside the project, finds in a newly adapted romanticism a vocabulary and sensibility necessary to understanding conditions that are not intelligible on rational terms alone. Acknowledgments There is a romantic in all of us. Those who supported this project, and like it or not, had to embrace the redeeming power of Romanticism in their lives, are to be commended for their forbearance and good humour. The roIl of honourary Romantics is long, but this present list is of necessity a short one. To anyone who contributed to the cause and is not thanked here, my deepest gratitude. First, my committee members, and notably my supervisor, Dr. Ioan Davies, who introduced me to Birmingham long ago. Then Dr. Brian Singer and Dr. Ian Balfour, whose professionalism in the face of an unusually interdisciplinary project was remarkable. Alan O'Comor, Janine Marchessault, and Ted Window provided me with a defense worthy of the name. Judith Hawley, administrative assistant in the Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought, managed small bureaucratic miracles that made this project so much more humane. Next, my immediate family, namely my mother Edna Magee and brother Darren Black for volunteering both economic support and unconditional love during these long years of apprenticeship, and my extended family in Cardinal. Special thanks to Peggy for being there first. Third, fiends and former teachers who simultaneously demonstrated the point about Romantic genius and the exotic nature of the real: Drs. Hamet and Andrew Lyons; Dr. John Chamberlin; Dr. Iwona Irwin-Zarecka; and Michelle, Elizabeth, Hanna, Theresa, Valerie, Rob and Christina. And last, to my students these past seven years in the Communication Studies Program at Wilfiid Laurier University. This dissertation is dedicated to the Iate John Henry Black. vii Table of Contents Abstract Acknowledgments Table of Contents iv-vii Introduction Wiring Birmingham 1-18 Chapter One The Education of Desire: Romanticizing Cultural Studies 19-54 Chapter Two Key Concepts in Cultural Studies and Media Theory: A Romantic Reconsideration 55-109 Chapter Three The Powers of Mind: Post-industrial and Post-structuraIist Theories of New Media 110-156 Chapter Four The Politics of Enchantment: Misusing Romanticism 157-184 Chapter Five The Ghost in the Machine: Some Problems in Media Research 185-217 Chapter Six "Information Wants to Be Free": A Romantic Approach to New Media 2 18-263 Chapter Seven The Corporate Sublime: Toward a Cultural Studies of Political Economy 264-30 1 Conclusion Wrestling with the Angels 302-305 References 306-3 19 Introduction Wiring Birmingham "England's second largest city may fairly lay claim as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. James Watt first hatched in Birmingham the profitable application of the steam engine to mine the country's Black Country. Watt and other famous 18th century members of the Lunar Society regularly met under a fill moon in the nearby Soho mansion of manufacturer Matthew Boulton. Together-Watt, Boulton, and other 'lunatics' such as Joseph Priestly, Charles Darwin and Josiah Wedgewood cheefilly called themselves-- launched the revolution that thrust not only England but the world into our modem technological era." Frommer 's England From $60 a Day, page 5 14 Binningham, home to the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies since its founding at the city's university in 1964, must have seemed a strange place to imagine the fbture of media and culturai criticism. Workshop to the world in the nineteenth century, Birmingham was a rusting hulk in the post-World War 11 period, a showcase of post- industrial malaise that recommended the traveller look backward if at all. The project of making the media and cultural theory developed by E.P.Thompson, Raymond Williams, Stuart Hall and other naturalized "Brumrnies" relevant to the so-called "new" or digital media, such as personal computers and the Internet, sympathizes with an anachronism so characteristically British.' Just as they brought a critical sensibility more comfortable with ruined castles than office towers to bear on twentieth century culture, so does this project look to rethink cultural studies by reference to its own intellectual past, and by rethinking, to prepare it for the technology and culture of the next millennium. In other words, it seems necessary to borrow fiom the current technophilic jargon and "wire" Birmingham. 2 The need to make media and cultural theory inspired by work at the Centre address contemporary digital media culture was prompted by a personal observation several years before beginning this study that much of the popular writing on new media borrows fiom a post-industrial (and often neo-conservative) perspective, and that the larger share of academic literature on new media is post-structuralist in origin. While post-industrid and post-structuralist writings on what both characterize as the "information society" have contributed much of value, they lead to unproductive and sometimes reactionary readings of issues as various as the relationship of technology to culture, the nature of the self, and media's role in cultural and political change. The central problem these positions pose is that they demand a break with modernity as