The Persistence of Cultural Studies: A Brief Consideration of the Place and Purpose of Cultural Studies in an Otherwise Turbulent World

Abstract

Two prevailing inflections of ‘persistence’ occupy the social imagination. In the first, generally considered the domain of toddlers, journalists and telemarketers, persistence comes as something troublesome, incessant, and largely irritating. In the other, persistence is held as a virtue; a capacity maintained by those capable of ‘seeing things through’. Each version of the term may well share a common foundation (hanging on too long can, after all, descend to irritation), but either way, persistence is a capacity that declares its presence; a signifier of the ‘stuff’ of its bearer, and the nature of the situation. Persistence notifies the intention that whatever may come is here to stay. This paper will outline two visions of Cultural Studies in light of these inflections of persistence in order to pose questions of what it is that Cultural Studies should hope to achieve in a world grown precarious.