ABSTRACT

As an intellectual project, cultural studies is intimately connected to notions of dialogue or exchange within intellectual life. These notions are, obviously, at the heart of the appeal of this project, and central to the political claims made in its name. At the same time, however, one is likely to live cultural studies as a set of ongoing tensions and disputes, and as the source of perpetual anxieties over the relationships of one’s own place of work (whether this be defined in geographical or disciplinary terms, or as the set of socio-cultural identities which one occupies) to a variety of intellectual communities. My concern, in this paper, is with mapping out certain of these tensions and anxieties as they have shaped the ongoing development of a cultural studies project in English Canada. The value and legitimacy which I ascribe to this project itself is largely unstated here, and I would hope that the analysis which follows is not seen simply as a cynical recounting of localized struggles for prestige and influence. Nevertheless, if one accepts that the terrain of cultural studies is one which will forever be marked by disputes and jurisdictional battles, and that the final dissolution of these is neither imminent nor possible, then an analysis which seeks to specify their effects within a context such as that of English Canada serves to clarify the conditions under which cultural studies communities take shape.