ABSTRACT
Most of the current discussion in Cultural Studies concerns the question of methodology. It seems to be generally agreed as to what we are looking at, and all that remains is to settle the way in which we should look at it. The central concern of this paper is to argue that this accepted definition of the object of study takes its fundamental characteristics quite uncritically from much earlier conceptions of the nature of Cultural Studies, and that consequently the bulk of contemporary practise is radically misconceived.
