S.V. Srinivas

Fellow, CSCS, Bangalore

Ph.D. in English, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad. 

M.Phil. and M.A. English from the same University. 

Worked as Lecturer at the Department of English, Arunachal University, Itanagar from 1992 to 1998. 

Associate Fellow at the Inter University Centre, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Simla, 1994 and 1995. 

Has published on cinema in Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Arts and Ideas, Kunapipi and Framework.

Popular Culture in the Classroom: Indian Cinema as a an object of study for Cultural Studies

This paper looks at the conceptual and methodological problems raised by the study of popular cultural texts and practices in the classroom. While Cultural Studies has been associated with the study of popular culture in many parts of the world, the older justification for the study of the popular—that of focussing on objects and constituencies that have been excluded by mainstream academics—is no longer adequate. The paper suggests that there is a need for Cultural Studies to disengage from the search for progressive or radical political possibilities in popular culture even as it retains the conceptualization of political as an important question. Using Indian cinema as an example, the paper revisits the question of why and how the popular might become an object of study for students of Cultural Studies. The paper draws on two important bodies of writing, namely the work of the subaltern studies school and those associated with the 『Frankfurt School』 to pose the problem. The discussion is based on courses I have taught to PhD students over the past few years.