The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies

The subject of the aesthetic has returned to cultural and literary debates with a vengeance. The Aesthetics of Cultural Studies is a timely and authoritative collection of essays that analyze the role of aesthetics in American and British cultural studies, and reflect on its recuperation in the field. An international group of leading scholars write eloquently and convincingly about aesthetics in terms of subcultural analysis, the question of judgment in contemporary popular culture, the history of US and UK cultural studies, and the current state of the field.

A substantial editorial introduction opens the volume to help orient the reader to specific contributions and major debates. This is a must-have book for students of cultural studies, media, and communications.

Michael Bérubé is the Paterno Family Professor in Literature at Pennsylvania State University. He is the author of Marginal Forces/Cultural Centers: Tolson, Pynchon, and the Politics of the Canon (1992); Public Access: Literary Theory and American Cultural Politics (1994); Life As We Know It: A Father, A Family, and an Exceptional Child (1996); and The Employment of English: Theory, Jobs, and the Future of Literary Studies (1998).