Critic speak is tough, but we've got you covered.
Quote :Culture and Society
The fifth word, culture, similarly changes, in the same critical period [during the nineteenth century]. Before this period, it had meant, primarily, the "tending of natural growth," and then, by analogy, a process of human training. But this latter use, which had usually been a culture of something, was changed, in the nineteenth century, to culture as such, a thing in itself. It came to mean, first, "a general state or habit of the mind," having close relations with the idea of human perfection. Second, it came to mean "the general state of intellectual development, in a society as a whole." Third, it came to mean "the general body of the arts." Fourth, later in the century, it came to mean "a whole way of life, material, intellectual and spiritual." It came also, as we know, to be a word which often provoked either hostility or embarrassment.
"Culture" is a loaded term that invites a whole range of different interpretations and, as Williams shows, it has been defined and redefined over the years. This is a key thing to remember when thinking about cultural studies, as this is a branch of study that's proven especially tricky to pin down, like the word culture itself.
This brings us back to the different ways in which theorists have interpreted "culture." Does it embody the pinnacle of human artistic achievement, or does it refer to any and all texts produced in a given context? And what about all those spicy political and economic issues that fired up the Frankfurt and Birmingham schools? Answer: all of the above. Always.
As Williams highlights, culture can mean different things to different people, and doesn't necessarily carry the same meanings in all time periods and contexts. In other words, you can't talk about "cultural studies" without first tackling the concept of culture itself.