Robert Taylor - Mapping the Past, Present, and Future

I am keeping my post short this week. :)

1) The first question comes directly from “Articulation and Culture” and is one I have been stewing over since reading this text.

“How are critics to make sense of cultural practices, trends, and events?”

As a group, we have danced around this question for the last couple of weeks, but I am wondering if we can start to pinpoint a place to start, given all of the complexity and intertextuality within a contemporary lived experience that we have discussed over recent weeks. Grossberg mentions the “cartography of daily life” (63), and I wonder what this map might even look like. I’m interested in hearing what people think!

2) My second question comes from the Hall interview, edited by Grossberg.

“In what ways does Hall’s defense of modernism reflect his view that theory is an open horizon and how can his open horizon and defense of modernism move us into the future?”

In education, we have a common saying, “You don’t need to reinvent the wheel,” meaning beg, borrow, and steal from mentors, colleagues, the internet, etc. Essentially, don’t be afraid to stand on the shoulders of those who came before you. How is Hall’s critique of postmodernism also a critique of theorists trying to reinvent the wheel?