Abstract
The aim of the study is to evaluate the xenogamous nature of cultural studies. The author is of the opinion that the word xenogamy that belongs to the biological sciences is worth applying in the form of another metaphor, one relating to the concept of culture as such, culture as an abstract category. The history of this word’s usage, and the resultant connotations and denotations of the concept of culture, show that its meaning is not only constantly evolving, expanding or narrowing, but is in addition constantly being ‘pollinated’ by various areas of social practice. Proving the proposed thesis the author presents the selected works on the concept of culture.
References
Adorno T. W., Culture and Administration, in The Culture Industry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture by Theodore W. Adorno, ed. J. M. Bernstein, London 1991.
Bal M., Travelling Concepts in the Humanities. A Rough Guide, Toronto 2002.
Baldwin E., Longhurst B., McCracken S., Ogborn M., Smith G., Introducing Cultural Studies, New York 2008.
Denning M., Culture in the Age of Three Worlds, London 2004.
Eliot T. S., Notes towards the definition of culture, New York 1949.
Inglis F., Culture, Cambridge 2004.
Kuper A., The Invention of Primitive Society. Transformations of an Illusion, London 1988.
Lash S., Lury C., Global Culture Industry: The Mediation of Things, Cambridge 2007.
Williams R., Keywords: a vocabulary of culture and society, Glasgow 1976.