篇名 | Where Has the Aura Gone?Reflections on Cultural Studies, Neoliberalism,and Literature as the Auratic Event |
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卷期 | 31:2 |
作者 | Xu, Gary Gang |
頁次 | 015-039 |
關鍵字 | cultural studies 、 literary studies 、 American higher education 、 neoliberalism 、 aura 、 auratic event 、 2046 、 Wong Kar-wai 、 A&HCI 、 Scopus 、 THCI |
出刊日期 | 200507 |
This paper provides a cross-cultural discussion of the dynamics and problems of cultural studies. I examine Simon During’s genealogy of cultural studies in the context of the current crisis of the American higher education. I explain why there is no longer “aura”—in the Benjaminian sense—on college campuses, and how this lack of aura is related to the global dominance of neoliberalism both as a set of economic policies serving the free markets and as a political rationality governing education and the everyday life. I present several preliminary counter measures against neoliberalism. One of them is to incorporate cultural studies in literary studies—not the other way around—so as to use the aura as a critical tool against neoliberalism, to re-establish the core values of literature in teaching moral and political responsibilities as well as public goodness. The paper ends with a brief reading of Wong Kar-wai’slatest film 2046 as an allegory of the auratic event.