Stuart Hall (cultural Theorist)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Stuart Henry McPhail Hall (3 February 1932 – 10 February 2014) was a
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
n-born British
Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
sociologist, cultural theorist, and political activist. Hall – along with
Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was an English academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...
and
Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...
– was one of the founding figures of the school of thought known as British Cultural Studies or the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. In the 1950s Hall was a founder of the influential journal ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...
''. At Hoggart's invitation, he joined the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
in 1964. Hall took over from Hoggart as acting director of the CCCS in 1968, became its director in 1972, and remained there until 1979. While at the centre, Hall is credited with playing a role in expanding the scope of
cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
to deal with race and
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
, and with helping to incorporate new ideas derived from the work of French theorists such as
Michel Foucault Paul-Michel Foucault ( , ; ; 15 October 192625 June 1984) was a French History of ideas, historian of ideas and Philosophy, philosopher who was also an author, Literary criticism, literary critic, Activism, political activist, and teacher. Fo ...
. Hall left the centre in 1979 to become a professor of sociology at the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
. He was President of the British Sociological Association from 1995 to 1997. He retired from the Open University in 1997 and was
professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
there until his death. British newspaper ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'' called him "one of the country's leading cultural theorists". Hall was also involved in the Black Arts Movement. Movie directors such as John Akomfrah and Isaac Julien also see him as one of their heroes. Hall was married to Catherine Hall, a feminist professor of modern British history at
University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...
, with whom he had two children. After his death, Stuart Hall was described as "one of the most influential
intellectual An intellectual is a person who engages in critical thinking, research, and Human self-reflection, reflection about the nature of reality, especially the nature of society and proposed solutions for its normative problems. Coming from the wor ...
s of the last sixty years". The Stuart Hall Foundation was established in 2015 by his family, friends and colleagues to "work collaboratively to forge creative partnerships in the spirit of Stuart Hall; thinking together and working towards a racially just and more equal future."


Biography

Stuart Henry McPhail Hall was born on 3 February 1932 in Kingston,
Colony of Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was Invasion of Jamaica (1655), captured by the The Protectorate, English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British Empire, British colon ...
, into a middle-class family. His parents were Herman McPhail Hall and Jessie Merle Hopwood. Herman's direct ancestors were English, living in Jamaica for several centuries, tracing back to the Kingston tavern-keeper John Hall (1722–1797) and his Dutch wife Allegonda Boom. Hall's direct paternal ancestors were implicated in the trans-Atlantic slave trade and slavery in Jamaica, being associated with the Grecian Regale Plantation, Saint Andrew Parish. Hall's mother was descended through her mother from John Rock Grosset, a local pro-slavery
Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...
member of Parliament. According to the ''1820 Jamaica Almanac'', Stuart's great-great-great-grandfather John Herman Hall owned 20 enslaved Black
African people The population of Africa has grown rapidly over the past century and consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by increasing life expectancy in most African countries. Total population as of 2024 is about 1.5 billion, with ...
. His ancestors were Portuguese, Jews, English, Africans and Indians. As a teen he had been baptized in an
Evangelical Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of th ...
Youth Group. He attended the all-male Jamaica College, one of the island's elite establishments, receiving an education modeled after the British school system. In an interview, Hall describes himself as a "bright, promising scholar" in these years and his formal education as "a very 'classical' education; very good but in very formal
academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...
terms." With the help of sympathetic teachers, he expanded his education to include " T. S. Eliot,
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
, Freud,
Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
,
Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
and some of the surrounding literature and modern poetry", as well as " Caribbean literature". Hall's later works reveal that growing up in the pigmentocracy of the colonial West Indies, where he was of darker skin than much of his family, had a profound effect on his views. In 1951, Hall won a
Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...
to Merton College at the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, where he studied English and obtained a
Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...
degree, becoming part of the Windrush generation, the first large-scale emigration of West Indians, as that community was then known. He originally intended to do graduate work on the medieval poem '' Piers Plowman'', reading it through the lens of contemporary literary criticism, but was dissuaded by his language professor,
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlinson ...
, who told him "in a pained tone that this was not the point of the exercise." Hall began a doctorate on
Henry James Henry James ( – ) was an American-British author. He is regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and literary modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists in the English language. He was the ...
at Oxford but, galvanised particularly by the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary (which saw many thousands of members leave the
Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...
(CPGB) and look for alternatives to previous orthodoxies) and the
Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
, abandoned this in 1957 or 1958 to focus on his political work. In 1957, he joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and it was on a CND march that he met his future wife. From 1958 to 1960, Hall worked as a teacher in a London
secondary modern school A secondary modern school () is a type of secondary school that existed throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1944 until the 1970s under the Tripartite System. Secondary modern schools accommodated the majority (70–75%) of pupil ...
and in adult education, and in 1964 married Catherine Hall, concluding around this time that he was unlikely to return permanently to the Caribbean. After working on the ''Universities and Left Review'' during his time at Oxford, Hall joined E. P. Thompson,
Raymond Williams Raymond Henry Williams (31 August 1921 – 26 January 1988) was a Welsh socialist writer, academic, novelist and critic influential within the New Left and in wider culture. His writings on politics, culture, the media and literature contribu ...
and others to merge it with '' The New Reasoner'' journal, launching the ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...
'' in 1960, with Hall as the founding editor. In 1958, the same group, with Raphael Samuel, launched the Partisan Coffee House in
Soho SoHo, short for "South of Houston Street, Houston Street", is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Since the 1970s, the neighborhood has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, art installations such as The Wall ...
as a meeting place for left-wingers. Hall left the board of the ''New Left Review'' in 1961 or 1962. Hall's academic career took off in 1964 after he co-wrote with Paddy Whannel of the
British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
"one of the first books to make the case for the serious study of film as entertainment", ''The Popular Arts''. As a direct result,
Richard Hoggart Herbert Richard Hoggart (24 September 1918 – 10 April 2014) was an English academic whose career covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with emphasis on British popular culture. Early life Hoggart was bor ...
invited Hall to join the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
, initially as a research fellow at Hoggart's own expense. In 1968, Hall became director of the centre. He wrote a number of influential articles in the years that followed, including ''Situating Marx: Evaluations and Departures'' (1972) and ''Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse'' (1973) and ''The Great Moving Right Show'' (for Marxism Today), in which he famously coined the term ‘''
Thatcherism Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character a ...
''’. He also contributed to the book ''Policing the Crisis'' (1978) and coedited the influential ''Resistance Through Rituals'' (1975). Shortly before Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister in 1979, Hall and Maggie Steed presented "It Ain't Half Racist Mum", an '' Open Door'' programme made by the Campaign Against Racism in the Media (CARM), which tackled racial stereotypes and contemporary British attitudes to immigration. After his appointment as a professor of sociology at the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
(OU) that year, Hall published further influential books, including ''The Hard Road to Renewal'' (1988), ''Formations of Modernity'' (1992), ''Questions of Cultural Identity'' (1996) and ''Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices'' (1997). Through the 1970s and 1980s, Hall was closely associated with the journal '' Marxism Today''; in 1995, he was a founding editor of '' Soundings: A Journal of Politics and Culture''. He spoke internationally on Cultural Studies, including a series of lectures in 1983 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that were recorded and would decades later form the basis of the 2016 book ''Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History'' (edited by Jennifer Slack and
Lawrence Grossberg Lawrence Grossberg is an American scholar of cultural studies. He helped introduce and define cultural studies—an interdisciplinary intellectual study of the intersections of culture and power through practices of contextuality, complexity, and ...
). Hall was the founding chair of Iniva (Institute of International Visual Arts) and the photography organization Autograph ABP (the Association of Black Photographers). Hall retired from the Open University in 1997. He was elected
fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...
in 2005 and received the European Cultural Foundation's Princess Margriet Award in 2008. He died on 10 February 2014, from complications following kidney failure, a week after his 82nd birthday. By the time of his death, he was widely known as the "godfather of multiculturalism". His memoir, ''Familiar Stranger: A Life Between Two Islands'' (co-authored with Bill Schwarz), was posthumously published in 2017, based on hours of interviews conducted with Hall over many years. Hall was buried on the eastern side of Highgate Cemetery, where in 2022 an audio artwork by Trevor Mathison explored his legacy. Entitled ''The Conversation Continues: We Are Still Listening'', the 40-minute
soundscape A soundscape is the acoustic environment as perceived by humans, in context. The term, originally coined by Michael Southworth, was popularized by R. Murray Schafer. There is a varied history of the use of soundscape depending on discipline, ...
was "a re-examination of the lives and histories of those laid to rest at Highgate Cemetery in the context of contemporary anti-racism movements."


Ideas

Hall's work covers issues of
hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states, either regional or global. In Ancient Greece (ca. 8th BC – AD 6th c.), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of ...
and
cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...
, taking a post- Gramscian stance. He regards language-use as operating within a framework of power,
institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...
s and politics/economics. This view presents people as ''producers'' and ''consumers'' of culture at the same time. (Hegemony, in Gramscian theory, refers to the socio-cultural production more of "consent" and "coercion".) For Hall, culture was not something to simply appreciate or study, but a "critical site of social action and intervention, where power relations are both established and potentially unsettled". Hall became one of the main proponents of reception theory, and developed the theory of encoding and decoding. This approach to textual analysis focuses on the scope for negotiation and opposition on the part of the audience. This means that the audience does not simply passively accept a text—social control. Crime statistics, in Hall's view, are often manipulated for political and economic purposes. Moral panics (e.g. over mugging) could thereby be ignited in order to create public support for the need to "police the crisis". The media play a central role in the "social production of news" in order to reap the rewards of lurid crime stories. Further, Hall is well known for his articulation of the conjuncture and deployment of conjunctural analysis in his work. Hall’s concept of the conjuncture offers a method for apprehending the layered, unstable, and contingent character of the present—an articulation of economic, political, and cultural forces whose contradictions come to a head in moments of crisis. For Hall, conjunctural is not about identifying a singular cause or root, but rather about mapping the movement of struggle, that is, the ensemble of forces that stabilize or destabilize a social order, an overdetermination of structure. Drawing from Gramsci’s initial articulation of the conjuncture, Hall writes: “What defines the ‘conjunctural’—the immediate terrain of struggle—is not simply the given economic conditions, but precisely the ‘incessant and persistent’ efforts which are being made to defend and conserve the position.” As such, the work of conjunctural analysis is an invitation to read the present as a site of rupture, rearticulation, as well as possibility. In his 2006 essay "Reconstruction Work: Images of Postwar Black Settlement", Hall also interrogates questions of historical memory and visuality in relation to photography as a colonial technology. According to Hall, understanding and writing about the history of black migration and settlement in Britain during the postwar era requires a careful and critical examination of the limited historical archive, and photographic evidence proves itself invaluable. However, photographic images are often perceived as more objective than other representations, which is dangerous. In his view, one must critically examine who produced these images, what purpose they serve, and how they further their agenda (e.g., what has been deliberately included and excluded in the frame). For example, in the context of postwar Britain, photographic images such as those displayed in the '' Picture Post'' article "Thirty Thousand Colour Problems" construct black migration, blackness in Britain, as "the ''problem''". They construct miscegenation as "the centre of the problem", as "the problem of the problem", as "the core issue". Hall's political influence extended to the Labour Party, perhaps related to the influential articles he wrote for the CPGB's theoretical journal '' Marxism Today'' (''MT'') that challenged the left's views of markets and general organisational and political conservatism. This discourse had a profound impact on the Labour Party under both Neil Kinnock and
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
, although Hall later decried New Labour as operating on "terrain defined by Thatcherism".


Encoding and decoding model

Hall presented his encoding and decoding philosophy in various publications and at several oral events across his career. The first was in " Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse" (1973), a paper he wrote for the
Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...
Colloquy on "Training in the Critical Readings of Television Language" organised by the Council and the Centre for Mass Communication Research at the
University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...
. It was produced for students at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies, which Paddy Scannell explains: "largely accounts for the provisional feel of the text and its 'incompleteness. In 1974 the paper was presented at a symposium on Broadcasters and the Audience in
Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
. Hall also presented his encoding and decoding model in "Encoding/Decoding" in ''Culture, Media, Language'' in 1980. The time difference between Hall's first publication on encoding and decoding in 1973 and his 1980 publication is highlighted by several critics. Of particular note is Hall's transition from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies to the
Open University The Open University (OU) is a Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate ...
. Hall had a major influence on cultural studies, and many of the terms his texts set forth continue to be used in the field. His 1973 text is viewed as a turning point in Hall's research toward structuralism and provides insight into some of the main theoretical developments he explored at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. Hall takes a
semiotic Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of semiosis, sign processes and the communication of Meaning (semiotics), meaning. In semiotics, a Sign (semiotics), sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feel ...
approach and builds on the work of
Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...
and
Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...
. The essay takes up and challenges longheld assumptions about how media messages are produced, circulated and consumed, proposing a new theory of communication. "The 'object' of production practices and structures in television is the production of a ''message'': that is, a sign-vehicle or rather sign-vehicles of a specific kind organized, like any other form of communication or language, through the operation of codes, within the syntagmatic chains of a discourse." According to Hall, a message "must be perceived as meaningful discourse and meaningfully de-coded" before it has an "effect", a "use", or satisfies a "need". There are four codes of the encoding/decoding model of communication. The first way of encoding is the dominant (i.e. hegemonic) code. This is the code the encoder expects the decoder to recognize and decode. "When the viewer takes the connoted meaning ... full and straight ... and decodes the message in terms of the reference-code in which it has been coded, ... t operatesinside the dominant code." The second way of encoding is the professional code. It operates in tandem with the dominant code. "It serves to reproduce the dominant definitions precisely by bracketing the hegemonic quality, and operating with professional codings which relate to such questions as visual quality, news and presentational values, televisual quality, 'professionalism' etc." The third way of encoding is the negotiated code. "It acknowledges the legitimacy of the hegemonic definitions to make the grand significations, while, at a more restricted, situational level, it makes its own ground-rules, it operates with 'exceptions' to the rule." The fourth way of encoding is the oppositional code, also known as the globally contrary code. "It is possible for a viewer perfectly to understand both the literal and connotative inflection given to an event, but to determine to decode the message in a globally contrary way." "Before this message can have an 'effect' (however defined), or satisfy a 'need' or be put to a 'use', it must first be perceived as a meaningful discourse and meaningfully de-coded." Hall challenged all four components of the mass communications model. He argues that (i) meaning is not simply fixed or determined by the sender; (ii) the message is never transparent; and (iii) the audience is not a passive recipient of meaning. For example, a documentary film on asylum seekers that aims to provide a sympathetic account of their plight does not guarantee that audiences will feel sympathetic. Despite being realistic and recounting facts, the documentary must still communicate through a sign system (the aural-visual signs of TV) that simultaneously distorts the producers' intentions and evokes contradictory feelings in the audience. Distortion is built into the system, rather than being a "failure" of the producer or viewer. There is a "lack of fit", Hall argues, "between the two sides in the communicative exchange"—that is, between the moment of the production of the message ("encoding") and the moment of its reception ("decoding"). In "Encoding/decoding", Hall suggests media messages accrue common-sense status in part through their performative nature. Through the repeated performance, staging or telling of the narrative of " 9/11" (as an example; there are others like it), a culturally specific interpretation becomes not only plausible and universal but elevated to "common sense".


Views on cultural identity and the African diaspora

In his influential 1996 essay "Cultural Identity and Diaspora", Hall presents two different definitions of cultural identity. In the first definition, cultural identity is "a sort of collective 'one true self' ... which many people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common." In this view, cultural identity provides a "stable, unchanging and continuous frame of reference and meaning" through the ebb and flow of historical change. This allows the tracing back the origins of descendants and reflecting on the historical experiences of ancestors as a shared truth. Therefore, blacks living in the diaspora need only "unearth" their African past to discover their true cultural identity. While Hall appreciates the good effects this first view of cultural identity has had in the postcolonial world, he proposes a second definition of cultural identity that he views as superior. Hall's second definition of cultural identity "recognises that, as well as the many points of similarity, there are also critical points of deep and significant ''difference'' which constitute 'what we really are'; or rather – since history has intervened – 'what we have become'." In this view, cultural identity is not a fixed essence rooted in the past. Instead, cultural identities "undergo constant transformation" throughout history as they are "subject to the continuous 'play' of history, culture, and power". Thus Hall defines cultural identities as "the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past." This view of cultural identity was more challenging than the previous due to its dive into deep differences, but nonetheless it showed the mixture of the African diaspora. In other words, for Hall cultural identity is "not an essence but a ''positioning''".


Presences

Hall describes Caribbean identity in terms of three distinct "presences": the African, the European, and the American. Taking the terms from
Aimé Césaire Aimé Fernand David Césaire (; ; 26 June 1913 – 17 April 2008) was a French poet, author, and politician from Martinique. He was "one of the founders of the Négritude movement in Francophone literature" and coined the word in French. He ...
and Léopold Senghor, he describes the three presences: "Présence Africaine", "Présence Européenne", and "Présence Americaine". "Présence Africaine" is the "unspeakable 'presence' in Caribbean culture". According to Hall, the African presence, though repressed by slavery and colonialism, is in fact hiding in plain sight in every aspect of Caribbean society and culture, including language, religion, the arts, and music. For many black people living in the diaspora, Africa becomes an " imagined community" to which they feel a sense of belonging. However, Hall points out, there is no going back to the Africa that existed before slavery, because Africa too has changed. Secondly, Hall describes the European presence in Caribbean cultural identity as the legacy of colonialism, racism, power and exclusion. Unlike the "Présence Africaine", the European presence is not unspoken even though many would like to be separated from the history of the oppressor. But Hall argues that Caribbeans and diasporic peoples must acknowledge how the European presence has also become an inextricable part of their own identities. Lastly, Hall describes the American presence as the "ground, place, territory" where people and cultures from around the world collided. It is, as Hall puts it, "where the fateful/fatal encounter was staged between Africa and the West", and also where the displacement of the natives occurred.


Diasporic identity

Because diasporic cultural identity in the Caribbean and throughout the world is a mixture of all these different presences, Hall advocated a "conception of 'identity' that lives with and through, not despite, difference; by ''hybridity''". According to Hall, black people living in diaspora are constantly reinventing themselves and their identities by mixing, hybridizing, and "creolizing" influences from Africa, Europe, and the rest of the world in their everyday lives and cultural practices. Therefore, there is no one-size-fits-all cultural identity for diasporic people, but rather a multiplicity of different cultural identities that share both important similarities and important differences, all of which should be respected.


Difference and differance

In "Cultural Identity and Diaspora", Hall sheds light on the topic of difference within black identity. He first acknowledges the oneness in the black diaspora and how this unity is at the core of blackness and the black experience. He expresses how this has a unifying effect on the diaspora, giving way to movements such as negritude and the pan-African political project. Hall also acknowledges the deep-rooted "difference" within the diaspora as well. This difference was created by destructive nature of the transatlantic slave trade and the resulting generations of slavery. He describes this difference as what constitutes "what we really are", or the true nature of the diaspora. The duality of such an identity, that expresses deep unity but clear uniqueness and internal distinctness provokes a question out of Hall: "How, then, to describe this play of 'difference' within identity?" Hall's answer is " Différance". The use of the "a" in the word unsettles us from our initial and common interpretation of it, and was originally introduced by
Jacques Derrida Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
. This modification of the word difference conveys the separation between spatial and temporal difference, and more adequately encapsulates the nuances of the
diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of birth, place of origin. The word is used in reference to people who identify with a specific geographic location, but currently resi ...
.


Global policy

Hall was one of the signatories of the agreement to convene a convention for drafting a world constitution. As a result, for the first time in human history, a World Constituent Assembly convened to draft and adopt the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.


Legacy

* The Stuart Hall Library, Iniva's specialist arts and culture reference library, currently located in Pimlico, London, and founded in 2007, is named after Stuart Hall, who was the chair of the board of Iniva for many years. * In November 2014, a week-long celebration of Stuart Hall's achievements was held at the
University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
's
Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...
, where on 28 November the new Academic Building was renamed in his honour, as the Professor Stuart Hall building (PSH). * The establishment of the Stuart Hall Foundation in his memory and to continue his life's work was announced in December 2014. The Foundation is "committed to public education, addressing urgent questions of race and inequality in culture and society through talks and events, and building a growing network of Stuart Hall Foundation scholars and artists in residence." *In May 2016, Housmans bookshop sold Hall's private library. 3,000 books were donated to Housmans by Hall's widow Catherine Hall. *Artist Claudette Johnson completed a portrait of Hall in 2023. Commissioned by Merton College, the portrait hangs in the Hall at Merton alongside other
Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
s and Wardens.


Film

Hall was a presenter of a seven-part television series entitled ''Redemption Song'' — made by Barraclough Carey Productions, and transmitted on
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
, between 30 June and 12 August 1991 — in which he examined the elements that make up the Caribbean, looking at the turbulent history of the islands and interviewing people who live there today. The series episodes were as follows: * "Shades of Freedom" (11/08/1991) * "Following Fidel" (04/08/1991) * "Worlds Apart" (28 July 1991) * "La Grande Illusion" (21 July 1991) * "Paradise Lost" (14 July 1991) * "Out of Africa" (7 July 1991) * "Iron in the Soul" (30 June 1991) Hall's lectures have been turned into several videos distributed by the Media Education Foundation:
''Race, the Floating Signifier''
(1997).
''Representation & the Media''
(1997).
''The Origins of Cultural Studies''
(2006). Mike Dibb produced a film based on a long interview between journalist Maya Jaggi and Stuart Hall called ''Personally Speaking'' (2009). Hall is the subject of two films directed by John Akomfrah, entitled '' The Unfinished Conversation'' (2012) and '' The Stuart Hall Project'' (2013). The first film was shown (26 October 2013 – 23 March 2014) at Tate Britain, Millbank, London, while the second is now available on DVD. ''The Stuart Hall Project'' was composed of clips drawn from more than 100 hours of archival footage of Hall, woven together over the music of jazz artist
Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...
, who was an inspiration to both Hall and Akomfrah. The film's structure is composed of multiple strands. There is a chronological grounding in historical events, such as the
Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...
, the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, and the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, along with reflections by Hall on his experiences as an immigrant from the Caribbean to Britain. Another historical event vital to the film was the 1958 Notting Hill race riots occasioned by attacks on black people in the area; these protests showed the presence of a black community within England. When discussing the Caribbean, Hall discusses the idea of hybridity and he states that the Caribbean is the home of hybridity. There are also voiceovers and interviews offered without a specific temporal grounding in the film that nonetheless give the viewer greater insights into Hall and his philosophy. Along with the voiceovers and interviews, embedded in the film are also Hall's personal achievements; this is extremely rare, as there are no traditional archives of those Caribbean peoples moulded by the Middle Passage experience. The film can be viewed as a more pointedly focused take on the Windrush generation, those who migrated from the Caribbean to Britain in the years immediately following the
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. Hall, himself a member of this generation, focused on the
racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...
faced by the Windrush generation, contrasting the idealized perceptions among West Indian immigrants of Britain versus the harsher reality they encountered when arriving in the "mother country". A central theme in the film is diasporic belonging. Hall confronted his own identity within both British and Caribbean communities, and at one point in the film he remarks: "Britain is my home, but I am not English."
IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...
summarises the film as "a roller coaster ride through the upheavals, struggles and turning points that made the 20th century the century of campaigning, and of global political and cultural change." In August 2012, Professor Sut Jhally conducted an interview with Hall that touched on a number of themes and issues in cultural studies.


Book

* McRobbie has also written an article in tribute to Hall: * Scott, David (2017). ''Stuart Hall's Voice: Intimations of an Ethics of Receptive Generosity''. Durham:
Duke University Press Duke University Press is an academic publisher and university press affiliated with Duke University. It was founded in 1921 by William T. Laprade as The Trinity College Press. (Duke University was initially called Trinity College). In 1926 ...
.


Personal life

Hall was married to the feminist historian Catherine Hall.


Publications

''This is not a complete list:''


1960s

* * * * * *


1970s

* Hall, Stuart (1971). ''Deviancy, Politics and the Media''. Birmingham: Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. * Hall, Stuart (1971). "Life and Death of Picture Post", ''Cambridge Review'', vol. 92, no. 2201. * Hall, Stuart; P. Walton (1972). ''Situating Marx: Evaluations and Departures''. London: Human Context Books. * Hall, Stuart (1972). "The Social Eye of Picture Post", ''Working Papers in Cultural Studies'', no. 2, pp. 71–120. * Hall, Stuart (1973). ''Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse''. Birmingham: Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. * Hall, Stuart (1973). ''A ‘Reading’ of Marx's 1857 Introduction to the
Grundrisse The ''Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie'' (, ), often simply the ''Grundrisse'' (, ), is an unfinished manuscript by the German philosopher Karl Marx. The series of seven notebooks was rough-drafted by Marx, chiefly for purposes ...
''. Birmingham: Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. * Hall, Stuart (1974). "Marx's Notes on Method: A ‘Reading’ of the ‘1857 Introduction’", ''Working Papers in Cultural Studies'', no. 6, pp. 132–171. * Hall, Stuart; T. Jefferson (1976), ''Resistance Through
Ritual A ritual is a repeated, structured sequence of actions or behaviors that alters the internal or external state of an individual, group, or environment, regardless of conscious understanding, emotional context, or symbolic meaning. Traditionally ...
s, Youth
Subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...
s in
Post-War A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...
Britain''. London: HarperCollinsAcademic. * * Hall, Stuart; C. Critcher; T. Jefferson; J. Clarke; B. Roberts (1978), ''Policing the Crisis: Mugging, the State and Law and Order''. London: Macmillan. London: Macmillan Press. (paperback); (hardback). *


1980s

* Hall, Stuart (1980). "Encoding / Decoding." In: S. Hall, D. Hobson, A. Lowe, and P. Willis (eds). ''Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972–79''. London: Hutchinson, pp. 128–138. * * Hall, Stuart (1980). "Race, Articulation and Societies Structured in Dominance." In: UNESCO (ed). ''Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism.'' Paris: UNESCO. pp. 305–345. * Hall, Stuart (1981). "Notes on Deconstructing the Popular". In: ''People's History and Socialist Theory''. London: Routledge. * Hall, Stuart; P. Scraton (1981). "Law, Class and Control". In: M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan & J. Pawson (eds). ''Crime and Society'', London: RKP. * Hall, Stuart (1988). ''The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left''. London:
Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review'' (NLR) and includes Tariq Ali and Perry Anderson on its board of directors. According to its webs ...
. * * * * Hall, Stuart (1989). "Ethnicity: Identity and Difference". '' Radical America'' 23 (4): 9–20
Available online


1990s

* * * * * *
Available online.


2000s

*


2010s

* * * Hall, Stuart (2016). ''Cultural Studies 1983: A Theoretical History''. Slack, Jennifer, and Lawrence Grossberg (eds), Duke University Press. . * *


2020s

* ''Selected Writings on Marxism'' (2021), Durham: Duke University Press, . * ''Selected Writings on Race and Difference'' (2021), Durham: Duke University Press, .


See also

* Articulation (sociology) * Musgrave Medal * Bill Schwarz


References


Footnotes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * * *


External links


Stuart Hall Foundation website
* John O'Hara interview with Stuart Hall for the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
's ''Doubletake'' programme, originally broadcast 5 May 1983:
The Narrative Construction of Reality – Stuart Hall
'. Republished in centerforbookculture.org's ''Context'' online edition, No. 10. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
"New project brings the work of Stuart Hall back into the spotlight"
University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham (informally Birmingham University) is a Public university, public research university in Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Queen's College, Birmingham (founded in 1825 as ...
, 29 June 2023. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hall, Stuart 1932 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Jamaican educators Academics of the Open University Academics of the University of Birmingham Alumni of Merton College, Oxford Black British writers British feminists British male feminists British literary critics British Marxists British activists British semioticians Cultural sociologists British sociologists Burials at Highgate Cemetery Fellows of the British Academy Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Jamaican people of Indian descent Jamaican people of Jewish descent Jamaican people of Scottish descent Jamaican Rhodes Scholars Jamaican sociologists Linguists from Jamaica People educated at Jamaica College People from Kingston, Jamaica Presidents of the British Sociological Association World Constitutional Convention call signatories