Introduction: “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
“Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey first appeared in 1992 in the Journal of Communication (Vol. 42, No. 2, Spring). In this seminal piece, Carey engages deeply with the ideological clashes surrounding cultural studies and the backlash against “political correctness” in academia, situating the debate within a broader critique of higher education’s structural and cultural decline. He draws a sharp distinction between two broad currents in cultural studies—one rooted in continental theory (Derrida, Foucault, Althusser) and another in American pragmatism (Dewey, James, Rorty)—aligning himself with the latter. Carey argues that cultural studies, while critical and anti-foundational, has become vulnerable due to theoretical fragmentation, its neglect of economic critique, and its increasingly narrow focus on race and gender as primary ideological axes. He critiques both the Left and the Right, asserting that the Left has failed to produce a unifying, pragmatic ideology while the Right has succeeded in mobilizing resentment against universities through the discourse of political correctness. Central to the article is Carey’s concern that cultural studies has abandoned the ideal of a shared public culture, leaving the field politically impotent and intellectually isolated. This essay remains significant in literary theory and cultural criticism as it articulates the internal contradictions of academic leftism and warns against the instrumentalization of education for ideological purposes. It is widely referenced for its sober reflection on the institutional and ideological responsibilities of scholars engaged in cultural analysis.
Summary of “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
🧭 1. Two Camps in Cultural Studies: American Pragmatism vs. Continental Theory
Carey draws a foundational line between two philosophical sources within cultural studies: one rooted in American pragmatism (Dewey, James, Rorty) and the other in European poststructuralism (Derrida, Foucault, Althusser).
“Cultural studies… can be simplistically divided… into two broad camps: one that draws primarily upon continental sources… and one that draws primarily upon American sources” (Carey, 1992, p. 56).
🎯 2. Reclaiming Cultural Studies as a Democratic, Reformist Endeavor
Carey situates himself in the American tradition, advocating for cultural studies that supports liberal democracy, civic engagement, and communal responsibility.
“I have not as yet given up faith in liberal democracy… for an open, nonascriptive basis of community life” (p. 56).
⚔️ 3. Cultural Studies under Conservative Attack
Cultural studies has become a scapegoat in conservative critiques of academia, particularly in the discourse of “political correctness.”
“Roger Kimball… has identified cultural studies as part of the problem… rather than… part of the solution” (p. 56).
“The conservative critique… has identified cultural studies as part of the ‘problem of higher education’” (p. 58).
🧩 4. Internal Weaknesses of the Cultural Left
Carey criticizes the Left for lacking a cohesive ideology, becoming overly focused on critique rather than presenting constructive alternatives.
“The Left has a dozen different critiques of ideology; it just does not have an ideology” (p. 67).
“The cultural Left… cannot speak to the general public… because it is jargon besotted… and contemptuous of ordinary people” (p. 67).
🛠️ 5. The Crisis of Higher Education: Not Political Correctness, But Educational Failure
The real crisis in universities is not ideology but a decline in educational quality and purpose.
“The decadence besetting the academy is not political correctness but a genuine disinterest in education” (p. 58).
“Students approach us… as consumers… ingesting whatever is fashionable and forgettable this semester” (p. 58).
🧱 6. The Illusion of a Common Culture
Carey challenges both conservative nostalgia for a unified “Western tradition” and radical deconstruction of culture into fragments of race/gender, calling for a richer conception of American cultural experience.
“Cultural studies was not an argument against a common culture but against the simple-minded notion that… American culture was a direct… tributary of… the Greeks and the Bible” (p. 59).
⚖️ 7. The Over-Reduction of Culture to Race and Gender
Carey critiques the theoretical collapse in cultural studies where economic and structural analysis has been abandoned in favor of identity politics.
“Culture is now reduced to ideology and ideology in turn reduced to race and gender” (p. 60).
“The Left… forgot to develop a political program… that can speak to… citizens” (p. 67).
📉 8. Professionalization and Instrumentalization of Education
He argues that both liberal arts and professional programs have become overly utilitarian, losing sight of education as a civic and moral good.
“The liberal arts have… become professionalized… [and] the curriculum increasingly reflects… the professional interests… of faculty” (p. 69).
“Unless we can agree that education has purposes that are intrinsic to it… the university will be exploited… by extrinsic purposes” (p. 71).
🧠 9. The Debate as Theatrical, Not Transformational
The political correctness debate, Carey insists, is more performative than substantive, failing to address the actual problems of the university.
“This is a debate that confuses garnering publicity and producing celebrity with making political gains” (p. 63).
“The university described in the literature of political correctness is a fantasy” (p. 63).
🚨 10. Who Loses? The Students
Ultimately, the victims of these ideological failures are students—especially disadvantaged ones—who are promised transformative education but receive diluted curricula.
“The big losers in this great debate are the students and through them the country at large” (p. 72).
“It is the newcomers to higher education who are the big losers” (p. 72).
Theoretical Terms/Concepts in “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
| 🔑 Theoretical Term | 📝 Explanation | 📖 Article Reference |
| 📚 Cultural Studies | An interdisciplinary field that views culture as an active process of meaning-making and a site of struggle, rejecting formalism and positivism. | “Cultural studies arose as a revolt against formalism and was anti-positivist and anti-foundational… a process… of the making of meaning” (p. 58) |
| 🧱 Hegemony | Derived from Gramsci, it refers to ideological dominance achieved by appealing to shared human desires—not just class interests. | “Ideologies achieve hegemony… by speaking to relatively enduring… human needs and desires” (p. 60) |
| ⚖️ Ideology | A structured set of ideas shaping culture and social life; Carey critiques its reduction to race and gender in much of contemporary cultural studies. | “Ideology has swallowed culture, and race and gender have swallowed ideology” (p. 60) |
| 🔁 Base and Superstructure | A classical Marxist concept where the economic base shapes the cultural superstructure; Carey notes how cultural studies sought to revise this relation. | “Cultural studies began as an attempt to undo the relation of base and superstructure in classical Marxist theory” (p. 60) |
| 🌍 American Pragmatism | A tradition rooted in thinkers like Dewey and Rorty, focusing on democracy, reform, and practical engagement with social problems. | “I take myself to be part of the Dewey group… because… I have not… given up faith in liberal democracy” (p. 56) |
| 🧩 Identity Politics | A political approach that emphasizes race, gender, and sexual identity; Carey critiques it as overly narrow and disconnected from broader civic concerns. | “Race and gender have assumed a position as the new ‘base’” (p. 60) |
| 🎭 Political Correctness | A conservative label used to attack progressive academic movements; Carey calls it a “condensation symbol” reflecting real public resentment. | “‘Political correctness’ is an effective political attack because it acts as a condensation symbol” (p. 58) |
| 🏛️ Common Culture | The idea of a shared cultural foundation; Carey supports a nuanced, inclusive view against both nostalgic conservatism and radical fragmentation. | “Cultural studies… was not an argument against a common culture but against… a simple-minded notion…” (p. 59) |
| 🧠 Imagined Community | From Benedict Anderson, this concept explains nations as socially constructed; Carey applies it to critique mythologized versions of American identity in the PC debate. | “Every nation is an ‘imagined community’ in the sense Benedict Anderson has given to that phrase” (p. 60) |
Contribution of “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey to Literary Theory/Theories
🧠 1. Cultural Studies & Literary Theory
Carey affirms and critiques the foundational assumptions of cultural studies as a form of literary and critical theory, helping expand its scope beyond textual analysis to institutional critique.
“Cultural studies arose as a revolt against formalism and was anti-positivist and anti-foundational: a form of both interpretive and critical theory” (p. 58).
✅ Contribution: Carey reasserts cultural studies as a method for interrogating power, ideology, and meaning in both texts and institutions.
🧭 2. Pragmatism vs. Poststructuralism
He introduces a distinctly American pragmatist approach to cultural and literary theory, contrasting it with the European poststructuralist tradition.
“I take myself to be part of the Dewey group… because… I have not as yet given up faith in liberal democracy” (p. 56).
✅ Contribution: Carey repositions literary theory within a pragmatic, reformist framework rooted in experience and democratic ideals.
🧱 3. Hegemony & Ideology Critique (Gramscian Theory)
Carey evaluates how cultural studies has handled Gramsci’s notion of hegemony, stressing the need for it to address broad civic and moral concerns beyond identity categories.
“Hegemonic analysis must move beyond ideology to culture and recognize that human interests cannot be exhausted by any social category” (p. 61).
✅ Contribution: Expands literary theory’s engagement with hegemony toward inclusive civic imagination, not just ideological critique.
🧩 4. Identity Politics and Literary Criticism
He critiques the reduction of cultural analysis to identity categories, warning that literary theory risks losing its broader cultural relevance.
“Race and gender have assumed a position as the new ‘base’… Ideology has swallowed culture” (p. 60).
✅ Contribution: Warns literary theory against becoming narrowly essentialist, encouraging a return to contextually rich, socially responsive analysis.
🔍 5. Anti-Canon & Curriculum Reform
Engaging the political correctness debate, Carey implicitly critiques the binary of canon vs. anti-canon in literary studies, calling for deeper reflection on curricular politics.
“Curriculum reform… has virtually nothing to do with what is going on in most college classrooms” (p. 63).
✅ Contribution: Reorients literary curricular debates toward substantive educational and institutional realities rather than symbolic gestures.
🏛️ 6. Reimagining the “Common Culture”
Carey challenges both conservative and radical accounts of cultural heritage, advocating a historically grounded but evolving notion of shared culture.
“Cultural studies… was not an argument against a common culture but against… a simple-minded notion” (p. 59).
✅ Contribution: Offers literary theory a model for balancing tradition and pluralism without retreating to essentialism or relativism.
📉 7. Institutional Critique of the Academy
He bridges literary theory with critical university studies, exposing the commodification of education and its impact on cultural and literary discourse.
“The university has pretty much disappeared as an independent and unitary institution” (p. 68).
✅ Contribution: Elevates the role of institutional critique within literary theory, encouraging scholars to reflect on their positionality.
🗣️ 8. Language, Tropes, and Political Rhetoric
Carey critiques the way ideological discourse (including literary theory) becomes disconnected from real-world communication, saturated with jargon.
“We seem to be surprised that [ideology] speaks in tropes and hyperbole rather than flattened academic discourse” (p. 58).
✅ Contribution: Calls for clearer, more engaged forms of literary criticism that resonate beyond academic circles.
Examples of Critiques Through “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
| 📖 Literary Work | 🧠 Critique via Carey’s Framework | 🧰 Concepts Applied from Carey |
| 🏞️ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) | Challenges to the racial and moral complexities of the novel can be deepened by avoiding over-politicization through identity categories alone. | Identity Politics, Common Culture, American Experience: “Race and gender have assumed a position as the new ‘base’” (p. 60) |
| 🗽 The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) | The novel’s focus on class illusion and economic ambition aligns with Carey’s critique of academia’s neglect of economic structures. | Base and Superstructure, Ideology, Economic Critique: “The economy has been obliterated from theoretical view” (p. 60) |
| 👒 The Awakening (Kate Chopin) | While feminist readings are essential, Carey would caution against reducing the novel purely to gender politics, advocating broader civic insight. | Hegemony, Pragmatism, Civic Culture: “Hegemonic politics works… by effacing those differences to constitute civil society” (p. 61) |
| 🔥 Beloved (Toni Morrison) | A powerful work of historical and cultural memory, Carey’s approach encourages analyzing its role in shaping national consciousness, not just identity. | Imagined Community, Common Culture, Cultural Production: “The America imagined… is disconnected from experience” (p. 60) |
Criticism Against “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
⚖️ 1. Oversimplification of Identity Politics
Critics argue that Carey downplays the importance of race, gender, and sexuality by portraying them as narrow or reductive concerns within cultural studies.
🧩 He critiques identity as a “new base” replacing economic analysis, but this risks erasing the lived realities of systemic oppression.
🧵 2. Nostalgia for Civic Unity
His call for a shared “common culture” is seen by some as nostalgic or idealistic, failing to reckon with the structural inequalities that fragment cultural unity in the first place.
🏛️ The idea of “neighbors lending lawnmowers” may sound inclusive, but it presumes a level of privilege and stability not afforded to all communities.
📉 3. Lack of Engagement with Contemporary Theory
Carey’s critique of poststructuralism and theory-heavy approaches may dismiss valuable insights from deconstruction, feminism, queer theory, and postcolonialism.
📚 His framing of theorists like Derrida or Foucault as distant from public life overlooks how these theories have informed real-world activism and critique.
🔒 4. Overemphasis on Institutional Decline
Some scholars argue Carey blames universities too heavily for cultural decline without acknowledging broader neoliberal economic forces.
🏫 His claim that the university has “become a balance sheet” (p. 68) is valid but not unique to the academy—it reflects wider capitalist transformations.
🧠 5. Dismissal of Theoretical Rigor
Carey’s pragmatist disdain for jargon can be read as anti-intellectual or populist, limiting the capacity of scholarship to push conceptual boundaries.
💬 Calling theory “flattened academic discourse” may resonate rhetorically, but it risks alienating rigorous critical traditions.
📚 6. False Dichotomy Between Theory and Practice
He sometimes draws a sharp line between academic theory and real-world problems, but many scholars see this as a false divide.
🔄 The best of cultural studies—Stuart Hall, bell hooks, Judith Butler—has always linked theory to lived experience and activism.
🧩 7. Underestimation of Right-Wing Culture Wars
While Carey critiques both Left and Right, some argue he underplays the strategic, well-funded nature of conservative attacks on the humanities.
🎯 His suggestion that the Left “deserves to lose” risks validating coordinated disinformation campaigns against academic freedom.
🧭 8. Idealization of American Pragmatism
His celebration of Dewey and Rorty may seem too rooted in American exceptionalism, potentially ignoring global intellectual developments.
🌍 Cultural studies is international and transdisciplinary—Carey’s American framing may limit its scope and relevance globally.
Representative Quotations from “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey with Explanation
| Quotation | 📝 Explanation |
| 🧠 “Cultural studies arose as a revolt against formalism and was anti-positivist and anti-foundational.” | Carey frames cultural studies as a critical departure from rigid academic structures, emphasizing interpretive over empirical methods. |
| 📚 “Culture… is a process… of the making of meaning, a process… of ‘wording the world together.’” | Culture, for Carey, is not fixed or external, but continuously shaped through human discourse and symbolic exchange. |
| ⚖️ “Ideology has swallowed culture, and race and gender have swallowed ideology.” | He critiques how cultural studies has become dominated by identity politics, reducing nuanced analysis to essential categories. |
| 🏛️ “Cultural studies… was not an argument against a common culture but against… a simple-minded notion.” | Carey defends the idea of shared cultural meaning, while rejecting conservative or narrow definitions of heritage. |
| 🔍 “Political correctness is an effective political attack because it acts as a condensation symbol.” | He argues that “political correctness” is less a real threat than a symbolic shorthand for broader anxieties about academia. |
| 🗳️ “The Left has a dozen different critiques of ideology; it just does not have an ideology.” | A critique of the academic Left’s lack of unified political strategy or vision, despite strong theoretical tools. |
| 📉 “The university has pretty much disappeared as an independent and unitary institution.” | Carey laments the erosion of academic independence, suggesting universities now serve external powers. |
| 🛠️ “Higher education… is now solely the instrument of the powerful.” | This reflects his fear that universities have lost intrinsic value and serve political and economic elites. |
| 🌍 “The America imagined in the political correctness debate is disconnected from the experience of the majority.” | Both Left and Right are critiqued for promoting abstract visions of American identity that ignore real social diversity. |
| 🧵 “To continue the debate is to run the risk we shall bore one another to death.” | Carey expresses fatigue with the repetitive nature of the PC debate, calling for more productive intellectual engagement. |
Suggested Readings: “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies” by James W. Carey
- Carey, James W. “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies.” Journal of Communication 42.2 (1992): 56-72.
- Ross, Andrew, et al. “A Symposium on Popular Culture and Political Correctness.” Social Text, no. 36, 1993, pp. 1–39. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/466387. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
- Munson, Eve Stryker, and Catherine A. Warren, editors. “Political Correctness and Cultural Studies.” James Carey: A Critical Reader, NED-New edition, University of Minnesota Press, 1997, pp. 270–91. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5749/j.ctttsvzt.19. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.
- Ohmann, Richard. “Political Correctness and the Obfuscation of Politics.” The Radical Teacher, no. 42, 1992, pp. 32–34. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20709742. Accessed 8 Apr. 2025.