British Cultural Studies: An Overview

Abstract or Introduction

A large number of people believe that everything that is man - made can be seen as culture.
Moran leaves no doubt about those products' importance, when he writes: ”Products, the
visible dimension of culture, are the gateway to the new culture, the new way of life” (p. 48).
But are there only architecture, paintings, literature, music, language, and food which come to
mind if we think of a country's culture? The iceberg model shows that these aspects represent
only a small amount of culture that, just like the visible section of an iceberg above the
waterline, can be seen easily and understood clearly. However, there are a lot more facets,
also like an iceberg, that can only be suspected or imagined. These parts of the iceberg are its
foundation and the iceberg model makes clear that it is impossible to understand people from
different cultural backgrounds, unless we are able to appreciate what the foundations of their
culture are. But no matter how many different definitions of the term "culture" exist, a lot of
them cover problems concerning the human beings and their life in a community. This implies
that we can't learn about another country's culture by reading a lot of books about it, but we
need the encounter with another way of life. In that way, culture can also be seen as a concept
which regulates the interpersonal cohabitation of human beings in a collective. This collective
does not have to be a country by all means, but can also be a group of people with the same
interests. If some people who are fond of a special musical genre such as goth, pool together,
they have their own culture, too and it is not necessary that they live in the same country. But
it is not merely the music that connects them, but rather "shared interpretations about beliefs,
values, and norms, which affect the behaviors" (Lustig, Koester, 2003, p. 27) and influence
the way their thinking is organized. [...]