The LRB Podcast Where does culture come from?
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Apr 24, 2024 Cultural theorist Terry Eagleton examines the history of culture - power, ethics, critique, and ideology. Topics include the evolution of culture and labor, Marxism's role in capitalism, autonomy in media, and the complexities of culture and ideology.
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Culture Emerges From Labour
- Terry Eagleton traces culture's origin to labour and agriculture, arguing culture grows from material work.
- He links the etymology of "culture" to tending natural growth and the blade of a plough.
Dean Jokes Farms Could Fund Professorships
- Eagleton tells a story of driving with a US dean who joked about farms supplying professorships.
- The anecdote links agriculture visibly to academic cultural institutions.
Culture Needs Economic Surplus
- Eagleton argues culture requires an economic surplus to exist as galleries, museums and a leisure class.
- Surplus frees some people from subsistence work to produce what we call culture.