Alec Mc Houl - Criticism and Culture

Criticism and Culture

McHoul's work spans a range of academic fields: linguistics, cultural theory, continental philosophy and literary theory. Critics have noted McHoul's approach to diverse subjects wherein he is seen as adhering to no strict rule of academic enquiry. Whether McHoul should or, indeed, can perform with one set of analytical tools in order to cover such a diverse range of social phenomena is not entirely clear among critics of his work. Robert Eaglestone, for example, offers the following critique of McHoul's' Semiotic Investigations: Towards an Effective Semiotics: 'The book is no less an attempt to work in at least three fields at once, and McHoul seems at home dealing with analytic philosophy, continental philosophy, semiotics, and linguistics'. Douglas Ezzy seems equally perplexed when he says, 'His theoretical range is wide, drawing on Wittgenstein, Saussure, ethnomethodology phenomenology'.. McHoul appears to stray from an unwritten set of academic norms when he uses whatever is at-hand to get the job done: to be a social commentator and to understand, in an era of intellectual self-reflection, that the commentary itself is social. In short then, McHoul takes A posse ad esse (as far as this is attainable), confusing his peers, perhaps, but clearly winning some applause in terms of his willingness to utilize the ideas of others, no matter how dissimilar those ideas might appear.

While McHoul's post-structuralist (or Renaissance-esque; see also polymath) approach is hardly new, one would not expect that his (or anybody else's) work can logically adhere to a singular theory, rather, his usage of ideas allow him to question notions of 'Culture' from a variety of perspectives - notably, by paying attention to its interlocutors - the major players. In short, McHoul might ask where the idea of Language stops and the design of a lecture theatre, say, begins; indeed, he might ask the question: what part does either play in every day life and, importantly, specific cultures?

Having said this, it would come as no surprise that McHoul's 1998 Popular Culture and Everyday Life, looks at Food and Eating, Sport, Self-Help/Therapy, and Talking. Each chapter deals briefly with potentially cultural acts; it is not enough to merely talk about or for a culture, but to add a natural extension to that talk in the form of actions. In this way, every human endeavour becomes a potential avenue for opening up discussions on what is meant and what is at stake when the idea of Culture is discussed in the humanities.