"Wrestling With The Angels": Stuart Hall'S Theory And Method

Stuart Hall made multiple and significant methodological and theoretical contributions during the years he directed the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. This essay highlights, critiques, and shows the continuing value and relevance of two works. Hall's (1975) Introduction to Paper Voices: The Popular Press and Social Change 1935-1965 is an excellent example of an early methodological intervention by Hall. It remains a highly useful manual for discourse analysis. Hall's pioneering 4-part model of encoding and decoding is used to illustrate a major theoretical intervention. Hall wrote "Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse" in 1973 for students at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies. The 1980 version is shorter and its politics somewhat tamed but even so it justifiably inspired considerable work on the articulation of producer and audience work.