Shakespeare versus the bus ticket

Cultural Studies (for that is the "science" I am describing) is not so much a denial of Literary Criticism: it is about doing something else instead of Literary Criticism. (At this point I should admit that I am simplifying the positions terribly, in order to make the larger point of my comparison clear. There are competing traditions and positions within, as well as between, the two disciplines; and my use of the term “science” should not be taken too literally.)

In the area where these two disciplines intersect, we have seen various "turf wars" break out, as the two groups vie for influence and respectability. The battles have taken place in schools and universities; in the pages of academic journals; in museums and art galleries; in newspapers - in any cultural spaces where boundaries are drawn and judgments are made about the cultural objects that we produce and value.

There are political and ideological dimensions to the battle, undoubtedly. But at base, Literary Criticism and Cultural Studies are different intellectual enterprises. Literary Criticism is about making aesthetic and moral judgments of literary works: Cultural Studies, including the sub-set of so-called "postmodern theory", is about describing, classifying and explaining a much more diverse range of cultural processes and products.

For Cultural Studies, the real goals are to describe the conditions under which various cultural objects are created, and to reveal the underlying codes and rules by which they generate meaning.

Which brings us to the works of Shakespeare, and the bus ticket. For the cultural "scientist", these are two objects made out of the same basic substances: language, words on paper, printing technologies, and the like. On that basis, they can be grouped together on the "periodic table" of texts - just as lead and tin can be grouped together on the basis of their common properties. But what is it that the cultural "scientist" actually does with such objects? How does he or she “read” the bus ticket? And what does that have to do with Shakespeare?

I think the debate will be helped if we actually look briefly at a bus ticket - or, in this case, a tram ticket.

In December 2006, I travelled from Adelaide to Glenelg by tram. On that journey, I purchased a ticket. On the front face of the ticket was the following information:

metroticket  24Dec 14H21
validate each boarding - insert this way
$02.20 RGI Z3

On the reverse of the ticket was this:

 ... What really matters is what happens within us, not to us ... People who live in the past rob the future ... You cannot ride two horses at the same time ...

The ticket combines travel and fare information on the one side, with a series of little moral aphorisms on the other - an interesting juxtaposition. What’s going on here?

This little printed object raises a host of questions for any “scientist” seeking to understand South Australian culture and society: is this to be classified as a governmental or a cultural object? In what way is the economic regulation of transport connected to the management of conscience and personal conduct? What are the social and cultural and economic conditions that have produced this strange convergence?