Should ‘the arts’ be used as a way of constructing - or reconstructing - a sense of who we are as individuals, as society, or as a nation? To what extent does this sort of thinking undermine any notion of universalism in the arts, or does the shift mean we must reconstitute an idea of what universalism means?

The arts have long been used as a way of exploring self-understanding, but as the idea of making clear critical judgments about artworks comes under fire, does the current focus on respecting cultural differences reflect a deeper lack of critical authority? And to what extent does it ‘dumb down’ people’s ability to appreciate and enjoy culture more generally?

Nothing straightforward about the English

This Is England (2006), directed by Shane Meadows

The film was all about Combo. Shaun served as a device that allowed the audience to empathise with this man, who brings out all that is attractive in a marginalised, unhappy skinhead. Shaun finds in Combo a replacement father, Combo finds in Shaun a glimpse of himself at 12 years old.

Novels are novels and films are films

Prestuplenie i nakazanie [Crime and Punishment] (1970), directed by Lev Kulidzhanov

This adaptation comes either from a cursory reading and understanding of Dostoyevsky’s novel, or, more likely, an impulse to bring it to a wider audience that chooses to ignore the fact that the only way one can truly interact with Dostoyevsky is through his writing.

Qabuka

Oval House Theatre, London

Immigrants’ tales are interspersed with an almost wordless tale of torture, attempted escape and failed asylum. The production is full of energy and inventiveness. Where it is less successful is in the emotional tone, which becomes increasingly jumbled as the show goes on.

The invention of sound

Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894), directed by William K.L. Dickson

Dickson wanted to record a sound film, and devised a situation to show off the effectiveness of his apparatus. As the synchronisation failed, he had little use for the film, not because it showed gay characters, but because Dickson Experimental Sound Film lacked sound.

Civilization: a New History of the Western World

Roger Osborne

Osborne believes art’s role should be to console grief-stricken humanity for relinquishing its primeval paradise. On the contrary, a dynamic humanity would do well to sample from time to time marginal spheres of culture to have its key assumptions negated and transgressed.

Everything Bad is Good for You - How Popular Culture is Making Us Smarter

Steven Johnson

Johnson eschews questions of meaning and content, focusing instead on the ‘cognitive complexity’ of popular culture, as well as the wider determinates of this complexity.

What Good Are the Arts?

John Carey

If artistic merit is relative only in the same sense that ethics or politics are relative, it is hard to see the point in making such an argument.

Interview: Rachel Jordan

An open-minded artist

Whatever I align myself with at the time, I always totally believe in. But I’m not going to stay stuck for ever. I think I’ve had my moment with being with the Stuckists. It’s carried me into a relationship. It’s almost served its purpose, but I don’t think that’s where my future lies.

Who’s in Charge? Responsibility for the Public Library Service

Tim Coates

Unfortunately, what the report does not make clear is what makes a collection of books important, and this is a salient omission.

Therapy Culture: Cultivating Vulnerability in an Uncertain Age

Frank Furedi

Sociologist Frank Furedi’s book exposes the often-bizarre thinking behind the growing practice of counselling.

Experiment: Conversations in art and science

Edited by Bergit Arends and Davina Thackara

There has always been a relationship between art and science, but recently it has become fashionable to try combining the two in a single project. The Wellcome Trust has now published a volume reporting on several such collaborations carried out in the last few years.

‘Aztecs’ and ‘Jake and Dinos Chapman’

Aztecs - The Royal Academy, London and Jake and Dinos Chapman:Works from the Chapman Family Collection - White Cube Gallery, London

There have been rave reviews for the Aztecs show at the Royal Academy, but this art was produced by one of the most bloodthirsty ‘civilisations’ that has ever existed.

The Turner Prize Show

Tate Britain, London

Am I the only person to suspect that culture minister Kim Howells’ Stuckist-style intervention into the Turner Prize this year was another case of government spin?

The Identity of England

Robert Colls

Since the 1980s, the word ‘identity’ has come to feature in the titles of an increasing number of academic history books. With its radical connotations of subjectivising history, the word ‘identity’ is very much associated with the vocabulary of the postmodern historian.

Culture at the Crossroads

Charles Landry and Marc Pachter

Following the so-called ‘culture wars’ and the rise of postmodernism, postcolonialism, poststructuralism and various other ‘isms’, it is little wonder that the cultural institutions of Western society are going through something of an identity crisis.