Cultural Studies theory advances through rupture and exterior interruption, not internal unfolding.

Evidence

I want to look at two other theoretical moments in Cultural Studies which interrupted the already interrupted history of its formation. Some of these developments came as it were from outer space: they were not at all generated from the inside, they were not part of an inner-unfolding general theory of culture. Again and again, the so-called unfolding of Cultural Studies was interrupted by a break, by real ruptures, by exterior forces; the interruption, as it were, of new ideas, which decentered what looked like the accumulating practice of the work. There’s another metaphor for theoretical work: theoretical work as interruption. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 247

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces the key metaphor that theoretical work is defined by interruption rather than accumulation.
• APHORISMS: ‘Theoretical work as interruption’ reads as durable advice about how intellectual fields actually move.