Popular culture, not canonical refinement, was Hall’s analytical object.

Evidence

So these two things drive me to an interest in culture via indirect routes. I can’t be a Leavisite because I don’t believe, I am not interested, in saving canonical English culture. Leavis is interested in the five great minds he can train against the onrush of mass society. I’m interested in popular culture. So I have different objects from Leavis. But I am interested in the moral seriousness of an attention to culture which takes you to the heart of a social formation. — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 964

Categorization

• XREF: Anchors the field’s commitment to popular culture as a serious object of analysis — the same commitment the Islamophobia readings bring to everyday discourse, media representation, and common sense.