.Power, discourse, and postmodernism are essential to cultural studies due to the fact that they create and construct cultural and social realities, as well as construct and produce the identities of subjects within these realities. Power and discourse dictate what is possible and what is not and strive to restrict the movement of individual agents by making them adhere to norms and standards, which directly contradicts discourses relating to freedom. When considering this as a certain truth within reality, one must ask whether individuals are simply subjects of power and discourse, or whether they are agents of it, and whether individuals can empower themselves within such a system. This essay will attempt to answer these questions, using the terms power, discourse and postmodernism. The concept of power from the perspective of cultural studies and in particular of this course is derived from its conventionally assumed meaning, which relates to top-down power. model by which one or a very small group of individuals undertakes to seize power and exercise it as a singular force over the masses from a position of exteriority. However, in the context of cultural studies, power is recontextualized through a number of postmodern discourses that seek to resist dominant discourses, which claim that power is in fact mediated from above (Enthler N, 2013, week 3) . From a postmodernist perspective, power is exercised from countless points within society and acts more as a network that announces multifaceted interdependencies between individuals than as a structure that exercises power over the powerless (Focault M, 1989). Cultural studies posits that power is both productive and reproductive rather than...... middle of paper ......t Leonard Nsw, Allent urwin pp:51-65.Mills S, 2004, 'Discourse and Power', Discourse, London and New York: Rutledge, pp 26-42. Nelson J & Giroux S, 2012, 'Posts' in Theoretical Toolkit, Critical Concepts for the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. 2nd edition Plymouth Rowar & Littlefield. Pp139-159, Shneider F, 2013, Introduction to discourse and Analysis, online video accessed March 31, 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpJhICZczUQStewart L, 2013, The Concept of Power, online video viewed on March 31, 2013. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGtoUs3se1QWard G, 2011, 'Postmodernism', Understanding Post Modernism a Learn yourself guide, New York, McGraw Hill, pp1-14. .Wilson, M, 2011, Legal, disciplinary and biopolitical power: basic Background, online video, accessed March 1, 2013: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X31ayDsG67U