In this lecture we'll be investigating the notion of culture as oppose to mass/ popular culture. Who sets and decides whats important within culture and to what ends? How does it effect the way we think?
Raymond Williams - Defining culture through intellectual productions and art.
Aims
• Critically define ‘Popular Culture’
• Contrast ideas of ‘culture’ with ‘popular culture’ and ‘mass culture’
• Introduce Cultural Studies & Critical Theory
• Discuss culture as ideologyInterrogate the social function of popular culture
Caspar David Friedrich (1809)‘Monk by the Sea’
Inferior or Residual Culture?
Popular Press vs Quality Press
Popular Cinema vs Art Cinema
Popular Entertainment vs Art Culture
Creative practice that wouldn't normally be included in the realms of 'art' or 'culture'.
You can trace the fundamentals of popular culture back to the 19th century, The growth of the city and heavy industrialisation. An autonomous working class independent culture began to expand, made by the working for the working, there was a shared culture for all the country but in reality it was only the 'elite' and the aristocrats that afforded such things, things such as entertainment (Paintings, Political literature, Theatres)
What you get in response to this is a backlash, and Matthew Arnold was the guy to supply this....
Raymond Williams - Defining culture through intellectual productions and art.
Aims
• Critically define ‘Popular Culture’
• Contrast ideas of ‘culture’ with ‘popular culture’ and ‘mass culture’
• Introduce Cultural Studies & Critical Theory
• Discuss culture as ideologyInterrogate the social function of popular culture
What is Culture?
‘One of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. The general process of intellectual, spiritual & aesthetic development of a particular society, at a particular time. A particular way of life. Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance’.
Superstructure
Everything emerges as a direct result of the material base...
Legal, political, cultural, ideology *
‘One of the two or three most complicated words in the English language’. The general process of intellectual, spiritual & aesthetic development of a particular society, at a particular time. A particular way of life. Works of intellectual and especially artistic significance’.
Marx's Concept of Base / Superstructure
Base
What kind of labor relations make up the fabric of that society?
Forces of production - relations of production - materials, tools, workers, skills, etc. employer/employee, class, master/slave, etc
Base
What kind of labor relations make up the fabric of that society?
Forces of production - relations of production - materials, tools, workers, skills, etc. employer/employee, class, master/slave, etc
Superstructure
Everything emerges as a direct result of the material base...
Legal, political, cultural, ideology *
Social institutions -
Forms of consciousness -
Forms of consciousness -
‘The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles’
(Marx, Communist Manifesto)
Base (An organism of society) produces Superstructure producing Culture. Culture in turn can legitimise professions of production. Hows our culture a direct influence of our political capitalist culture....
‘In the social production of their life men enter into definite, necessary relations, that are indispensable and independent
of their will, relations of production which correspond to a definite stage of development of their material productive
forces. The sum total of these relations of production constitutes the economic structure of society, the real foundation
on which rises a legal and political superstructure and to which correspond definite forms of social consciousness. The
mode of production of material life conditions the social, political and intellectual life process in general. It is not the
consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary it is their social being that determines their
consciousness.
At a certain stage in their development, the material productive forces of society come into conflict with the existing
relations of production ...
...From forms of development of the productive forces, these relations turn into their fetters. Then begins an
era of social revolution.
With the change in economic foundation the whole immense superstructure is more or less rapidly
transformed. In considering such transformations it is always necessary to distinguish between the material
transformation of the economic conditions of production, which can be determined with the precision of natural
science, and the legal, political, religious, artistic or philosophic, in short, ideological forms in which men become
conscious of this conflict and fight it out.’
Marx, (1857) ‘Contribution to the critique of Political Economy’
The State (Hierarchal structure of societies)
‘...but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’ (Marx & Engels (1848) ‘Communisit Manifesto)
‘...but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie’ (Marx & Engels (1848) ‘Communisit Manifesto)
Instruments of the State
Ideological & Physical
Coercion
The Bourgeoisie
The Proletariat
The Bourgeoisie
The Proletariat
These relations produce systems such as the Army and Laws which in turn serve to maintain the structure of society, keeping those at the top, at the top and those at the base, at the base.
Ideology
1 (a) system of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)
2 masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'
1 (a) system of ideas or beliefs (eg beliefs of a political party)
2 masking, distortion, or selection of ideas, to reinforce power relations, through creation of 'false consciousness'
[ The ruling class has ] to represent its interest as the common interest of all the
members of society, ... to give its ideas the form of universality, and represent
them as the only rational, universally valid ones.
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,
Karl Marx, (1846) The German Ideology,
Raymond Williams (1983) ‘Keywords’
• 4 definitions of ‘popular’
– Well liked by many people
– Inferior kinds of work
– Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
– Culture actually made by the people themselves
• 4 definitions of ‘popular’
– Well liked by many people
– Inferior kinds of work
– Work deliberately setting out to win favour with the people
– Culture actually made by the people themselves
Popular culture is inferior to Culture and has a relevant value to the base of Culture.
Caspar David Friedrich (1809)‘Monk by the Sea’
Inferior or Residual Culture?
Popular Press vs Quality Press
Popular Cinema vs Art Cinema
Popular Entertainment vs Art Culture
Creative practice that wouldn't normally be included in the realms of 'art' or 'culture'.
E.P. Thompson (1963) ‘The Making of The English Working Class’
Culture is
– ‘the best that has been thought & said in the world’
– Study of perfection
– Attained through disinterested reading, writing thinking.
In other words a high and low culture was beginning to form.
– ‘the best that has been thought & said in the world’
– Study of perfection
– Attained through disinterested reading, writing thinking.
In other words a high and low culture was beginning to form.
Culture polices ‘the raw and
uncultivated masses’
‘The working class... raw and
half developed... long lain half
hidden amidst it’s poverty and
squalor... now issuing from it’s
hiding place to assert an
Englishmans heaven born
privelige to do as he likes, and
beginning to perplex us by
marching where it likes, meeting
where it likes.
This approach continues throughout the 20th century. 'Popular Culture is like a disease'
Leavisism - Arnoldist approach, mid 20th century. Hollywood, Popular Music. Worlds been on a slow decline into the gutter. F.R. Leavis, Mass Civilisation & Minority Culture Fiction & the Reading Public
Frankfurt School – Critical Theory
Frankfurt School - Shut down by the Nazi's and had to reconfigure in New York where they effectively tuned into the high times of popular culture.
The argument is that Popular culture maintains and regulates forms of society however Capitalism is seen to employ itself to perpetuate itself.
Marcuse says that this lack of diversity and exploitation is due to the way Popular culture acts as a fog around the world, displaying everything as correct when in-fact its just maintaining the systems and shrouding the view that there's significant problems wrong with the world.
Products; Churning out cultural commodities. De-valuing society. creating a system that is self perpetuating itself, exploiting and manipulating people that believe in their ideologies in order to keep giving to the people in higher power.
Popular Music - Standardised, Pre-programmed, You can flog the same base of track with slight changes. You can consume it with minimal engagement. A form of obedience emerges which reflects the docility of the world we live in
Walter Benjamin - 'The work of art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction'
‘One might generalise by saying: the technique of reproduction detaches the
reproduced object from the domain of tradition. By making many
reproductions it substitutes a plurality of copies for a unique existence. And
in permitting the reproduction to meet the beholder or listener in his own
situation, it reactivates the objects produced. These two processes lead to a
tremendous shattering of tradition... Their most powerful agent is film. Its
social significance, particularly in its most positive form, is inconceivable
without its destructive, cathartic aspect, that is, the liquidation of the
traditional value of the cultural heritage’
We can actively pick our way through culture.
Think about the difference between experiencing a work of art and a movie; everyone would feel comfortable discussing the latest tom hanks film for example because were all equal judgers of popular culture. But those same people probably wouldn't feel comfortable sharing their identities and opinions of art as its mostly judged by elitists etc.
This approach continues throughout the 20th century. 'Popular Culture is like a disease'
Leavisism - Arnoldist approach, mid 20th century. Hollywood, Popular Music. Worlds been on a slow decline into the gutter. F.R. Leavis, Mass Civilisation & Minority Culture Fiction & the Reading Public
Q.D.Leavis Culture & Environment.
Still forms a kind of
repressed, common sense
attitude to popular culture
in this country.
• For Leavis- C20th sees a cultural decline a Standardisation & levelling down
‘Culture has always been in minority keeping’
‘the minority, who had hitherto set the standard of taste without any serious challenge have
• For Leavis- C20th sees a cultural decline a Standardisation & levelling down
‘Culture has always been in minority keeping’
‘the minority, who had hitherto set the standard of taste without any serious challenge have
experienced a ‘collapse of'....
-
Collapse of traditional authority comes
at the same time as mass democracy
(anarchy)
-
Nostalgia for an era when the masses
exhibited an unquestioning deference
to (cultural)authority
-
Popular culture offers addictive forms
of ditraction and compensation
- ‘This form of compensation... is the very reverse of recreation, in that it tends, not to strengthen and refresh the addict for living, but to increase his unfitness by habitutaing him to weak evasions, to the refusal to face reality at all’ (Leavis & Thompson, 1977:100)
Reinterpreted Marx, for the 20th century – era of “late capitalism” Defined “The Culture Industry” : 2 main products – homogeneity & predictability
“All mass culture is identical” :
‘As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished or forgotten’.
‘Movies and radio need no longer to pretend to be art. The truth, that they are just business, is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. ... The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. ... The culture industry can pride itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art into the sphere of consumption, on making this a principle. ... film, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part ... all mass culture is identical.’
“All mass culture is identical” :
‘As soon as the film begins, it is quite clear how it will end, and who will be rewarded, punished or forgotten’.
‘Movies and radio need no longer to pretend to be art. The truth, that they are just business, is made into an ideology in order to justify the rubbish they deliberately produce. ... The whole world is made to pass through the filter of the culture industry. ... The culture industry can pride itself on having energetically executed the previously clumsy transposition of art into the sphere of consumption, on making this a principle. ... film, radio and magazines make up a system which is uniform as a whole and in every part ... all mass culture is identical.’
Frankfurt School - Shut down by the Nazi's and had to reconfigure in New York where they effectively tuned into the high times of popular culture.
The argument is that Popular culture maintains and regulates forms of society however Capitalism is seen to employ itself to perpetuate itself.
Marcuse says that this lack of diversity and exploitation is due to the way Popular culture acts as a fog around the world, displaying everything as correct when in-fact its just maintaining the systems and shrouding the view that there's significant problems wrong with the world.
Products; Churning out cultural commodities. De-valuing society. creating a system that is self perpetuating itself, exploiting and manipulating people that believe in their ideologies in order to keep giving to the people in higher power.
Popular Music - Standardised, Pre-programmed, You can flog the same base of track with slight changes. You can consume it with minimal engagement. A form of obedience emerges which reflects the docility of the world we live in
Walter Benjamin - 'The work of art in the age of Mechanical Reproduction'
We can actively pick our way through culture.
Think about the difference between experiencing a work of art and a movie; everyone would feel comfortable discussing the latest tom hanks film for example because were all equal judgers of popular culture. But those same people probably wouldn't feel comfortable sharing their identities and opinions of art as its mostly judged by elitists etc.
Handout
Further research
M Arnold & F.R Leavis > Culture & Civilisation tradition
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