Search

Copyright of Acta Universitatis Lodziensis: Kształcenie Polonistyczne Cudzoziemców is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This is a review of a collected volume of articles prepared by Professor M. Stroganov for his 70th Anniversary. The book intertwines two main academic interests of the author, mixed up in a special, unique to the researcher, methodological paradigm. These are the attention to the literary or folklore text as well as the focus on the diversity of Russian culture in its broadest spectrum: song and singing, music and painting, and the various facets of the theatrical arts. These two components of academic exploration in the work of Stroganov are in constant interaction and mutual infl uence. The author goes on to explore not only the obvious manifestations of these connections, but also sees in them the d riving force of all Russian artistic thought, the search for the aesthetic ideal, and the answers to the burning questions of Russian life. The key aspect explored in the book’s chapters is the dialectics of high culture and mass culture. The author argues that mass culture is not just a negative episode in the development of a culture which should be resolved to avoid distortions, but a feature of the historical development of society. This occurs, according to the author, due to the fact that mass culture is formed simultaneously with the emergence of the original high literature. The opinions of many prominent literary and artistic fi gures against the cheap popularity of mass culture, its gravitation towards tastelessness, violation of sacredness, trivialisation and distortion of the sublime, provoke the author of the reviewed book to have a serious and substantiated discussion about the mass culture. For the author, mass culture has its own parameters and boundaries, with its own separate tasks and ways of realisation; it has its own reader-viewer-listener, and is thus the most important object of an academic study. М. Stroganov formulates the specifi cs of this object and creates a system for its analytical description.

Copyright of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences / Uluslararasi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi is the property of Humanitas: International Journal of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The introductory article to the thematic issue “High Culture Outside the City: Intellectual Environment, Education and Entrepreneurship” provides a brief overview of articles covering the following topics: 1) the activities of the Izh-Buby madrasah, its place and role in the education system of Muslim Tatars in Russia; 2) entrepreneurial activity and problems of financing new schools; 3) the history of the women’s issue and 4) theological heritage.

The neologism "mansplaining" refers to a specific type of social behaviour in which "men [are] unnecessarily explaining things to women" (Bridges, 2021, p. 3). With the focus on "unnecessarily," the verb "to mansplain" calls attention to cases of socio-pragmatic inappropriateness and more specifically to violations of the Gricean Maxim of Quantity. In addition, the creative use of the "man-" morpheme highlights the problematic gendered nature of the phenomenon. This article is an attempt to interpret mansplaining in terms of a notion of interactional inhospitableness. Using a broad-based socio-pragmatic, conversational, discourse-analytical, and praxeological perspective, it will explore the mansplaining interaction (henceforth, the incident) that was recounted and recontextualised in Solnit's (2008) famous essay, "Men Explain Things to Me: Facts Didn't Get in Their Way." The main finding is that though manipulative turn-taking and exploitative epistemic authority played an important role, it was affective asymmetries that made Solnit's (2008) mansplaining episode uniquely "noticeable." At the party where the incident occurred, hospitableness and high-culture competition appeared as two defining but conflicting features. This conflict cast the three main participants - not only as reductively gendered interlocutors but - as a failed and failing host (referred to as "Mr. Very Important" in the essay) and two of his guests (Rebecca Solnit and Sallie). The wider relevance and application of a notion of interactional (in)hospitableness will be discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conceived as an essay with scientific references, the present article aims to debate the changes and new directions in cultural journalism under the impact of mass-communication, digitization and the emergence of social networks. In the first part, the concept of culture, as an object of cultural journalism, is approached phenomenologically, in general considerations, to highlight semantic relativism, the difficulty of conceptual delimitations, as well as the diversity of thematic explorations in the cultural field. In the effort to identify the current orientations in cultural journalism, we propose an integrated approach to the social dimension (sociality), otherwise consubstantial with any cultural phenomenon. One of the conclusions of this article is that the borders between social and cultural journalism, arbitrarily drawn in theoretical approaches, become non-operational in the journalistic practice of alternative journalism that is much more interested in the social dimension of culture(s). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Las relaciones que el escritor argentino Ricardo Piglia mantuvo con los medios de comunicación y la cultura de masas han sido parcialmente documentadas pero siempre han sido visibles: desde sus clases sobre la novela argentina y Borges en la televisión cultural, sus guiones de cine y su narrativa, en la que ha creado obras a caballo entre el género policial, la ciencia ficción y el fantástico, pasando por sus experimentos con diversas formas –como la novela gráfica y la historieta que aún siguen siendo consideradas extraliterarias–, ha abierto nuevos caminos de recepción de su obra y la de los autores de la tradición literaria que ha analizado en sus novelas, ensayos y notas de diario. Así, y a pesar de la complejidad que supone la lectura atenta de su narrativa, sus intervenciones en los circuitos masivos no hacen concesiones a un público no especializado con los estudios literarios pero al mismo tiempo lo acerca a la lectura de Borges, Leopoldo Marechal, Manuel Puig o Roberto Artl, por ejemplo. El presente artículo analiza la relación de Piglia con La Argentina en pedazos (1993a), obra publicada de manera fragmentaria en la revista Fierro a partir de 1984, y se detiene, en particular, en las adaptaciones de algunas obras centrales de la literatura argentina: “El matadero” de Esteban Echeverría, “Las puertas del cielo” de Julio Cortázar y Los lanzallamas de Arlt. Los textos estudiados por Piglia para La Argentina en pedazos sugieren, indirectamente, una nueva revisión de la tradición literaria; simultáneamente, el encuentro entre dos manifestaciones culturales aparentemente antagónicas forma parte de una operación estética y política que fomenta la renovación artística y denuncia la violencia de Estado producida en la Argentina desde sus inicios como nación independiente. The relations that argentine writer Ricardo Piglia maintained with the media and mass culture have been partially documented but have always been visible: from his classes on the Argentine novel and Borges on cultural television, film scripts and his narrative work in which he has created works between the police genre, science fiction and fantasy, passing by its proximity to other forms considered extraliterary, such as graphic novel and comic, has opened new ways of receiving his own work and that of the authors of the literary tradition that he has analyzed in his novels, essays and journal notes. Thus, and despite the enormous complexity of attentive reading of his narrative, his interventions in the mass circuits do not make concessions to a non-specialized public with literary studies but at the same time brings him closer to reading Borges, Leopoldo Marechal, Manuel Puig o Roberto Artl, for example. This paper analyzes Piglia’s relationship with the volume La Argentina en pedazos (1993a), a work that was published in a fragmentary and periodic way in Fierro magazine since 1984, and stops in particular in the cartoon versions of some works centrals of argentine literature, such as Esteban Echeverría’s “El matadero”, Cortázar’s “Las puertas del cielo” and Arlt’s Los lanzallamas. The texts selected and studied by Piglia for La Argentina en pedazos suggest, indirectly, the review that the argentine writer makes of his literary tradition; simultaneously, the encounter between two seemingly antagonistic cultural manifestations is part of an aesthetic and political operation that encourages artistic renewal and denounces the violence of the State produced in Argentina since its foundation as an independent nation.

Copyright of Arte, Individuo y Sociedad is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The term 'popular culture' was not invented by those who consume the forms of culture it designates but by those who took them as objects of study. The term has now migrated outside of the academy and is used differently in vernacular compared to academic contexts. In this article I argue that academics can take three lessons from vernacular usage of the term 'popular culture'. The first is to be precise in our definitions of our objects of study. The second is that discussions about whether popular forms of culture are authentically of the people are unanswerable as they are currently formulated. The third is that loving something does not mean we are necessarily thoughtless about it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salut cousin! is a 1996 Algerian comedy that touches on issues of immigration, belonging, family and identity. The work, written and directed by Algerian Merzak Allouache, focuses on two cousins, their interactions, lives and the challenges they face in the racially charged environment of Paris. In this review article, the film is examined and discussed regarding what it can tell audiences regarding issues of identity amongst immigrants in a growingly hostile and threatening country. This article outlines the history of the immigration debate in France following after the Second World War, and leading up to the film's first broadcast in the mid-1990s. It then attempts to explore the issues of race, diversity and acceptance that lie at the heart of Salut cousin! The article further analyses the reality faced by those of Franco-Algerian heritage, an element that is brought to the forefront through the film's interpretation of immigrant life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sosiologia is the property of Westermarck Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The intellectual context of the early 21st century, defining new topics and subjects of research, is de facto blurring the boundaries between high and low culture, emphasizing mass culture as a phenomenon that appears to be a means of seeking distractions in the real world. In the problematic field of postmodernism, mass culture represents how an ordinary person describes himself/herself as an individual in temporal and local dimensions. When contemporary culture represents a woman in the mainstream media, a woman is by definition the primary object of creating mythologemes, usually related to the goals of consumerism. Of great importance is that the illusory world created in the imagination deforms the existing world view in which femininity is still more often represented as a biological quality. The goal of the paper is an interdisciplinary analysis of the issues of gender mythologization in postmodern philosophy and culture. The above-mentioned demonstrates the need for applying the principles of systematic analysis with a focus on hermeneutical interpretation of texts of mass culture. It should be stressed that femininity and embodiment in their combination hold a specific place in the postmodern culture; the latter is vividly represented in all genres of mass culture: both in television shows and series (Netflix, HBO, NBC, MTV) and on the wide screen. This goes to prove the phenomenon of unprecedented visualization used in different genres of mass culture. On the presumption that the heroine of mass culture in the early 21st century is an artifact, the authors of feminine artifacts are continuing to use the dominant myths of patriarchal culture, with certain changes. Therefore for the emergence of new dynamics in the mythologization of femininity, it is important to disburden women of the fear of patriarchal masculinity. Today this problem is solved in the artistic field of mass culture in its highest echelon of gender myths and mythologemes (C. Buckley, A. Monro, M. Atwood, L. Moriarty et al.).

The article deals with the problems of the popularity of online encyclopedias in the nowadays information space. It is shown that the most popular in Ukraine is Wikipedia, and the academic Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine is much inferior to it in this context. The different levels of popularity these two compendiums of knowledge are explained in terms of the belonging of each of them to different types of cultures: the point here is pop culture and high culture, which differ in a priori by many indicators, including a popularity among people.

High Culture on Duty or Mythology-Based Expressions in Contemporary Styles and Varieties of Polish The purpose of this article is to outline the stylistic and varietal extent of mythology-based expressions (of Graeco-Roman provenance), which include mythologically motivated linguistic units with varying formal (single words and polywords) and semantic (primary and secondary meanings) status. Due to their conventional origin, these units primarily belong to the literary variety of Polish. Additionally, they form the basis of numerous academic terms. To a much lesser degree, they also serve as fodder for other speech genres, styles and varieties of Polish that are conditioned by present-day cultural, civilizational and communicative changes, realized, for instance, in the language of journalists, internet users, public figures, manufacturers or owners of commercial and service facilities. The expressions in question are used in texts that differ stylistically, where they perform not only denotative-connotative but also axiological and expressive functions. Kultura wysoka na służbie, czyli o mitologizmach we współczesnych stylach i odmianach polszczyzny Celem niniejszego opracowania jest próba pokazania stylistycznego i odmianowego zasięgu mitologizmów (o grecko-rzymskiej proweniencji), do których można zaliczyć motywowane mitologicznie jednostki języka o różnym statusie formalnym (jedno- i wielowyrazowe) i semantycznym (o znaczeniu prymarnym i wtórnym). Jednostki te ze względu na swe konwencjonalne źródło przynależą przede wszystkim do książkowej odmiany polszczyzny. Dodatkowo, stały się one także podstawą wielu terminów naukowych. W nieznacznym stopniu zasilają też inne, warunkowane współczesnymi zmianami kulturowo-cywilizacyjnymi i komunikacyjnymi gatunki mowy, style i odmiany polszczyzny, realizujące się choćby w języku dziennikarzy, czynnych internautów, osób publicznych, producentów czy właścicieli obiektów usługowo-handlowych. Mitologizmy używane są zatem w tekstach o różnej stylistyce. Pełnią w nich funkcje nie tylko denotacyjno-konotacyjne, lecz także m.in. aksjologiczne i ekspresywne.

Women and men differ in their tastes for the performing arts. Gender differences have been shown to persist after accounting for socioeconomic factors. This paper uses this difference to shed light on how decisions on arts consumption are made in households. Based on relatively recent theoretical developments in the literature on household decision-making, we use three different so-called distribution factors to show for the first time that the relative bargaining power of spouses affects their arts consumption. Using a sample from the US Current Population Survey, which includes data on the frequency of visits to cultural activities, we regress attendance on a range of socioeconomic variables using a count data model. The distribution factors consistently affect attendance by men at events such as the opera, ballet and other dance performances, which are more frequently attended by women than by men. We conclude that when men have more bargaining power, they tend to attend such events less frequently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While mainly addressing the masses and the simpler tastes of his time, Shakespeare’s plays have long been considered emblematic for high culture, which calls into question whether their author should still be regarded as representative for the elites or whether his life and personality should be demystified and brought back to the people. An attempt in this respect, showcased by this paper, seems to be Kenneth Branagh’s biopic All Is True (2018), which portrays Shakespeare as an ordinary man rather than as an illustrious playwright, allowing the public to see the human being behind his almost god-like façade. The film, however, reasserts the Renaissance dramatist’s position as the greatest poet and playwright by interrogating some of the most persistent theories on his biography and authorship.

Copyright of HiSTOReLo: Revista de Historia Regional y Local is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Centro Editorial Facultad de Ciencias Humanas y Economicas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The purpose of this article is to outline the stylistic and varietal extent of mythologybased expressions (of Graeco-Roman provenance), which include mythologically motivated linguistic units with varying formal (single words and polywords) and semantic (primary and secondary meanings) status. Due to their conventional origin, these units primarily belong to the literary variety of Polish. Additionally, they form the basis of numerous academic terms. To a much lesser degree, they also serve as fodder for other speech genres, styles and varieties of Polish that are conditioned by present-day cultural, civilizational and communicative changes, realized, for instance, in the language of journalists, internet users, public figures, manufacturers or owners of commercial and service facilities. The expressions in question are used in texts that differ stylistically, where they perform not only denotative-connotative but also axiological and expressive functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, the level of education obtained in European society is related to the level of knowledge about culture and the use of culture itself. At the same time, it is alleged that higher education is now a "commodity" too easily available on the public service markets. In the opinion of some, this reduces the importance of having higher education, but also the state of science itself. The purpose of the article is to show that concepts such as "culture," "humanities" and "education" are closely related, and therefore, an attempt to lower the meaning of one of these concepts may entail the devaluation of another concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Políticas Culturais em Revista is the property of Politicas Culturais em Revista and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Omran for Social Sciences is the property of Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article is devoted to the consideration of historical dynamics of the organization’s means of cultural practices in Ukraine, in their power and politically-technological perspective, taking into account their optic modes. The difference between classical culture industry and global culture industry is formulated by British researcher Scott Lash is basis of our analysis. It is also taking into account his distinguishing a high culture model of Enlightenment in contrast to a cultural industry. Everyone has its own specificity in the constructing of cultural practices within the organizational dominance of social institutions. In describing the features of each historical form of cultural practices, an attempt has been made to outline their specificity in the Ukrainian cultural space. Each historical type of cultural practices organization (high culture, the classical culture industry, global industry of culture) has its own ways of involving in political technology, its mediators, and the modes of vision. The early Modern form of the material culture production was balanced by the normativity of social institutions and their disciplinary practices. The discursive practices of Modern provided the status of a high culture and its model of power-over. Its textual mode of vision served the cultural practices of the implementation of the national state. The classical culture industry on the basis of commodification ensures the penetration of the principle of identity in the sphere of cultural practices. Vision mode of the spectacle is the basis of the visual culture in the stage of its industrialization. The global culture industry carries out immanent power such as working from within. There is a global mediation of things. De-differentiation of the principles of reflexivity and spectacle creates a new mode of vision as the transparency of the Internet-space. Classification of ways of cultural practices organization is intended to clarify the situation in contemporary Ukrainian culture.

The present article focuses on the eighteenth-century English almanac as an iconic element of the demotic press, on the one hand, and as a literary commodity published by the Stationers’ Company, a guild of artisans involved in the printing trade. Engaged in popularising their astrological content as scientific observations, almanacs were classified by the elite as low reading in tune with the Company’s supply and demand policy. My task is to apply the “high” / “low” culture dichotomy to English almanacs and to examine the way in which they marked a radical change from an archaic, superstitious, and irrational frame of mind to a rational, scientific, and, implicitly, modern worldview backed by the Scientific Revolution. Last but not least, the paper will show that eighteenth-century English almanacs were sensitive to historical, national identity and popular patriotism issues and adhered to divergent religious and political allegiances exposed to the shafts of satire – the prevailing genre of the time – practiced by elite writers like Jonathan Swift or by famous almanac-compilers, such as George Parker and John Partridge.

As I was beginning to read Maria Pramaggiore’s exploration of temporality in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975), I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a 35mm screening of the film at the cinema. As Pramaggiore points out throughout her book, the film’s lengthy duration, and the way in which it is structured with inter-titles and an intermission, makes the cinematic viewing space very different to that of the DVD or home theatre. At the same time, Kubrick’s treatment of time in the film, which is explored in numerous ways throughout Pramaggiore’s book, makes Barry Lyndon a rediscovery, even a “secret masterpiece” (Graham-Dixon), especially for the digital generation who have their own attitudes towards interruptions, repetitions and narrativity.

We are still living in the situation informed by the Cold War in art: The Cold War between good and bad, between dispassionate contemplation of the medium and use of this medium for propagation of messages, contents and affects—the war between medium and message. The question remains to what degree it is possible to purify the medium from any content and any affect. To discuss this, I will to turn to the writings by Wassily Kandinsky. Before I show how Kandinsky influenced the further course of the Socialist Realism, I will remind us on the main tenets of his art theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay both inaugurates the editorship of Ted Striphas and reflects on the contributions of Cultural Studies' longtime editor, Lawrence Grossberg. It opens by reflecting briefly on the journal's transformations over the last 28 years before taking stock of the wellbeing of Cultural Studies, the field. The claim here is that Cultural Studies devotes less time and attention than it used to in thinking through first principles, and thus that the future of the field hinges, in part, on asking whether core concepts are up to the task of answering to the urgent political questions of our time. The essay then recontextualizes the concept of culture, specifically with respect to the much-maligned (indeed, deservedly-maligned) 'high culture' tradition. In its recesses the author identifies a fugitive theoretical line in which culture signifies care, as opposed to subordination to patrician interests and aesthetic styles. This conceptual move sets the stage for the central argument of the essay, namely, that for Cultural Studies to live up to both its name and intellectual-political ambitions, it must devote significant time to caring for the infrastructure that sustains its body of ideas. The piece concludes by highlighting some of Lawrence Grossberg's efforts, as an infrastructuralist, to care for Cultural Studies and by observing how, moving forward, neither the field nor this journal will take care of itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present essay aims to discuss the current state of the authority held by the academia over society at large as seen in contemporary British novels such as Waterland (1983) by Graham Swift, Nice Work (1988) by David Lodge, and Possession (1990) by A. S. Byatt. Far from typecasting academics as ivory tower dwellers out of touch with reality, these novels offer a nuanced portrayal of the intricate relationships between the observers of contingency and those dealing with meta-texts. This tension is all the more interesting since the objects of our gaze also deal with the humanities, and the change of cultural framing leaves them without their Grand Narrative of Enlightenment. The age-old conflict between the Gown and the Town is complicated further in postmodernity when periphery is given its own carnivalesque voice and culture itself can now wander the streets, as well. Therefore, is the question of power outdated or simply re-framed? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In “Death of a Salesman” the central theme is the destruction of dreams and deceptive nature of a protagonist which takes him to ruin along with his family. For years Arthur Miller and his works were praised (Particularly in the hands of Marxist critics) as very strong of capitalist societies and their dehumanizing forces upon individuals living in them. In the views of Frankfurth School, Arthur Miller’s own plot in the play, this paper intends to point out some faults and contradictions in depicting the characterization and other aspects of the play that would question Miller’s opposition against capitalism and to his remarks towards criticism of it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to re-examine popular culture in early-modern England by focusing on the oral/illiterate-written/literate and popular culture-high culture dyads. I aim to question why these interrelated socio-cultural categories have not been properly reconciled by the writers of the time. Moreover, my purpose is to focus on antiquarianism as a valid method whereby the delineation between the above-mentioned dichotomies turns into a subtle relationship in which both terms become complementary. I shall focus on two important antiquarian texts - Henry Bourne’s Antiquitates Vulgares (1725) and John Brand’s Observations on Popular Antiquities (1777) - by considering issues of religion and national identity, in an attempt to show that popular culture made known its counter-hegemonic virtues which, though permanently negotiated, were never rejected by the polite. Ultimately, the unstable relationship between the high and the low will be seen as suggestive of the porous boundaries between the two, indicating, at the same time, popular culture’s participatory role in rethinking cultural identity in Enlightenment England.

How to perform as a public in a theater ? This article, based on interviews with 80 spectators, analyzes their relationship to actors and other spectators during the shows. There is a consensus on respect for the work of the actor and an overall acceptance of the standards of behavior expected in a theater. Nevertheless, negative reactions to a show can give some spectators physical manifestations of disengagement from the situation, sometimes uncontrollable, sometimes voluntary. We can distinguish between deviations from the rule that are perceived as a breakdown of the interaction and those that are considered acceptable because they are part of "backstage" practices, in the Goffmanian sense of this term. Making public in a theater is therefore the result of a set of compromises to maintain a fragile interactional situation.

Copyright of ANAFORA is the property of Anafora and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay, based on the historical comparative method, offers an approach to the concept of popular culture based on the contributions of some European scholars in the last half of the 20th century. In concluding this reading, a guide to the definitions of the concept will be provided in relation to the debates that have arisen. We have limited discussion to the arguments of Mikhail Bakhtin, Peter Burke, Stuart Hall and Robert Chartier, given how these authors define the concept, describe its characteristics, and problematize the challenges posed by its conceptualization. These four discuss types of culture and their definitions, emphasize their interrelations, exchanges and forms of appropriation, as well as their tensions and contradictions. In their commentaries popular culture is interpreted and analysed in terms of its structure, grammar, syntax and traditional understandings. The text offers reference to other work dedicated to the study of specific aspects of popular culture, with the goal of suggesting sources that contribute to further discussions. In most of the works mentioned, the authors did not intend to offer a general overview of the concept, but do offer insight into the characterization of specific aspects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article strives to demonstrate that one of the specificities of British comedy resides in class comedy. The author alternately concentrates on low and high comedy, and makes comments on related features or forms, like surrealism. It ends up on the unifying powers of comedy.

This article uses the concept of high culture to assess the underlying assumptions and philosophy of Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). For the most part, these remain vague and unarticulated. This has two consequences. First, a consensus forms easily around CfE because it means different things to different stakeholders and is presented to teachers as a depoliticised and technocratic policy response. Second, because its core tenets are so hazy, it is extremely difficult to argue against. Although CfE is widely regarded to have at its heart some form of constructivism, the justification for such an approach is never articulated. By assessing CfE's relationship with high culture, this article attempts to flush out its implicit core assumptions. Its central argument is that CfE cannot simultaneously please everyone. Perfectly justifiable alternative curricular paths have been abandoned. Far from being a technocratic and depoliticised policy response, CfE is in fact a much more controversial and ideological shift than the level of scrutiny it has thus far received would suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a hybrid between 'high' literature and 'trivial' comics, graphic adaptations have been the subject of extensive debate in Germany. This article discusses the specific cultural conditions of graphic adaptation in Germany, which have been influenced by a process of emancipation from deeply rooted prejudice against comics as a medium of popular culture. To illustrate the changes brought about by the term 'graphic novel' around 2000, this article analyses two examples of a newer generation of graphic adaptation in detail. Flix's Faust (2009-2010) and Drushba Pankow's Das Fräulein von Scuderi [Mademoiselle de Scudery] (2011) represent a new self-confident approach to classic literature, but they also reflect on their own status as adaptations and thus contribute to 'closing the gap' between 'high' and popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reflects on the lives of two people whose publications, pedagogy, lectures, and crucially, whose experiences helped set the terms of the debate about so-called high culture in Cultural Studies: Matthew Arnold (1822�88) and Frank Raymond (F. R.) Leavis (1895�78). Who was Matthew Arnold? F. R. Leavis? What were the conditions of possibility of their work and words � that is, for the practices and positions for which they advocated? What new questions might emerge by sharing in detailed and perhaps unexpected stories of individuals who, presently, seem to function in Cultural Studies mainly as known-unknowns? The argument is that the details of both Arnold and Leavis� lives are integral to understanding the conditions of possibility of their work, both individually and collectively, and indeed to more fully appreciating the meaning and implications their work holds for Cultural Studies. Apropos, this piece refines the methodology of keywords introduced by Raymond Williams [1958. Culture and society, 1780�50. New York, NY: Columbia University Press; 1983. Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society. Rev. ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.]. It also challenges some of the theoretical, historical, and analytical claims underpinning Tony Bennett [1996. Putting policy into cultural studies. In: what is cultural studies? A reader. London: Arnold, 307�1] and Ian Hunter抯 [1988. Setting limits to culture. New Formations, 4, 103�3; 1994. Rethinking the school: subjectivity, bureaucracy, criticism. St. Leonards: Allen & Unwin] work on culture as governmentality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Cuadernos de Literatura del Caribe e Hispanoamerica is the property of Revista Cuadernos de Literatura del Caribe e Hispanoamerica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Glasnik Slovenskega Etnološkega Društva is the property of Slovene Ethnological Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article examines the recent changes in art world from the characteristics of the global art market and its implications for sociological theories of art. Therefore, it focuses on the correlation established between the decline of the avant-garde art and how there are tenuous boundaries between high culture and popular culture. In this sense, it discusses and analyzes the influence increasingly exerted by actors located in countries such as the United States, England, Germany, France and, more recently, China. It concludes with how much the global art market may be illustrative of cases in which the globalization of markets expands the cultural and economic inequality by favoring the privilege of small social groups in the contemporary world.O artigo examina as mudanças recentes nos mundos artísticos a partir das características do mercado de arte global e suas implicações para as teorias sociológicas das artes. Para isto, focaliza a correlação estabelecida entre o declínio das vanguardas artísticas e os modos como se fazem tênues as fronteiras entre alta cultura e cultura popular. Nesse sentido, discute e analisa a influência exercida, cada vez mais, por atores localizados em países como Estados Unidos, Inglaterra, Alemanha, França e, mais recentemente, China. Conclui a respeito do quanto o mercado global de arte pode ser ilustrativo dos processos em que a globalização dos mercados expande a desigualdade econômica e cultural, favorecendo o privilégio de pequenos segmentos sociais no mundo contemporâneo.

This paper focuses on the analysis of Gellner modernist theory of nationalism and its orientation towards specific components that are generated during the period of European modernism which enabled the construction of the nation as a socio-political constructs of that time. What will be shown is that Gellner's conception of nationalism cannot be interpreted in the context of the discussion about “battered metaphors” which lost its use value in the era of modern social organizations, and that nationalism is not merely an instrumental activity which becomes meaningless after the completion of the process of creating homogeneous national states. The paper aims to show how Gellner's insights and methods of objectifying the nationalist project in the era of modernity can be read as a useful matrix of immanent nationalism as a broader socio-cultural and sociopolitical phenomenon that shapes the national states, multi-national communities, “super-nations” and other state entities of the contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on findings and suggestions originating from educational research, several cultural sociologists have claimed that the education system has contributed to the erosion of the institutionalized character of fine arts throughout the 20th century. However, empirical research to substantiate this claim is scarce. We focus on secondary education in Flanders to study the centrality of high culture. Our goal is twofold. First, we want to reflect on the ways the education system can – via the process of institutionalization – infuse certain cultural products with status. Second, we offer an exploratory analysis by studying whether the extent of institutionalization of traditional high culture in the education system has decreased over the course of the 20th century. Our analyses indicate that, in the period 1930–2000, both high and low cultural forms are increasingly being represented in the school context. However, we find that the increase of high culture is especially situated in the academic track – the most prestigious track, designed to cultivate the future elite. In this way, throughout the 20th century, the education system continued to channel high culture to the upper social strata of society, thus infusing these forms of culture with status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educacao & Sociedade is the property of Centro de Estudos de Educacao e Sociedade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

György Márkus's post-Marxist writings on high culture are evaluated in terms of their possible contribution to a neo-Marxist theory of high culture. Because of the highly essayistic character of Márkus's presentation, this necessarily involves investigation of their dependence on his previous work. According to Márkus, Marxism can be critically reconstructed and superseded on the basis of an independent theorization of the consequences of Marx's most basic theoretical move: the identification of production as paradigmatic for social action in general. In section 3 this idea of the production paradigm is criticized. In section 4 I show how in Márkus this idea is made the basis of an ostensibly historicist concept of critical theory, in which not only the theory's object is historicized, but the theory is itself organized as an articulation of the needs of historically specific constituencies. I argue, however, that in reality the idea of the production paradigm stands in fundamental contradiction to this methodological ideal. Márkus's theory of high culture likewise combines historicist ambitions and reliance on the dehistoricized 'production paradigm'. I argue that his 'systematically dialectical' deployment of this notion allows a quasi-historicist conceptualization of modern high culture as a whole, but that this method simultaneously renders theorization of high culture's connection with more 'infrastructural' social relations problematic, and tends to exclude reflection on the 'utopian moment' in high cultural practice today. Section 5, and some remarks at the end of Section 11 suggest horizons for a genuinely historicist theory of high culture, in relation to the constitutive failure of Marxism to confront its dependency on the institutions of high culture, and also suggest a possible confluence and conflict with Roy Bhaskar's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Who has the power to institutionalize culture? How is it that cultural forms become legitimated and appropriated by certain groups? And what are the organizational forms that guarantee the continuity of the interlocks among classifications, etiquette, and resources in the long run? This article explores these questions by observing the struggle over the institutionalization of opera as high culture during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century in Buenos Aires, a region of the world understudied by cultural sociologists. It contends that to answer these questions we need to observe the contested dynamics though which the process of institutionalization happens. It also shows how this contestation affects, in the long-term, the processes of evaluation and legitimation of the classification upheld, and the consequences it has in terms of audience stratification. In the Discussion section, I present a novel framework for the study of pathways to high culture institutionalization that highlights how the role of the state and competing stakeholders can introduce variable relationships among the elites, the arts, and social closure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]