Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction
edited by Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz and Angela M. S. Nelson
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-87972-870-0 | Paper: 978-0-87972-871-7 Library of Congress Classification CB151.P65 2006 Dewey Decimal Classification 306
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Since its birth in the 1960s, the study of popular culture has come a long way in defining its object, its purpose, and its place in academe. Emerging along the margins of a scholarly establishment that initially dismissed anything popular as unworthy of serious study-trivial, formulaic, easily digestible, escapist-early practitioners of the discipline stubbornly set about creating the theoretical and methodological framework upon which a deeper understanding could be founded. Through seminal essays that document the maturation of the field as it gradually made headway toward legitimacy, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology provides students of popular culture with both the historical context and the critical apparatus required for further growth.
For all its progress, the study of popular culture remains a site of healthy questioning. What exactly is popular culture? How should it be studied? What forces come together in producing, disseminating, and consuming it? Is it always conformist, or has it the power to subvert, refashion, resist, and destabilize the status quo? How does it differ from folk culture, mass culture, commercial culture? Is the line between "high" and "low" merely arbitrary? Do the popular arts have a distinctive aesthetics? This collection offers a wide range of responses to these and similar questions. Edited by Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz, and Angela M. S. Nelson, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology charts some of the key turning points in the "culture wars" and leads us through the central debates in this fast developing discipline. Authors of the more than two dozen studies, several of which are newly published here include John Cawelti, Russel B. Nye, Ray B. Browne, Fred E. H. Schroeder, John Fiske, Lawrence Mintz, David Feldman, Roger Rollin, Harold Schechter, S. Elizabeth Bird, and Harold E. Hinds, Jr. A valuable bibliography completes the volume.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Harold E. Hinds, Jr. is professor of history and director of Latin American area studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Marilyn F. Motz is associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. Angela M. S. Nelson is associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University and chair of the department.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. THE PIONEERS: WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE? 7
1 Masscult & Midcult 9
Dwight Macdonald
2 Popular Culture: Notes Toward a Definition 15
Ray B. Browne
3 Notes for an Introduction to a Discussion of Popular
Culture 23
Russel B. Nye
4 Revolution in Popular Culture 30
Peter Burke
II. BEYOND THE FRONTIER: POST-1960S AND '70s ANSWERS TO
WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE? 47
5 The Discovery of Popular Culture Before Printing 49
Fred E. H. Schroeder
6 Synchronic vs Diachronic Popular Culture Studies and
the Old English Elegy 55
Tim D. P. Lally
7 On the Nature and Functions of Popular Culture 62
Gary L. Harmon
8 Popular Culture as the New Humanities 75
Ray B. Browne
9 The New Validation of Popular Culture: Sense and
Sentimentality in Academia 85
Michael Schudson
10 Rationalizing Genius: Ideological Strategies in the
Classic American Science Fiction Short Story 107
John Huntington
11 Understanding Popular Culture 118
John Fiske
12 The Joke(r) Is on Us: The End of Popular Culture
Studies 127
Barry W Sarchett
III. MACRO HOW-TO-DO-IT APPROACHES TO THE STUDY
OF POPULAR CULTURE, 153
13 Notes Toward a Methodology of Popular Culture
Study 155
Lawrence E. Mintz
14 A Holistic Approach to the Study of Popular
Culture: Context, Text, Audience, and Recoding 163
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
IV. FORMULA: A PIONEERING THEORY 181
15. The Concept of Formula in the Study of Popular
Literature 183
John G. Cawelti
16. Formalism and Popular Culture 192
David N. Feldman
17. An Economic Perspective on Formula in Popular
Culture 214
David Paul Nord
V. POPULAR CULTURE, A UNIQUE AESTHETICS? 229
18. Against Evaluation: The Role of the Critic of Popular
Culture 231
Roger B. Rollin
19. A Critical Analysis of Roger B. Rollin's "Against
Evaluation" 244
John Shelton Lawrence
20. Son of "Against Evaluation": A Reply to John
Shelton Lawrence 260
Roger B. Rollin
21. With the Benefit of Hindsight: Popular Culture
Criticism 266
John G. Cawelti
22. New Experimental Aesthetics and Popular Culture 271
Dan Ash
VI. POPULAR CULTURE AND FOLK CULTURE 309
23. The Folklore-Popular Culture Continuum 311
Peter Narvdez and Martin Laba
24. The Bosom Serpent 313
Harold Schechter
25. Contemporary Legends and Popular Culture:
"It's the Real Thing" 318
Paul Smith
26. Cultural Studies as Confluence: The Convergence
of Folklore and Media Studies 344
S. Elizabeth Bird
VII. POPULARITY 357
27. Popularity: The Sine Qua Non of Popular Culture 359
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
28. Popularity: How to Make a Key Concept Count
in Building a Theory of Popular Culture 371
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
29. The Development and Stages of Popular Culture:
A Case Study of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan 382
Ling Chan Becker and Harold E. Hinds, Jr.
VIII. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ADDITIONAL WORK
ON POPULAR CULTURE THEORY AND METHODOLOGY 407
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
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Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Popular Culture Theory and Methodology: A Basic Introduction
edited by Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz and Angela M. S. Nelson
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006 Cloth: 978-0-87972-870-0 Paper: 978-0-87972-871-7
Since its birth in the 1960s, the study of popular culture has come a long way in defining its object, its purpose, and its place in academe. Emerging along the margins of a scholarly establishment that initially dismissed anything popular as unworthy of serious study-trivial, formulaic, easily digestible, escapist-early practitioners of the discipline stubbornly set about creating the theoretical and methodological framework upon which a deeper understanding could be founded. Through seminal essays that document the maturation of the field as it gradually made headway toward legitimacy, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology provides students of popular culture with both the historical context and the critical apparatus required for further growth.
For all its progress, the study of popular culture remains a site of healthy questioning. What exactly is popular culture? How should it be studied? What forces come together in producing, disseminating, and consuming it? Is it always conformist, or has it the power to subvert, refashion, resist, and destabilize the status quo? How does it differ from folk culture, mass culture, commercial culture? Is the line between "high" and "low" merely arbitrary? Do the popular arts have a distinctive aesthetics? This collection offers a wide range of responses to these and similar questions. Edited by Harold E. Hinds, Jr., Marilyn F. Motz, and Angela M. S. Nelson, Popular Culture Theory and Methodology charts some of the key turning points in the "culture wars" and leads us through the central debates in this fast developing discipline. Authors of the more than two dozen studies, several of which are newly published here include John Cawelti, Russel B. Nye, Ray B. Browne, Fred E. H. Schroeder, John Fiske, Lawrence Mintz, David Feldman, Roger Rollin, Harold Schechter, S. Elizabeth Bird, and Harold E. Hinds, Jr. A valuable bibliography completes the volume.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Harold E. Hinds, Jr. is professor of history and director of Latin American area studies at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Marilyn F. Motz is associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. Angela M. S. Nelson is associate professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University and chair of the department.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. THE PIONEERS: WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE? 7
1 Masscult & Midcult 9
Dwight Macdonald
2 Popular Culture: Notes Toward a Definition 15
Ray B. Browne
3 Notes for an Introduction to a Discussion of Popular
Culture 23
Russel B. Nye
4 Revolution in Popular Culture 30
Peter Burke
II. BEYOND THE FRONTIER: POST-1960S AND '70s ANSWERS TO
WHAT IS POPULAR CULTURE? 47
5 The Discovery of Popular Culture Before Printing 49
Fred E. H. Schroeder
6 Synchronic vs Diachronic Popular Culture Studies and
the Old English Elegy 55
Tim D. P. Lally
7 On the Nature and Functions of Popular Culture 62
Gary L. Harmon
8 Popular Culture as the New Humanities 75
Ray B. Browne
9 The New Validation of Popular Culture: Sense and
Sentimentality in Academia 85
Michael Schudson
10 Rationalizing Genius: Ideological Strategies in the
Classic American Science Fiction Short Story 107
John Huntington
11 Understanding Popular Culture 118
John Fiske
12 The Joke(r) Is on Us: The End of Popular Culture
Studies 127
Barry W Sarchett
III. MACRO HOW-TO-DO-IT APPROACHES TO THE STUDY
OF POPULAR CULTURE, 153
13 Notes Toward a Methodology of Popular Culture
Study 155
Lawrence E. Mintz
14 A Holistic Approach to the Study of Popular
Culture: Context, Text, Audience, and Recoding 163
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
IV. FORMULA: A PIONEERING THEORY 181
15. The Concept of Formula in the Study of Popular
Literature 183
John G. Cawelti
16. Formalism and Popular Culture 192
David N. Feldman
17. An Economic Perspective on Formula in Popular
Culture 214
David Paul Nord
V. POPULAR CULTURE, A UNIQUE AESTHETICS? 229
18. Against Evaluation: The Role of the Critic of Popular
Culture 231
Roger B. Rollin
19. A Critical Analysis of Roger B. Rollin's "Against
Evaluation" 244
John Shelton Lawrence
20. Son of "Against Evaluation": A Reply to John
Shelton Lawrence 260
Roger B. Rollin
21. With the Benefit of Hindsight: Popular Culture
Criticism 266
John G. Cawelti
22. New Experimental Aesthetics and Popular Culture 271
Dan Ash
VI. POPULAR CULTURE AND FOLK CULTURE 309
23. The Folklore-Popular Culture Continuum 311
Peter Narvdez and Martin Laba
24. The Bosom Serpent 313
Harold Schechter
25. Contemporary Legends and Popular Culture:
"It's the Real Thing" 318
Paul Smith
26. Cultural Studies as Confluence: The Convergence
of Folklore and Media Studies 344
S. Elizabeth Bird
VII. POPULARITY 357
27. Popularity: The Sine Qua Non of Popular Culture 359
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
28. Popularity: How to Make a Key Concept Count
in Building a Theory of Popular Culture 371
Harold E. Hinds, Jr
29. The Development and Stages of Popular Culture:
A Case Study of Tokugawa and Meiji Japan 382
Ling Chan Becker and Harold E. Hinds, Jr.
VIII. SELECTIVE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ADDITIONAL WORK
ON POPULAR CULTURE THEORY AND METHODOLOGY 407
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE