An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture

by Strinati,Dominic

• ISBN13: 9780415235006
• ISBN10: 0415235006
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2004-07-09
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

An Introduction to Theories of Popular Cultureis widely recognised as an immensely useful textbook for students taking courses in the major theories of popular culture. Dominic Strinati provides a critical assessment of the ways in which theorists have tried to understand and evaluate popular culture in modern societies. Among the theories and ideas the book introduces are mann culture, the Frankfurt School and the culture industry, semiology and structuralism, Marxism, feminism, postmodernism and cultural populism. This new edition provides fresh material on Marxism and feminism, while a new final chapter assesses the significance of the theories explained in the book.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	ix
Introduction	xi
1 Mass culture and popular culture	1	(44)
Mass culture and mass society	5	(5)
The mass culture debate	10	(9)
Mass culture and Americanisation	19	(8)
Americanisation and the critique of mass culture theory	27	(6)
A critique of mass culture theory	33	(12)
2 The Frankfurt School and the culture industry	45	(32)
The origins of the Frankfurt School	47	(2)
The theory of commodity fetishism	49	(3)
The Frankfurt School's theory of modern capitalism	52	(2)
The culture industry	54	(4)
The culture industry and popular music	58	(9)
Adorno's theory of popular music, Cadillacs and doo-wop	62	(5)
The Frankfurt School: a critical assessment	67	(10)
Benjamin and the critique of the Frankfurt School	73	(4)
3 Structuralism, semiology and popular culture	77	(38)
Structural linguistics and the ideas of Saussure	79	(5)
Structuralism, culture and myth	84	(6)
Structuralism and James Bond	90	(6)
Barthes, semiology and popular culture	96	(10)
Barthes, structuralism and semiology	96	(2)
Writing Degree Zero	98	(2)
Myths and popular culture	100	(4)
Bourgeois men and women novelists	104	(2)
Structuralism and semiology: some key problems	106	(9)
Lévi-Strauss's structuralism	107	(2)
Roland Barthes's semiology	109	(6)
4 Marxism, political economy and ideology	115	(44)
Marx and ideology	116	(5)
Marxism and political economy	121	(8)
The limits of political economy	126	(3)
Althusser's theory of ideology and structuralist Marxism	129	(13)
Althusser's Marxism: economic determinism and ideology	138	(4)
Gramsci, Marxism and popular culture	142	(5)
Gramsci's concept of hegemony	147	(6)
Conclusions: Marxism, Gramscian Marxism and popular culture	153	(6)
5 Feminism and popular culture	159	(44)
The feminist critique	162	(9)
Women and advertising	166	(5)
The feminist analysis of popular culture	171	(25)
Feminism and mass culture	171	(2)
Feminist theory and the critique of content analysis	173	(4)
Feminist theory, patriarchy and psychoanalysis	177	(5)
Feminist theory and the study of ideology	182	(5)
Feminist analysis, semiology and ideology	187	(3)
Feminist analysis, ideology and audiences	190	(6)
Conclusion	196	(7)
6 Postmodernism, contemporary popular culture and recent theoretical developments	203	(36)
What is postmodernism?	205	(5)
Culture and society	205	(1)
An emphasis on style at the expense of substance	206	(1)
Art and popular culture	207	(1)
Confusions over time and space	208	(1)
The decline of metanarratives	209	(1)
Contemporary popular culture and postmodernism	210	(6)
Architecture	210	(1)
Cinema	211	(2)
Television	213	(1)
Advertising	214	(1)
Pop music	215	(1)
The emergence of postmodernism	216	(5)
Consumerism and media-saturation	217	(1)
New middle-class occupations	218	(1)
The erosion of identity	219	(2)
The limits of postmodernism	221	(5)
Some recent theoretical developments	226	(13)
Discourse and popular culture	226	(4)
The 'dialogical' approach to popular culture	230	(3)
Cultural populism	233	(6)
Conclusion	239	(8)
Notes	247	(12)
Bibliography	259	(16)
Index	275