The Myth of Popular Culture From Dante to Dylan

by Meisel, Perry

• ISBN13: 9781405199339
• ISBN10: 1405199334
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2009-12-30
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

The Myth of Popular Culture from Dante to Dylan is a fascinating examination of the cultural traditions of the American novel, Hollywood, and British and American rock music which leads us to redefine our concept of the division between "high" and "low" culture.A stimulating history of high and low culture from Dante Alighieri to Bob Dylan, providing a controversial defence of popular culture Seeks to rebut the durable belief that only high culture is 'dialectical' and popular culture is not by turning Theodor Adorno's theories on 'pop' against themselves Presents a critical analysis of three popular traditions: the American novel, Hollywood, and British and American rock music Offers an original account of Bob Dylan as an example of how the distinction between high and low culture is highly problematic A provocative book for any student, scholar or general reader, who is interested in popular culture

Author Biography

Perry Meisel is Professor of English at New York University.   His books include The Myth of the Modern (1987), The Cowboy and the Dandy (1999), and The Literary Freud (2007). He has also written widely for publications that include The Village Voice, The New York Times, Partisan Review, and October.

Table of Contents

Preface: The Resistance to Pop	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xvi
"The Battle of the Brows"
A History of High and Low	p. 3
"Highbrow," "Lowbrow," "Middlebrow"	p. 3
"Folk" and "Soul"	p. 7
Dante's Republic	p. 10
"General Converse": Johnson and the Long Eighteenth Century	p. 15
"Similitude in Dissimilitude"	p. 21
Keats and Mediocrity	p. 25
Culture and Anarchy in the UK	p. 33
"The Battle of the Brows"	p. 37
"Kitsch"	p. 40
The Myth of Popular Culture	p. 44
Pop Culture in the Spectator	p. 53
Poems of the People	p. 53
Canons and "Camp"	p. 57
Base and Superstructure, Soma and Psyche	p. 64
Pop and Postmodernism	p. 68
The Social Self	p. 68
Andy Warhol	p. 71
"Hey, Rapunzel, Let Down Your Hair"	p. 73
Dialectics of Pop
The Death of Kings: American Fiction from Cooper to Chandler	p. 77
"Paleface" and "Redskin," Cowboy and Dandy	p. 77
Pathfinding: Cooper and Mark Twain	p. 80
Labor, Leisure, Love: Melville, James, Hemingway	p. 86
Transatlantic: Raymond Chandler	p. 94
Knock on Any Door: Three Histories of Hollywood	p. 100
Ars Gratia Artis	p. 100
Benjamin, Bazin, Eisenstein	p. 103
Dialectics of Directing: Hawks, Welles, Scorsese	p. 109
Dialectics of Acting: Barrymore, Bogart, Brando	p. 115
Blonde on Blonde: Harlow and Monroe	p. 118
Hang 'Em High: Welles, Lewis, Eastwood	p. 122
The Blues Misreading of Gospel: A History of Rock and Roll	p. 129
A Scandal in Bohemia	p. 129
Jazz Myth, Jazz Reality	p. 134
Soul Synthesis	p. 137
Plugging In	p. 141
Buddy Holly and the British Invasion	p. 144
The Body English	p. 146
The World of Bob Dylan
Dylan and the Critics	p. 153
Falling	p. 153
The Limits of Typology	p. 157
Dylan as Poet	p. 159
Words and Music	p. 163
Fractions	p. 163
"Slippin' and Slidin'"	p. 165
Dylan and Deferred Action	p. 166
Dylan Himself	p. 170
The Death of the Author	p. 170
The Grand Tour and the Middle Passage	p. 172
Hortatory	p. 173
The Three Icons: Sinatra, Presley, Dylan	p. 176
Iconography and Gender	p. 176
The Fedora as Phallus	p. 178
Elvis as Bobbysoxer	p. 179
"My Darling Young One"	p. 180
Works Cited	p. 182
Index	p. 198
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