INTRODUCTORY TERMS

*As introduced and outlined by John Storey in An Introduction to Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press, 1998.

WHAT IS “CULTURE”?  

Three definitions from Raymond Williams a general process of intellectual, spiritual, and aesthetic development a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group [including holidays, literacy, sport, religious festivals the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity [e.g. poetry, novels, ballet, etc. as occasions for production of meaning] . . . Note: this is more or less synonymous with structuralist and poststructuralist “signifying practices” (about which, more later).

WHAT IS “IDEOLOGY”?  

Ideology is a systematic body of ideas articulated by a particular group of people Ideology is a certain masking, distortion, or concealment; some cultural texts and/or practices distort images of reality and produce “false consciousness.”  For example: capitalism conceals the reality of domination from those in power (dominant class doesn’t see itself as exploiter, subordinate class doesn’t see itself as exploited).  This definition includes certain assumptions about circumstances of production. Ideology speaks of “ideological forms,” of ways in which texts present a particular image of the world Ideology is not simply body of ideas, but material practice.  Certain rituals and customs bind us to the social order, which is marked by enormous inequalities of wealth, status, power.  Ideology works to reproduce social conditions/relations necessary for economic conditions/relations to continue. (see Louis Althusser)

Ideology operates mainly at the level of connotation.  It is the “terrain on which takes place a hegemonic struggle” to restrict, fix, and produce new connotations (see Roland Barthes)

WHAT IS “POPULAR CULTURE”?

The culture that is widely favored by many people.  This definition makes a fine nod to the quantitative, but on its own is hardly much of a definition. 

The culture that is left over after we have decided what is high culture.  This definition supports class distinctions between “high culture” (of the elite; an individual act of creation) and “low culture” (of the general population; mass-produced and commercial)

Mass culture.  Hopelessly commercial, pop culture has, by this definition, an audience of non-discriminating consumers, and is therefore impoverished.

The culture which originates from “the people.”  Folk culture. This definition often associates popular culture with a highly romanticized concept of the working class.

A site of struggle between forces of subordinate resistance and dominant incorporation (see Antonio Gramsci and hegemony) (13-14)

Contested site for political constructions of “the people” and their relation to “the power bloc.”

Culture informed by postmodernist debate and thinking, with no recognized distinction between “high culture” and “popular culture.”

Popular culture is “Other.”  We need to acknowledge what we contrast it with.  It is not an historically fixed set of texts or practices, nor an historically fixed conceptual category.