James Naremore and Patrick Brantlinger Mloerniry AND Mass Curture INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESSIntroduction: Six Artistic Cultures James Naremore and Patrick Brantinger Most of the esays assembled fr this volume were delivered at Indiana Univer caring iitand 1989 snasriesofectures ened The Theory ‘Sad Interpretation of Mass Culture" The contributors addressed a wide ‘ange of fenomens, inching advectising, avantgarde at, movies tle ‘ison besvseling novels, and postmodernist theory. Taken together their Wa Yepesents variety of soncems in the growing academic movement Known a “cultarl sti.” "The culture sties movement resists definition, as if were miming ‘the decontered and appropratve quality ofthe formations vestigate We might sy that tcomprne leit mode of analysis with at east three Enporsnepcearsors the Bris cultareand-socety debates, which began i fhe star ofthe nineteenth centry and culminated inthe work of Ray ‘ond Willams, thecal theory ofthe Frankfurt School and the more ‘Retnt conjuncture of Roland Barthe's serology, Louis Althusser's Mars [Ein and Jacques Lacan's peychomnalyss. The founding texts of cultural ‘dies would certain incude Bathe's Mythos (1957), the move tment tae ts specie character om the writing published by members ofthe Biringham Cente for Contemporary Cultural Stades under the ‘ecco fit Ricard Hoggart and then of Stuart al. During the post {fo decade such writing hasbeen strongly snluenced by radial femiism In thoores of socal ference stilmore recently, thas become interested {informs of popular reception, and has argued forcefully agaist the over ‘Becrmini or apocalyptic fone of ch previous clural citi, In fener W occupies» srt of middle proud between poststracturlsm, Ep urmarasmy hs i sed ona d¥namic model ofthe socal subject nd it shows a muciad interest in the work of Antonio Gramsci Miche Foucaul, Michel de Certeau, and Pree Bourdieu, akong with the Bish ‘tral dene, "The phrase "nas culture,” which guided ur orginal conception ofthe lecture snes, is equally dificult opin down; we used it eluctaty, aware {Hart connotes en authoritarian theory of dhe media. In general fem it21 wee Nasomone ano Para Basra invoies «double infection, derived from the “dsl revoltons” ofthe Ie eigheenth century onthe one hand point othe clue ofthe ‘asst rte mot of people ost hte onthe other pos ‘ocalare mass produced by musta eciucs Bur Shakespeare rote amas hat have been reprinted tne, caged line, dated, televised countess ies nvr every cont A ait an Ole ccampls of mas culture? Comers can snonpnout saying, aes, Song: games and tals have come tough the age without ene of ‘eter of factories. Are these ls example of mat cate? Gian the verapping. often conracictorymuanings ofboth “mad” and “ae” Sharp definition arent onal: We can ony aby tat meanings of te Pe tend dra Sround he fly recent proceses ot doe {ation and industaeaton Denccy aa ec logy re usa ates inevry major cultural development he part fo contre. Romant sm, moderninm, and postmen sell sponses fo these inte tripe proce ta of ihc eg ed hs sepposed ani rhe" asuly Gena a angie the masses or to the mainstream. a nes Homever we line mass culture, it ent a cent development. Why hast aways been on the scaoie agenda? The history of mass eo ced efi end ack ott tat sow ae ig rt madeitan important abject of study. And “ma” sugget ogy tha might have made an cure a major fac of sever academe i ‘plies Inder, one way to define ase clr ia everything that men tersotan nustatined sooty share thallthe thermenbers Any ofan shed ay el hanes eect oy fe sacle. Anizomgrat othe United States may ns speak Engi, Bur wl neverties her rock mae, watch TV, se billboard on freways eat st foods, shop a eas oe K-Mart Perops ts very sagt hes ender mass clr iif the c= \sblahed academic daplins Butt isten the most Visualand also visible forms of ealture—ads, sports, teison that are most cay nae experienced bythe largest minbers of peoples academic visblity must therefore spring tom ter cases thor without ndustaizain te tutor of "the masse’ the most common, ondary everyaey cular Shared by most people most the ine hu perhaps vay beh viewed Sntagonisialy by lntelectal As Tong ago a 3 nc Heacascone derma the majoty for her inability fo vale "te best” which he den lied tthe singular organ he joy eet nen an prea the eommonplae™this was ua tobe Ntsc thee ayo yor ater, Irony ke Po fer him, Heats incladed psy i is version of smascuure: the majo “Yolo th nds and sete multe other teacher not eling thi hee Se any Bad Bt few god. Forte Best ose one thing oer others, immortal ory among moras, white the Say ae puted ie best “ ary es cope not erly the eared rita for snes ements aes dress toy he popes aoe virus ssmpton ta he Right values aber 0 tat whic a esas and ideal whereas the majority understanony tat SSCS mata ge (the mary ar ted Ue bret) eh dure o ceed person rerponds to mee than Sf a see needs and pleasures: the supposedly ordinary persons bound SiR Retest srr so a ial Oc Sachs Be and pot woh bt ha he a Pe re uate, hen rom al bt the ented Far Sted bath manly materi nd common has throught Tre ened lo debmsd, ee Sac or superil—and there ot worthy of schol atenton. {er eel reap to mae clare ave been negative, As We 1 ee lees sat, the Armercan and French Revo aa een’ unency to debates bout “the masses” rebtiont eine He Genacraeation fc was era tvel or 2 promis uM nc pltc,Eaung Burke feared tat “Teng” wat Sepa cl unr he hoowes of s swish multtode” wile Tom re ec he cvertow of force an aud and the fare en Tenens ofthe common people Even those who shared Paine’ rd "eS Rowen en found il fo stares opis ate toe of democracy, Whatever the ulinute outcome, the ca ees on the sage of story. perhaps nthe lang oe avtetacs ny dnt necessny behave he way nesta predied aaa ey apparent cca he ng soo elghenment or care eran pcre oes, mst mous ne wing of Mac and Fen aught expan why the masts adhere to bebe thal 25 ane ne eae her rm opicing te re ass nee and seme yh aer woes To eter reser extent ay woke rane pune ne coptat onder ainerabe, rata TSC Seg esc” was the hey Yo explaining why most workers 2 remgh) pl upwards subordination and ep Son sy lf ll exe Mar nd gl ear nina Seon oe i ee can sea lee ene oengintd sere riet ete aad nc een i emnisamapaaiehcnedmcrcrmenrain aso serrate Gan eas ey fac ny i Ae eke“ mo41 Yams NaRewoRe 0 Para Baas wn tts w amt ue plas fe tn Seating as eae em ees en ie Sahar ae Sac een ig Selon ihee Tare oe oe Scearragara terete re Soc ena mao ee ered Folie gery pee ry eat CS nope eee the might of indus oct sae ia men's minds. The entertainments ‘nce tht he pats ile enamed ith ees eh conmisachiery whi ar away sasained he mass, heer at we ‘rateure—whch rain re Pom eey sound mand rey brass ogame nena cheats ae he ‘atk. The cue induty sss wc hv odiedmenssetypeuniangy produced in every prosuct (domo and Hereimee, 12) ne In the growing perfection and dissemination ofthe mass media, Adomo tt Herkimer se ony the desth sf utente selfhood, heres ae ‘stanton ofthe “subject of istry” nto the subjugated or dnt: ted Invi But the det ofl posites sane and fredom: th cure indus conguersevryhing, even is own mana iestom ry congueseverything es Bat negative their of mass cure a clog imposed frm above tus be quedo several ents Fst, who rls the eles? aot and Engle dd not exactly mean that members of he rling css consol cfcsethe eos they then consol impose un subordinate cases thera themselves are under the sway of ieolgy On the conery, "ine mode of preduction of mater ie ovations the scape intelectual te proces In general” (Eng Retr). The en em semble of maeral or economic frer detmines the fonslouanes af ‘ues a wellat un the bs ofthe coon oust ass the entice immense sopertractare”—culre icing eveything fem theartstoingtations of church snd teh ee ply econ: Second though Adomo and Horkheimerbeeved tht th cre fe . Avon Calta historians often equate modernism andthe vinta tut cent estrone Barge Ander Hays, Sn Nain aT prssivy sed tat he oo toms ought te putin int mon greater, what Boge dese he nor want gate won ane! ney eel movement ofthe gn that nd choy s weno spe te man of Wight Conerayspang, whens mods tended ob etl ot ‘ndusal sooty heart ekomed machines and elated har span pein Rene en nown de ve Ar an joa epee the mode and van ade ng ot Ger ‘man culture in the 19205.” i “he overt evi othe ante hve awayseon somatic wit ing. pstornance, bie, and any tecrigue of dure that pra E20 the suthonty of autonomous a Above al, te ment yore tants promete what Rand Bares cae the provisional "text ove re eyelid “work""The deiitve examples of such practice ae Mint Duchamp fady-mades although the aly avantgarde ultra MetStoneinclng Borin Dada, Pench Sueels, and alan Fo er peovie equally important instances. The ms of Dig Verfow and some athe thar productions of Brecht and Pacator are the most irae pressions othe Manust avantgarde and inthe United States, ‘Cady Wathl mightbe Jeseited avs paadencl vain fhe ype Some ‘REuRS would argue tat Wacol snd the Pop movement represent Uetsie break withthe old llr eaters verso, Warhol shares at ihton mir statey wih te stra agree se of eh weer Stproducton wo tndermine the epistemology of museums end att ‘Bide ohere hs collection ef eray icone, Rober Rays paper ect an svantarde praise win the per of pedaoRy and a nc enicne) 4 Folk at. The binary opposite of high art—and hence is vista ces sich fk art agrarian or pre-industrial, belonging chiefly to peasants In twentctecentary Americ it handy survives, except pethaps in musk lind stores composed by souther Backs or Appalachian cod miners, in thurals painted by Chistes, or in artlacts produced by Native America Ror arpeiingly leading motto cultural theory during the fist hal of ‘Re cenfry wa lament ewes how fo art was beng destroyed by mod risation. This lament was especially song in the Frankfurt Schools ‘Weberian analysis the Amercen media ad twas echoed by number UW trodernint American intellectuals of the sao, especally by Dwight Maclonai, Clement Greenburg, and James Agee. Agee for example tera ncontroversl piece fr the Partie Revie in 1944, in which he “rgd thal the Yolk dition” had been tery bourgeoisie by celebrity Sins ke Hae Seat, Pao Robeson, Dake Elington, ax Walt Disney. Tn Europe folk rc hasa more ditnctive ident, although often seems «a fgmentol high-cultare imagination, Perhaps because the “folk” ae sub Jecttoaendemiepreservationand analysand perhaps because they often ‘5S ther ital forthe bone of oust, recent theorsts have Become JBeply septal of them, For instance, Roger Chartier contends that en- tree! belts sbout the reading habs of eighteentvcentiry French [erm ate nothing morethan the op of pastoral ideology, imposed from. hove by anthrpologies snd Jean Baur calms that “primitive” so ‘Sei are merely "imulscra,” designed to give the postndustial word ‘nye of origins Even if we were 1 avoid such problems by defining {elt rt more broadly, a the popular expresion of any disenfranchised,‘semiliterato group in modern society suchas subway graft or punk fash lon) couldn tbe analyed exceptin an offal, lgtimate disourse; hence it would be famed and represented by something other than tell 4, Popular art. This highly politicized category is sometimes associated witha more or less proletarian aadience that in the words of Pere Bou ie, has not “acre legitimate culture in the legitimate manner.”= It ‘connotes the word of sports, ctu, fairgrounds, nickelodeons oF penny sreades, eal zz, eat rock roll, comic sp and cerain kinds of “lover-market theater oe filme hazy tern that resis mest tempts st ‘lefntion although ifs usualy described as earthy and excessive Ina study of early British musi halls, Stat Hall and Paddy Whanne! have argued tat popular at difers from folk atin depending om star spsemandartsonaloedype of prermanc noe wards, popular SH transforms the folk “community” into an trian “audonce#* More {eenly, however, Halland other theorists have used “popular” in a gute Aitferentashion, signaling their belle tht potentally dominated socal ‘10ups have the power to resist hegemonic contro. The most nflentak [oF these theorist, Michel de Certsu, has defined the whole of popular ultue a “combinatory or utzing modes of consumption -- a may of {hinkinginvestd in a way of acing an at of combination which cannot be disasceae from an art af using "© For de Cert, bilge sot merely a technique of primitive cultures o of avantgarde att, but aso anadaptivstrategy employed by modem consumers a sert of "Bowring movement” that Grculates cross socal formations. As he pus ths ‘tural activity ofthe nonproducersof culture, an sctvty thats unsigned, Uunreadable, and unsymbolzed, remains the only posible one forall hose ‘whe nevertheless bay and pay forthe showy products through which ‘reductivist economy articulates tse” wi), Most eontemporary accounts ‘t popular culture suchas those of John Fiske, who is represented in this book} have aeepted de Certensargunnent, and hae therfore Been more concerned with reception than with production. In these writing the term “populae” operates n akectialrelation to industrial and sae power nd itinevitably tues over nto the nest category 6. Mass art Allthe other types of at have European origins and definitive prattioners or theorists onthe continent. Mast att, however, scene p= ficlariy American. Infact as eter Welle indicates inthe exsay he Cn tobutes to our volume, the very word "Americanisn” was ured by both ‘Gramsa and the Franklurt School to signify the concept of arsenic ‘manufacture and consumer culture. Incas may have expressed ab tees about the masses as far back as classical antigty, but the toms “mass art” and “mass culture” were coined in the decades immediately befoee and after Word War I, with the ise of llywood aking pcre, American network radio, and Heney Luce's empire of sk-paper maps ‘ins fild wit photography These were thenaittonscompreing what Fioateimer and Adorso abeed the ator indstythe manufacturer 1 Kiss Conon ond mening "tai or "rabbish" ANd indeed Ahrouphout the mile decades of te century nase at was produced by ‘Funda vertalyintegaedfcory spon reolrned procs de Signed t appeal to as many sol cases or Gass rations posible ‘CipLintensve and sssembledscoding to complex divisions of bo, ius usually sould by ite prodces as enertanet Father han tsa By is ery sare eval “orginal” and "indviuaity”— tho keywords of hgh culture—and was supervised by commitees ot boards of exeutves. e's ntl ts, hover, weston as at has ated and slctvel encouraged cea ids of expert Ini they bt ity ae toed ata a ve f he atra rezone ited above, and has employed the nest arts fom every RECT hs een oppoprned ie dodgy orate nua ‘Thc it uses to proms st aystem. During the 970 and os It Was Teonzed by multnatonal songlomerat eptaiom, and i the a8 of Scene sprue hr te ter ies to fepresetthemeoles trough is technology A vas, Teak” form of pro {Rison it makes ae of everything from Rome vidos fo igh Mera Even co inebocus have avaps change that ts message tala ‘Tins inthe astm lara Jone Coded termed he Americans Sow movie suds "NisonPramount and Paramount Mesias 1th induct! levithne othe West and East had become Tweed nd Tweedledee We cou ha rec thi tof a altro fama hilo opposition: the fist three categories are the domain of those eho have ‘hat Hourdet calls “ultra capita,” wheres the ast three are actessble torte general population. Then, to, we could have devised a move elabor Inte typology, heme dierent dca fcltra determination. For example, ‘we've voided “postmodernism,” aterm that suggests nte. Thomas A, Eason quoted by Chas Brewer, “The Wenig el ofthe ering te Conary ge a 99) 8.7 14 ey W Hopman Pure ry. Pht Prt Pr vic rng New fons Aer Frese) s. Nakr emp “The Wek o Ane Ae ol Mechanical Reproduction, nlm (Rew Yn: Shosten Boks, 6 6 rei jameson, “onto oie Coit Log of Late Captain, wi. ax kc quo ty Main ly, Te Dect! mito (Boston une, Brown, 97 8. hs 8 Asn SoC. Eicon, otic, nd Client Bin Berle: Unie ip er Brgr hyo te ard Map: Ueto Mines 1a ter Barge, Thy of etn are Qanengals: University of Minesota Ia hl My Fv Sa alan er oy), ne en the Gr Dre leomangen Yana Unversity Pres 908) 2 dlc theron beteen cco ane sect ae Enceetogh enor atin ue (ae Yak Ono) Sv eas app, itary oer Th ranean of Work Evanston, Nowe natty Pre ao A etl cunt of hes an ter debts within Gorman Manan Ron- atin Ares nF Dr een ic Lata Bre ear, ‘i ait en). he tower ra anon as Jes Agee, “Folk Ar” In Ag Fl (New York: McDowel, Osten, 2 tn at ay oe e.g hn Coe eldest Set camp amc foe a pn tn, i pp a sos sy oe Sep te er ee nr 2 ee Paty ta Sonnet wien fel heagla pat toe ene acd le rh tetS pc No, Sue 95 seine MC The op EET sTeatanc oc he SRT Lae a Titer led my 5 er a Tanta Non om sd eae SLI Hei nl mig ns ty Pr ane Sx Aria Cutare 1 28 vu Sy, A tn igh 7 Sat cose eta rn a he eyo he oe it ety Sah Se errs aoa feary ae ey toy ash Crna Sete lari fe Seman cles ee sunt ene sac ttre TONER poeta oe ho eR a Ry Cl Bt te = a Bs sk nd Rll Reena son Vi ooh Rr dl El amin Ca ot ‘in Hyman 2983)