{"id":57,"date":"2024-03-19T14:02:22","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T14:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/culturaltheory\/?post_type=content&p=57"},"modified":"2024-04-02T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T14:31:00","slug":"chapter-1-what-is-popular-culture","status":"publish","type":"content","link":"https:\/\/staging.routledgelearning.com\/culturaltheory\/chapter-resources\/chapter-1-what-is-popular-culture\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 1 – What is popular culture?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
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\n\tHome<\/a>\n<\/span>\/<\/span>\n\tChapter Resources<\/a>\n<\/span>\/<\/span>\n\tChapter 1 \u2013 What is popular culture?\n<\/span><\/div>\n\n

Chapter 1 – What is popular culture?<\/h1>\n\n\n

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture is an introduction in that it tries to be accessible in terms of subject matter, but it is also an introduction in the sense that it introduces something new. That is to say, although all the work discussed here has a previous existence, it is not a body of work that previously existed as a tradition of cultural theory and popular culture. The originality of this book is to bring this work together as a way of understanding popular culture and the discourses around popular culture.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

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Before You Read<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Warm Up<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Watch the video \u201cPopular Culture Explained in Two Minutes<\/a>\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does it explain popular culture?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does this explanation relate to what you read in the textbook Cultural Theory and Popular Culture<\/em>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is that video an example of popular culture itself?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Preliminary Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Chapter 1 of the textbook Cultural Theory and Popular Culture<\/em> raises important questions about fundamental issues we live by and experience daily. Some of the questions are listed below to give you an idea of specific problems this textbook follows and invites you to consider.  Answer those questions so that you can self-assess and check your own understanding and compare your answers with the explanation in the book as you read Chapter 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  • What is \u2018culture\u2019?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What is \u2018popular culture\u2019?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Do you think that the terms \u2018culture\u2019 and \u2018popular culture\u2019 are easy to fix or define?  Or, are both terms somewhat elusive?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Do the concepts seem to point to other terms? If so, what are these? Do some terms appear more important than others? If so, why do you think this is?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Is Chapter 1 really setting out to stabilize what is meant by culture or fix what is understood when we think of popular culture?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Does Chapter 1 point to a single definition of \u2018culture\u2019 or \u2018popular culture\u2019? Or did your initial reading suggest that a range of debates and a diversity of competing concepts and meanings are being underlined?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • What does Chapter 1 point to as significant when considering the meaning of these terms?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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    After You Read: Important Ideas<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Chapter 1 introduces a number of key notions (further explained in Glossary<\/em>) that showcase distinctions between popular culture<\/em><\/strong> and culture<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em> The notions include postmodernism<\/em><\/strong>, class<\/strong><\/em>, ideology<\/em><\/strong>, hegemony<\/em><\/strong>, meaning<\/em><\/strong> or signification<\/em><\/strong>, text<\/em><\/strong>, context<\/strong><\/em>, highbrow<\/em><\/strong>, lowbrow<\/strong>, taste<\/strong>, <\/em>and mass<\/em><\/strong> culture<\/strong><\/em>, and they shape the understanding of popular culture<\/em><\/strong> or culture<\/em><\/strong> that gain new bearing when considered critically and through the prism of cultural theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Check your grasp of those notions and problems related to popular culture based on how they have been presented in Chapter 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Quiz 1.1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Consider which of the following can be defined as popular culture (Choose one answer: true<\/em> or false<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n