Authenticity is taken for granted as an absolute value in contemporary life. We speak of authentic art, music, food, dance, and people. Authenticity, in its many guises, offers seekers a sense of belonging, connection and solidity. This work argues that the pervasive desire for …
In this brilliantly conceived and clearly argued discussion of the relationship between high and popular culture, Herbert Gans, outspoken advocate of cultural pluralism, questions the universality of high culture standards. . Is NYPD Blue a less valid form of artistic expressio…
Notes on Contributors Introduction: Notes on a Living Tradition, (Philip Bounds) 1. Science, Art and Dissent: Jack Lindsay and the Communist Theory of Culture, (Philip Bounds) 2. The New Left and the Emergence of Cultural Studies, (Alan O'Connor) 3. Dialectics and the Fate of th…
"In the fully updated Sixth Edition of Understanding Global Cultures: Metaphorical Journeys Through 34 Nations, Clusters of Nations, Continents, and Diversity, authors Martin J. Gannon and Rajnandini Pillai present the cultural metaphor as a method for understanding the cultural…
This collection of work at the intersection of cultural studies and contemporary political theory brings together thinkers from both traditions. Challenging the terms that have shaped culture wars since the 1980s, the essays reject the accusations of the right that everything is…
Explores the relationship between the counterculture and American popular culture. This book looks at the ways in which Hollywood and corporate record labels commodified and adapted countercultural texts, and the extent to which countercultural artists and their texts were appro…
Examines Cuban cultural production during the Special Period of the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Bloc. This book addresses the cultural forms; and the associated ethics and practices of labor, leisure, and bureaucratic organization that arose in the transformation…
This text argues that animals appear not just as biological creatures, but as vehicles of meaning for human imagination, mind and culture. Animal life may form the basis for an animalizing imagination that can enhance our cultural, religious and aesthetic sensibilities. This ima…
Building on the work of Theodor Adorno and Walter Benjamin, Capitalizing on Culture presents an innovative, accessible, and timely exploration of critical theory in a cultural landscape dominated by capital. Despite the increasing prevalence of commodification as a dominant fact…