Popular Culture What Does Anne Cranny-Francis Mean

Popular Culture

What does Anne Cranny-Francis mean when she defines popular culture as "a way of operating" and why does she find it a useful definition?

Borrowing from Morris' definition of popular culture, Francis speaks of popular culture as a way of operating. Therefore, whether or not a work of art is considered popular culture is based on how the art is produced and how it is consumed. Something is popular culture because of how it is used within the culture and how it is incorporated into people's lives. Popular culture becomes a way of understanding the society in which one lives.

Curry finds Morris' definition of popular culture as a way of operating useful because it places the emphasis on the relationship between the viewer and the work of art. Francis believes that popular culture is about formulating questions about both the society that exists and the society that people wish existed, and the interrelationships of people in society. However, Francis cautions that one should not assume that all works are given equivalent value within the culture; some cultures maintain distinctions among varieties of pop culture.

Curry believes that the definition of popular culture as a way of operating is the most widely accepted in cultural studies because it avoids the problems raised by alternative definitions. Furthermore, the operating system definition appears to be enacted in the textual practice of contemporary texts, whether those texts are considered popular culture or postmodern. Therefore, literary criticism has developed in order to examine the idea of works of arts in relation to their consumption and creation. One aspect of this trend in literary criticism is that the critic of popular culture is not objective or impassive; the criticism of popular culture interacts with the method by which the art is consumed.

2.

What have been the social and political effects of a distinction between high and popular culture and why does such a definition lack validity?

Traditionally, high culture was the culture of the ruling class, and was tied to the upper levels of the educational system. The categories of high and popular culture presupposed a correlation between culture and class; high culture was aimed at the dominant class and popular culture at the subordinate class. However, because there is no longer a single ruling class or aristocracy, the modern culture system does not have one center. Furthermore, the fact that the methods of production and consumption that were once confined to the elite (such as purchasing books and the ability to read) have become accessible to the masses, the line between high and popular culture has blurred. Therefore, the idea that one type of culture appeals to either those in power or those out of power is outdated.

Today, mass culture is no longer in opposition to art, but serves as a way to allow consumers to process art. The conflict is no longer between high class and low class, but between how art is produced and consumed at every level of expression. Therefore, a rock musician may be considered more of a high artist than a classical musician with a broad audience base.

Furthermore, people no longer define themselves by degrading mass culture.

Instead, there is a growing trend towards fusing elements of traditionally high culture with elements of traditionally popular culture. In fact, the reaction against contempt for popular culture began a tradition of affirming the positive value of popular culture. However, the academic study of popular culture, whether critical or supportive of popular culture, has consistently been flawed because it views the consumers of popular culture as an idealized category rather than an actual culture.

3.

What is representation and what is its relationship to reality? How can representation be usefully employed in the study of popular culture?

Representation encompasses both how the media portray events, people, and ideas and how that portrayals influence the real world of events, people and ideas. Representation is both a process and a product. The relationship between representation and reality is that, while representation seeks to present a version of reality, it is not reality. Therefore, a representation is not the thing that it represents. The second element of a representation is that it is judged on how well it represents reality.