scholarly journals The Many Faces of Popular Culture and Contemporary Processes: Questioning Identity, Humanity and Culture Through Japanese Anime

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mateja Kovacic
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Many

Applying the Devil's Works in a Holy Cause: Working-Class Popular Culture and the Salvation Army in the United States, 1879-1900

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-223
Author(s):  
Lillian Taiz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
York City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Salvation Army ◽  
Public Meeting ◽  
The Many ◽  
Sunday Evening

Forty-eight hours after they landed in New York City in 1880, a small contingent of the Salvation Army held their first public meeting at the infamous Harry Hill's Variety Theater. The enterprising Hill, alerted to the group's arrival from Britain by newspaper reports, contacted their leader, Commissioner George Scott Railton, and offered to pay the group to “do a turn” for “an hour or two on … Sunday evening.” In nineteenth-century New York City, Harry Hill's was one of the best known concert saloons, and reformers considered him “among the disreputable classes” of that city. His saloon, they said, was “nothing more than one of the many gates to hell.”

Viktor Vasnetsov’s New Icons

Experiment ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-144
Author(s):  
Wendy Salmond
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
National Culture ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Late Imperial ◽  
Imperial Period ◽  
Paris Exposition ◽  
The Many ◽  
Modern Orthodox ◽  
Human Hands

Abstract This essay examines Russian artist Viktor Vasnetsov’s search for a new kind of prayer icon in the closing decades of the nineteenth century: a hybrid of icon and painting that would reconcile Russia’s historic contradictions and launch a renaissance of national culture and faith. Beginning with his icons for the Spas nerukotvornyi [Savior Not Made by Human Hands] Church at Abramtsevo in 1880-81, for two decades Vasnetsov was hailed as an innovator, the four icons he sent to the Paris “Exposition Universelle” of 1900 marking the culmination of his vision. After 1900, his religious painting polarized elite Russian society and was bitterly attacked in advanced art circles. Yet Vasnetsov’s new icons were increasingly linked with popular culture and the many copies made of them in the late Imperial period suggest that his hybrid image spoke to a generation seeking a resolution to the dilemma of how modern Orthodox worshippers should pray.

scholarly journals Representation and Agency of Aging Superheroes in Popular Culture and Contemporary Society

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Kateřina Valentová
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Graphic Novel ◽  
Contemporary Society ◽  
Social Events ◽  
Cultural Expressions ◽  
American Society ◽  
The Many

The figure of the superhero has always been regarded as an iconic representative of American society. Since the birth of the first superhero, it has been shaped by the most important historical, political, and social events, which were echoed in different comic issues. In principle, in the superhero genre, there has never been a place for aging superheroes, for they stand as a symbol of power and protection for the nation. Indeed, their mythical portrayal of young and strong broad-chested men with superpowers cannot be shattered showing them fragile or disabled. The aim of this article is to delve into the complex paradigm of the passage of time in comics and to analyze one of the most famous superheroes of all times, Superman, in terms of his archetypical representation across time. From the perspective of cultural and literary gerontology, the different issues of Action Comics will be examined, as well as an alternative graphic novel Kingdom Come (2008) by Mark Waid and Alex Ross, where Superman appears as an aged man. Although it breaks the standards of the genre, in the end it does not succeed to challenge the many stereotypes embedded in society in regard to aging, associated with physical, cognitive, and emotional decline. Furthermore, this article will show how a symbolic use of the monomythical representation of a superhero may penetrate into other cultural expressions to instill a more positive and realistic portrayal of aging.

Unsettling Entitlement and ‘Ginx’s Baby’

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica F Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Frame Analysis ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Colonial Resistance ◽  
Expression Of Emotions ◽  
Popular Novel ◽  
The Many ◽  
Victorian Popular Culture

Abstract This story traces the many adventures of a title, from Edward Jenkins’s 1870 novel, Ginx’s Baby, through colonial resistance to imperial copyright law in Canada, to the photograph of a distressed baby that Charles Darwin featured in The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals and that the art photographer Oscar Rejlander reproduced as popular cartes de visites. The reiterative use of the title across genres and oceans conjures an image of Victorian popular culture as an unregulated bazaar affording the surprising emergence of unintended creators. Copyright history, frame analysis, and name theory help explain how the title of a popular novel could lend itself to so many unrelated creative objects.

When ‘feminism’ becomes a genre: Alias Grace and ‘feminist’ television

2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Cattien
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Feminist Critique ◽  
Tv Shows ◽  
The Many ◽  
A Site ◽  
Popular Feminism ◽  
Privileged Site ◽  
Critical Movement ◽  
Alternative Reading

Alias Grace is just one of the many recent TV shows that was labelled ‘feminist’ so quickly and with such ease that one is left to wonder how much of a genre ‘feminism’ has already become. This article interrogates what is at stake for ‘feminist’ critique in labelling cultural phenomena as ‘feminist’. I argue that certain ways of reading Alias Grace as a ‘feminist’ show preclude an alternative reading in which Alias Grace emerges as a critique of ‘feminism’ itself. What is at stake in the debate on ‘feminism’ in popular culture is thus not only whether or not we can recognise the potential for ‘feminist’ critique that resides within popular culture, but also whether or not we can allow socio-cultural phenomena, like TV shows, to take ‘feminism’ as an object of critique: to generate the kind of critical movement that renders futile any attempt to stabilise, or reify, the signifier ‘feminism’ as an ahistorical object with fixed meanings – as a genre even. In so doing, I take it that there is no privileged site from which to engender such movement; and I do not take popular culture as a self-contained domain that could qualify for being such a site. The point, then, is not to treat Alias Grace as a representative case study in popular ‘feminism’; but rather, to demonstrate, by way of Alias Grace, the complex and contradictory readings that socio-cultural phenomena are amenable to, and which in turn give rise to critical possibilities that unfold from within these phenomena. Reading Alias Grace critically, as I understand it in this article, means allowing it to be, at one and the same time, a reflection on itself and a reflection on the world in which it so quickly comes to be labelled ‘feminist’.

The Culture of a Multi-Ethnic Colony

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonya Lipsett-Rivera
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mexico City ◽  
New Spain ◽  
Daily Life ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
Institutional Settings ◽  
Spanish Colonization ◽  
Hierarchical Nature ◽  
The Many ◽  
Different Cultures

The very nature of Spanish colonization meant that New Spain brought together people from different cultures, ethnicities, religions, and attitudes. Mexico City was the meeting place of all these various populaces. Before the conquest, Tenochtitlan had neighborhoods composed of residents from various parts of the empire. Apart from the many indigenous cultures, colonization also meant the addition of Spaniards, Africans, and Asians, some of whom were enslaved and others simply migrants. The result was a culture that expressed itself both in high and popular culture with a melding of elements—a joyous cacophony that reflected its mestizo nature. This culture was played out not only in institutional settings such as the viceregal court, ceremonies, the theater, and in church but also in the streets, parks, and taverns that dotted towns and cities. Although culture, to a certain extent, reflected New Spain’s hierarchical nature, separation between high and low was never absolute. In the cathedral, as in many other institutions, popular pursuits and music infiltrated the formal singing. This pattern of cultural slippage prevailed within many areas of daily life as the colonial world of New Spain layered pastimes and pursuits from its many constituents.

Popular culture and public debate: London 1780

1996 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donna T. Andrew
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Cultural Form ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Many

ABSTRACTThis paper examines an important and rather neglected forum for popular discussion – the debating society – in London in 1780. This was the first full year that debating societies left their semi-private, club-like sites and took to new rooms, all across the metropolitan area. These new venues were large (seating between 400 and 1200) commercial settings, where men and women could come to speak and to listen, to enjoy an evening of rational entertainment at a small price. Using the many daily London newspapers as its main source, this essay examines the audiences present at these debates, the types of questions asked and the nature of the responses, when known, and surveys the wide range of reactions to such activity. Finally, it suggests some explanations for and evaluations of the growth and decline of this important cultural form.

scholarly journals The Monobloc Chair: Democratising the Practice of Sitting

Res Mobilis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (11) ◽  
pp. 3-18
Author(s):  
Carsten Kullmann
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Multiple Meanings ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Middle Ages

This article examines the cultural history of chairs to understand the many meanings the Monobloc can acquire. The history of chairs is traced from post nomadic culture through the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment period and the French Revolution. Subsequently, I will examine the Monobloc from a Cultural Studies perspective and demonstrate how its unique characteristics allow multiple meanings, which are always dependent on context and discourse. Thus, the Monobloc becomes an utterly democratic symbol of popular culture that can be appropriated for any use.

scholarly journals Popular Culture in the Muslim World

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-108
Author(s):  
Dilnawaz A. Siddiqui
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Edmund Burke ◽  
American People ◽  
Cultural Divide ◽  
University Of Cambridge ◽  
Economic Elites ◽  
The Many ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Masses ◽  
The University

Popular Culture in Medieval Cairo. By Boaz Shoshan. Cambridge, UK andNew York Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1993.148 pp.Struggle and Survival in the Modern Middle East. By Edmund Burke, III(ed.). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993,400 pp.Living Islam: From Samarkand to Stornoway. By Akbar Ahmed. NewYork: Facts on File, Inc., 1994.224 pp.One of the many expressions of the postmodernist revolt against themodernist western establishment is said to be its popular culture. The theoreticalliterature produced across this cultural divide often characterizes itin terms of two extremes: as a supreme expression of the true aspirations ofthe heretofore underprivileged masses or as a weapon in the hands of thetraditionally powerful political, social, and economic elites. The latter useit as a tool with which to manipulate the masses for their own respectiveagendas. A constant refrain of Hitler invoking Nazi supremacy over allhumanity, as well as our own self-serving politicians doing their own thingin the name of the “intelligent and well-informed will of the American people,”are only two of many examples of this instrument’s ubiquitous use.The Multiple Uses of Popular CultureThe vast grey area between these two margins includes umpteen otherdescriptions of popular culture, such as real “texture of our environment”and “adjustive syndrome,” and Matthew Arnold’s “heedless democratization.”In addition, there are such definitions as “banality” (Elliot), “reductionof the individual to basic instincts,” “titillation of the superficial senses”(Whitman), and “an expression denied by persistent puritanism and bourgeoispower” (Marx). Leavis also joined Arnold and Elliot in resisting thepopular resistance to “authority” found in traditional culture ...

scholarly journals Children’s Fan-Play, Folklore and Participatory Culture

Ethnologies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 255-289
Author(s):  
Contessa Small
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Mass Media ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Harry Potter ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Ethnographic Observation ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Many

The study of children’s play activities has not only been historically trivialized, but numerous widely held misconceptions about kids, their play, folklore and popular culture continue to persist today despite evidence to the contrary. For example, some adults believe that mass media and popular culture has contributed to the decline of kids’ traditional play activities, while others argue that traditional play objects are being replaced by “media culture artifacts”; however, the child-centred fan-play research I present in this paper reveals that popular culture encourages and activates children’s traditional and creative competences, rather than destroy them. The Harry Potter “phenomenon”, as a contested site where youth struggle for visibility and power, serves as the case study for this paper. Based on ethnographic observation of several local events, surveys, and interviews with child and teenage fans of Harry Potter, I examine several emergent, participatory, fan-play activities (including costuming, role-playing, make-believe and spells) and discuss the many ways children manipulate, appropriate, adapt and combine popular culture and folklore, using both creativity and tradition as expression of their lives, identities and power struggles. I conclude by discussing the heart of contemporary children’s culture and play – the conservative/creative nature of children, hybrid play forms and the activation of traditional and creative competencies in the face of popular culture influences.

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