The Purple Rose of Popular Culture Theory: An Exploration of Intellectual Kitsch

Empathy is an extensively studied construct, but operationalization of effective empathy is routinely debated in popular culture, theory, and empirical research. This article offers a process-focused approach emphasizing the relational functions of empathy in interpersonal contexts. We argue that this perspective offers advantages over more traditional conceptualizations that focus on primarily intrapsychic features (i.e., within the individual). Our aim is to enrich current conceptualizations and empirical approaches to the study of empathy by drawing on psychological, philosophical, medical, linguistic, and anthropological perspectives. In doing so, we highlight the various functions of empathy in social interaction, underscore some underemphasized components in empirical studies of empathy, and make recommendations for future research on this important area in the study of emotion.

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Popular Culture and Cultural Revolution Culture: Theory, Practice, and Experience

A Continuous Revolution ◽

10.1163/9781684175185_003 ◽

2012 ◽

pp. 3-32

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Cultural Revolution ◽

Culture Theory

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SOCIAL CRITICISM OF ASIAN CULTURE IN FILM “TO ALL THE BOYS I'VE LOVED BEFORE” WITH BARTHES’ POPULAR CULTURE THEORY

Jurnal Komunikasi dan Bisnis ◽

10.46806/jkb.v8i2.642 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 1-12

Author(s):

Kurnia Dwi Alfianto ◽

Altobeli Lobodally

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Social Criticism ◽

Roland Barthes ◽

Analysis Method ◽

Semiotic Analysis ◽

Asian Culture ◽

Culture Theory ◽

The Social ◽

Collectivistic Culture ◽

Low Culture

Mass media often perceived Asian Culture as a powerless culture. Just like in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before film that criticizing Asian culture. This study aimed to unveil the social criticism of Asian culture depicted on To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. This qualitative study using Popular Culture Theory with Roland Barthes’ semiotic analysis method by three elements of analysis (denotation, connotation, and myth). This study unveiled that the social criticism of Asian culture is linked with its collectivistic culture and interdependent characteristic, also overly-controlled Asian parents. This study also found the shift and consolidation of myth of Asian culture. Other than that, social criticism of Asian culture depicted on the film is the form of low culture and used as the asset to gain profit. Therefore, Asian culture has been marginalized and wrapped as a form of commercialized culture. Keywords: asian culture, popular culture, film, social criticism, semiotics

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Ironiens kultur og kulturens ironi. En undersøgelse af senmoderne sensibiliteter

Dansk Sociologi ◽

10.22439/dansoc.v19i1.2520 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 9-30

Author(s):

Bjørn Schiermer

Keyword(s):

Popular Culture ◽

Key Words ◽

Sociology Of Culture ◽

Culture Theory ◽

Conceptual Tool ◽

Institutional Dynamics ◽

Social Forms ◽

Key Words Camp ◽

Historical Developments ◽

Late Modern

Artiklen ønsker at undersøge, hvorledes kulturelle dynamikker udgør en faktor bag humorens historiske forandringer. Dens ambition er at levere en kulturdiagnostisk undersøgelse af nye populære sensibilitets- og socialitetsformer. Artiklen forsøger at gøre indsigter fra humorens filosofi hos S. Kierkegaard, J. P. Sartre og H. Bergson tilgængelige for sociologien ved at placere dem i en simmelsk kulturteoretisk ramme. Nutidens ironiske sensibilitetsformer forstås derved som en reaktion på det, som G. Simmel benævnte “en vækst i objektiv kultur“. Dernæst skal W. Benjamins allegoribegreb fungere som et værktøj til beskrivelse af nutidens ironiske samværs- og sensibilitetsformer. Artiklens sidste del undersøger sammenhængen mellem ironiske sensibilitetsformer (camp- og retrofænomenet) og disse fænomeners forbindelse til en ironisk fænomenologi; en “tragisk“ opfattelse af kultur. ENGELSK ABSTRACT: Bjørn Schiermer: Irony’s Culture and Culture’s Irony: An Investigation of Late Modern Sensibilities The article attempts to clarify how cultural institutional dynamics contribute to historical developments in humour. This association is then used as folio for an analysis of contemporary popular forms of sensibility and sociability. The article wishes to contribute to the philosophy of humour and make it accessible for the sociology of culture by placing it in a Simmelian culture theoretical framework; a framework that attempts to understand concurrent ironic forms of humour as a reaction to the growth in, what Simmel termed “objective culture“. These impulses are then unified in W. Benjamin’s concept of the allegoric, which is intended to serve as a conceptual tool in describing contemporary social forms and sensibilities. The last part of the article consists of the unfolding of central phenomenological traits of contemporary popular culture and cultural reception (the camp and retro phenomenon) on the background of a “tragic“ or ironic understanding of culture. Key words: Camp, sociology of culture, theory of culture, Simmel.

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