Popular Modernisms

Popular Modernisms, examines the process that has occurred throughout the history ofart; one that accelerated with the social effects of the industrial revolution, thedevelopment of capitalism and the inception of modern social relations. Further, theshocks of modernist art encouraged the production of visual satires, parodies, ironies andpastiches; and that, in the company of other forms of text or performance based criticism,these were the means by which those in marginal, or subordinate social positions couldexercise their displeasure and opposition to the ruling ideas and dominant classes of theday. Expressing feelings ranging from mild discomfort to pure rage, this criticismenabled social subordinates to contest or resist the dominance of high culture over low; interms eloquently described by Antonio Gramsci, as the hegemony of the dominant centreculture over its margins. As a consequence, the histories of popular, folk, and other marginalcultures are now being given the academic attention that is their due. The theoreticalapproaches have also expanded since the work of the Frankfurt School. Nevertheless, fewresearchers have taken the academic risks demanded early on of cultural studies by StuartHall and his colleagues of the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studieswho recognized the inter-relatedness of various theoretical and methodologicalapproaches to popular culture, yet insisted upon the absolute political character of theirproject. This book attempts to underwrite and reinforce the political character of thecultural studies project. Accordingly, discusses questions pertainingto the differentiations between elite and popular culture, culture/class, issues pertaining tothe categories of dominance and subordination, the binary oppositions `high/low', centre/periphery,xiv cultural conflict, and relations of power, this last, writ' large - as the conditiosine qua non of my research.