Role Of Art In Human Life: Discussion And Arguments

Pop culture would include just that; a culture that is popular, easy to understand, and entertaining to the majority of young people. High culture, on the other hand, may include renaissance art, classical music and opera. This is a provocative book concerned with the social significance of high-cultural activities. It is a rejection of the role of art as the highest manifestation of society's achievements, exposing art as the prerogative of elites and an enemy of the people. The author argues that philosophy and aesthetics are responsible for illusions about art which give ordinary people an unjustified sense of inferiority. When these are penetrated -through historical and social investigation- the position of art as an enemy of the people becomes apparent. Popular culture is itself in danger of being weakened through attempts to reconcile it to high culture. The author has written for people who wouldn't normally read philosophy or other books with intellectual pretensions. This book is part of the history of anti-elitism and anti-art which developed in Cultural Theory during the latter quarter of the twentieth century.