High Theory / Low Culture

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by Mikita Brottman

Palgrave

Due/Published March 2005, 192 pages, paper

ISBN 1403966419

In "High Theory/Low Culture, Mikita Brottman uses the tools of "high" cultural theory to examine many areas of today's popular culture, including style magazines, sports, shopping, tabloid newspapers, horror movies and pornography. In doing so, she not only demonstrates the practical use of "high" theory as it relates to our everyday world, but she also investigates the kinds of "low" culture that are regularly dismissed by academic scholars. Through a close examination of these cultural forms, Brottman reveals how the kinds of popular culture that we usually take for granted are, in fact, far more complex and sophisticated than is normally assumed.

Contents

Introduction: Popular Culture and its Critics
Bakhtin and Style Magazines
"Joyful Mayhem": Bakhtin and Football
Barthes and Tabloid Newspapers
Roland Barthes Goes Shopping
"Blue Prints and Bodies": Lacan and Pornography
Dark Homecomings: Lacan and the Horror Film
Conclusion
Bibliography