Chapter 2 – The ‘culture and civilization’ tradition

The popular culture of the majority has always been a concern of powerful minorities. Those with political power have always thought it necessary to police the culture of those without political power, reading it ‘symptomatically’ (see Chapter 6) for signs of political unrest; reshaping it continually through patronage and direct intervention. In the nineteenth century, however, there is a fundamental change in this relationship. Those with power lose, for a crucial period, the means to control the culture of the subordinate classes. When they begin to recover control, it is culture itself, and not culture as a symptom or sign of something else, that becomes, really for the first time, the actual focus of concern. As we noted at the end of Chapter 1, two factors are crucial to an understanding of these changes: industrialization and urbanization. Together they produce other changes that contribute to the making of a popular culture that marks a decisive break with the cultural relationships of the past.

Before you read

Warm-up

Watch the Comic Relief satire on a contemporary English lesson [link]. Use that satire to answer Preliminary Questions. Also, while reading Chapter 2, try to relate the satire’s rendition of education, canon, and other cultural markers as well as its rendition of social classes with regard to how they are being discussed in Chapter 2. Write down ideas and problems presented in Chapter 2 relatable to the satire.

Preliminary questions

Chapter 1 raised at least two important points:

What makes culture and popular culture is as much about the texts and practices of everyday life as it is about the context in which popular culture is produced and consumed.
The definition of ‘popular culture’ is complex and multiple.

Chapter 2 starts to set the scene as far as theories are concerned and discusses attempts by some key theorists to fix what is meant by culture. It begins by tracing the history of the terms ‘culture’ and ‘civilization’, starting with the nineteenth century. The questions below may help you draw out the significant issues.

Why is literacy an important marker of culture and civilization? How is it problematic?
To what extent do those with political power and privilege supervise the culture?
Why were industrialization and the rise of cities and towns in Britain such a threat to civilization?
Is your own town or city segregated in ways which mark cultural differences? For instance, do different social groups occupy different parts of the town or city where you live? Are city centers or suburban areas organized, culturally, in different ways? Are leisure zones gendered? Are there spaces in which teenagers hang out and older adults do not?
Does it make sense to link culture and civilization?
Why are some groups labelled ‘uncivilized’? What does this mean?
Is it possible, or even desirable, to fix popular culture?
Which of the following you can find in your local bookstore: Identify the key bookstores in your local town or city. What is the availability of the following texts: Plays by Shakespeare, the Harry Potter books, Mills & Boon (or any popular romantic novels), the lyrics of songs by Leonard Cohen, the rise and fall of the Roman Empire; a history of the shipyard industry, Hello magazine, Graphic novels, manga books, The Communist Manifesto?

After you read: Important ideas

Chapter 2 offers a timeline for the development of critical thinking around culture as civilization. It recaps the understanding of social changes from the 1800s onwards and the formation of criticism grasping important shifts in the cultural organization in the global West. Quizzes 2.1 and 2.2. will help you revisit the timeline and remember its related ideas.

Important names

Chapter is organized around certain cultural criticism and theorists worth knowing. Use the following flashcards to learn or revisit details about those people, their prominent ideas and their work. Think about how those tiny details explain the theorists’ theoretical motivation and influence.

Mathew Arnold

F. R. Leavis

Q. D .Leavis

Densy Thompson

Dwight Macdonald

Ernest van den Haag

Complementary materials

<Insert Icon 4 here> Here you can find Jester Radio Network’s episode on Dwight Macdonald’s Masscult and Midcult [link]. Listen to the podcast and think how it reflects on Macdonald’s ideas presented in Chapter 2.

<Insert icon 5 here> Because some ideas discussed in Chapter 2 might be new, we suggest this complementary reading titled Highbrow, Lowbrow and Middlebrow, Do These Kinds of Cultural Categories Mean Anything Anymore? [link]. How does it explain the problems discussed in Chapter 2?

Further considerations

Are the problems of cultural hierarchy relevant today? If so, how are they visible in the organization of cultural distribution and consumption today? How today’s cultural institutions possibly contribute to organizing the cultural hierarchy?