Examining a range of literature, philosophy, social criticism and popular culture, this text considers the meanings and uses of culture in contemporary society. It examines both the masterworks of European literature and the art and signs and symbols of popular media and daily life. The triumph of cultural studies - and its critiques of bourgeois Eurocentric tradition - is largely complete, the author writes. Against the political appropriation of culture, he posits, instead, a definition of culture as public conversation, intellectual and social debate among diverse communities. Against reactionary pressure to impose - or reinstate - a singular culture, or to seek in art or literature an affirmation of group identity, the author sketches new roles for the human imagination in a postmodern world.
- ISBN10 0231084900
- ISBN13 9780231084901
- Publish Date 1 October 1997
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 18 January 2011
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Columbia University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 266
- Language English