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From Lowbrow To Nobrow
''From Lowbrow to Nobrow'' is a book on literary culture written by Peter Swirski, professor of American literature and culture at the University of Missouri, St. Louis and Research Director at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Swirski is the author of twelve books of American literature and culture, Stanislaw Lem, and theory of knowledge. Having gone through several printings, the book is by now a staple in American popular culture studies. It furnishes a series of analyses of the relation of popular fiction to high literary culture. In his work, Swirski challenges the highbrow vs lowbrow categorization of literary culture, and popular culture in general by focusing attention on what he terms the nobrow taste culture, whereby "authors simultaneously target both extremes of the literary spectrum". In the first half of the book, Swirski details the historical facts behind the functioning of popular fiction, and discusses the concept of genres and the nobrow aesthetics. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Swirski
Peter Swirski is a Canadian scholar and literary critic featured in ''Canadian Who's Who ''Canadian Who's Who'' is a publication containing biographical information about 13,000 notable Canadians. Because of the absence of biographical fact-checking by the publishers (e.g. candidates send in their own biographical details without any ...''. As a specialist in American literature and American Studies, he is the author of many books, including the prize-winning ''Ars Americana, Ars Politica'' (2010) and the staple of American popular culture studies '' From Lowbrow to Nobrow'' (2005). His other studies include ''American Utopia and Social Engineering'' (2011), ''American Political Fictions'' (2015), ''American Utopia: Literature, Society, and the Human Use of Human Beings'' (2020, Routledge textbook), and the digital-futurological bestseller ''From Literature to Biterature'' (2013). He is also the leading scholar on the late writer and philosopher Stanisław Lem. Life and caree ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mass Culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a society at a given point in time. Popular culture also encompasses the activities and feelings produced as a result of interaction with these dominant objects. The primary driving force behind popular culture is the mass appeal, and it is produced by what cultural analyst Theodor Adorno refers to as the " culture industry". Heavily influenced in modern times by mass media, this collection of ideas permeates the everyday lives of people in a given society. Therefore, popular culture has a way of influencing an individual's attitudes towards certain topics. However, there are various ways to define pop culture. Because of this, popular culture is something that can be defined in a variety of conflicting ways by different people across ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Columbia Journal Of American Studies
Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in the U.S. Pacific Northwest * Columbia River, in Canada and the United States ** Columbia Bar, a sandbar in the estuary of the Columbia River ** Columbia Country, the region of British Columbia encompassing the northern portion of that river's upper reaches ***Columbia Valley, a region within the Columbia Country ** Columbia Lake, a lake at the head of the Columbia River *** Columbia Wetlands, a protected area near Columbia Lake ** Columbia Slough, along the Columbia watercourse near Portland, Oregon * Glacial Lake Columbia, a proglacial lake in Washington state * Columbia Icefield, in the Canadian Rockies * Columbia Island (District of Columbia), in the Potomac River * Columbia Island (New York), in Long Island Sound Populated places * C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Chain Of Chance
''The Chain of Chance'' (original Polish title: ''Katar'', literally, "Rhinitis"/Catarrh) is a science fiction/detective fiction, detective novel by the Polish literature, Polish writer Stanisław Lem, published in 1976. Lem's treatment of the detective genre introduces many nontraditional elements. The reader is prompted not only to consider various suspects as possible culprits in a series of murders, but also the possibility that they have all happened purely by chance (hence the English title). In this way, the natural laws of probability and chaos theory play the role of suspects and characters in a murder mystery, lending elements of science fiction to the novel. The underlying philosophical idea is exploited by Lem in his major essay ''The Philosophy of Chance''. Plot A former astronaut is hired by a detective agency to help in an investigation of a case of mysterious deaths. Several victims became mad and committed suicide during their vacation in various Naples spas, app ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Playback (novel)
''Playback'' is a novel by American-British writer Raymond Chandler featuring the private detective Philip Marlowe. It was first published in Britain in July 1958; the US edition followed in October that year. Chandler died the following year; ''Playback'' is his last completed novel. On 8 January 1947 Universal announced they had bought a story from Raymond Chandler called ''Playback''. Joseph Sistrom was assigned to produce the film and it was intended Chandler would write the script. The novel was reworked by Chandler from the screenplay. The script, thought by some to be superior to the novel (generally considered to be the weakest of the seven Marlowe novels, perhaps because of its less complex plot and pat resolution), was published posthumously. ''Playback'' is the only Marlowe novel completed by Chandler that is set somewhere other than Los Angeles. The setting is the town of Esmeralda, a fictional name for La Jolla, where Chandler lived his last few years. ''Poodle Spri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an American-British novelist and screenwriter. In 1932, at the age of forty-four, Chandler became a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Great Depression. His first short story, " Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in 1933 in '' Black Mask,'' a popular pulp magazine. His first novel, '' The Big Sleep'', was published in 1939. In addition to his short stories, Chandler published seven novels during his lifetime (an eighth, in progress at the time of his death, was completed by Robert B. Parker). All but ''Playback'' have been made into motion pictures, some more than once. In the year before his death, he was elected president of the Mystery Writers of America. Chandler had an immense stylistic influence on American popular literature. He is a founder of the hardboiled school of detective fiction, along with Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain and other ''Black ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War With The Newts
''War with the Newts'' (''Válka s Mloky'' in the original Czech), also translated as ''Salamander Wars'', is a 1936 satirical science fiction novel by Czech author Karel Čapek. It concerns the discovery in the Pacific of a sea-dwelling race, an intelligent breed of newts, who are initially enslaved and exploited. They acquire human knowledge and rebel, leading to a global war for supremacy.''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'', Peter Nicholls, Granada, 1981, There are obvious similarities to Čapek's earlier '' R.U.R.'', but also some original themes. ''War with the Newts'' was described as a "classic work" of science fiction by science fiction author and critic Damon Knight. For many years the English translation was hard to obtain, and earlier copies have been known to sell for a premium. Plot summary Only the last four of the book's 27 chapters deal with the eponymous war. The rest of the book is concerned with the discovery of the Newts, their exploitation and evolut ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karel Čapek
Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal Robots'', 1920), which introduced the word ''robot''.Oxford English Dictionary: robot n2 He also wrote many politically charged works dealing with the social turmoil of his time. Influenced by American pragmatic liberalism, he campaigned in favor of free expression and strongly opposed the rise of both fascism and communism in Europe. Though nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times, Čapek never received it. However, several awards commemorate his name, such as the Karel Čapek Prize, awarded every other year by the Czech PEN Club for literary work that contributes to reinforcing or maintaining democratic and humanist values in society. He also played a key role in establishing the Czechoslovak PEN Club as a part of Internat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It has 193 member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in the non-governmental, intergovernmental and private sector. Headquartered at the World Heritage Centre in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 national commissions that facilitate its global mandate. UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations's International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.English summary). Its constitution establishes the agency's goals, governing structure, and operating framework. UNESCO's founding mission, which was shaped by the Second World War, is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboration and dialogue among nations. It pursues this objec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment, and can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role. Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoir, letters, and the essay. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed information on a particular subject.''OED'' Etymologically, the term derives from Latin ''literatura/litteratura'' "learning, a writing, grammar," originally "writing formed with letters," from ''litera/littera'' "letter". In spite of this, the term has also been applied to spok ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Culture
In sociology, the term Low culture identifies the forms of popular culture that have mass appeal, which is in contrast to High culture, which has a limited appeal to a smaller proportion of the populace. Culture theory proposes that both high culture and low culture are subcultures within a society, because each type of popular culture is mass produced by the culture industry, for every social class. Standards and definitions In ''Popular Culture and High Culture: An Analysis and Evaluation of Taste'' (1958), Herbert J. Gans defines and identifies ''Low culture'': Culture as social class Each social class possess their own types of high-culture and of low-culture, the definition and content of which are determined by the socio-economic and educational particulars, the ''habitus'' of the people who compose a given social class. Therefore, what is ''high culture'' and what is ''low culture'' has specific meanings and usages collectively determined by the members of a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Highbrow
Used colloquially as a noun or adjective, "highbrow" is synonymous with intellectual; as an adjective, it also means elite, and generally carries a connotation of high culture. The term, first recorded in 1875, draws its metonymy from the pseudoscience of phrenology, which teaches that people with large foreheads are more intelligent. Applications "Highbrow" can be applied to music, implying most of the classical music tradition; to literature—i.e., literary fiction and poetry; to films in the arthouse line; and to comedy that requires significant understanding of analogies or references to appreciate. The term ''highbrow'' is considered by some (with corresponding labels as 'middlebrow' 'lowbrow') as discerning or selective; and ''highbrow'' is currently distanced from the writer by quotation marks: "We thus focus on the consumption of two generally recognised 'highbrow' genres—opera and classical". The first usage in print of ''highbrow'' was recorded in 1884. The term was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
