''From Lowbrow to Nobrow'' is a book on literary culture written by

Peter Swirski Peter Swirski is a Canadian novelist, scholar, and literary critic featured in '' Canadian Who's Who''. He is the author and editor of 19 nonfictions, including the prize-winning ''Ars Americana, Ars Politica'' (2010) and the staple of American ...

, 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 Stanislav and variants may refer to: People *Stanislav (given name), a Slavic given name with many spelling variations (Stanislaus, Stanislas, Stanisław, etc.) Places * Stanislav, Kherson Oblast, a coastal village in Ukraine * Stanislaus County, ...

, and theory of knowledge. Having gone through several printings, the book is by now a staple in American

popular culture studies Popular culture studies is the study of popular culture from a critical theory perspective combining communication studies and cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (includin ...

. It furnishes a series of analyses of the relation of popular fiction to high literary culture. In his work, Swirski challenges the

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 pseud ...

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. He does this by tracing the socio-historical development of the book publishing industry and scouring the publishing statistical data from sources such as

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

and the American Book Industry Study Group. Supported by statistics, illustrations, and case studies, the author asks for a more serious examination of popular literature. Because of its mass appeal, critics and academics are quick to conclude that popular literature is lowbrow art. Swirski asserts that in fact some of the best works in the twentieth century come from authors who refuse to succumb to either the highbrow/academic literary formulae, or to the formulaic popular genres sold at the "bestseller-and-moccacino" bookstore chains. He demonstrates his arguments in the second half of the book by analyzing three "nobrow" works:

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright, critic and journalist. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum' ...

's ''

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 Indian Ocean of a sea-dwelling rac ...

'' (1936),

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 durin ...

's '' Playback'' (1958), and

's '' The Chain of Chance'' (1976). All three, and many others mentioned and discussed in this book, are exemplary of the nobrow cultural formation which spans the twentieth century.

Sources

"Lowbrow, Highbrow, and the Categorization of Art"
'' Columbia Journal of American Studies'' 2005 non-fiction books Books of literary criticism