大众文化的概念之旅、演变轨迹和研究走向

文章涉及的问题有三:一,大众文化经过了Popular Culture→Kitseh→Mass Culture→Culture Industry→Popular Culture的概念之旅,其中隐含着西方学界在不同的历史时期对大众文化的认识、定位和价值判断.二,大众文化经历了从新兴文化到主导文化、从上层建筑到经济基础、从中产阶级文化到青年亚文化的演变过程,这意味着当今大众文化的构成、生产与消费机制等等已发生了种种变化.三,与此相对应,大众文化研究的姿态走向了公允平和,理论方法走向了多元共生,关联语境走向了后现代主义,聚焦领域走向了媒介文化,由此也带来了大众文化理论的不同景观.但无论如何变化,西方大众文化理论差不多都可看作“批判理论”、“文化研究”和“符号学”的变体.

Popular Culture: A Review of Its concepts, Evolution Course and Research Orientation

This paper concerns three points: First,the popular culture has gone through the concept tour:Popular Culture Kitsch→Mass Culture→Culture Industry→Popular Culture,in which implies a Western academic cognition,location and value judgment of popular culture in different historical periods.Second,popular culture has experienced the evolution from the emerging culture to the dominant culture,from the superstructure to the economic base and from middle-class culture to the youth subculture,which signifies that various changes have occurred in the composition,production and consumption mechanisms of today’s popular culture.Third,correspondingly,the research attitude of popular culture is becoming peaceful and fair;theoretical approaches are heading for plural-symbiosis;relevant context is moving toward postmodernism;focus area is on the way to media culture,which has also brought the different views of popular culture theory.But no matter how it changes,the Western mass culture theory can almost be regarded as a variant of "critical theory","culture studies" and "symbol studies".