Format:
1 Online-Ressource (307 pages)
ISBN:
9781501707643
,
1501707647
,
0801415985
,
9780801493386
,
9780801415982
,
0801493382
Content:
Lively and well written, Bread and Circuses analyzes theories that have treated mass culture as either a symptom or a cause of social decadence. Discussing many of the most influential and representative theories of mass culture, it ranges widely from Greek and Roman origins, through Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Ortega y Gasset, T. S. Eliot, and the theorists of the Frankfurt Institute, down to Marshall McLuhan and Daniel Bell. Brantlinger considers the many versions of negative classicism and shows how the belief in the historical inevitability of social decay-a belief today perpetuated by the mass media themselves-has become the dominant view of mass culture in our time. While not defending mass culture in its present form, Brantlinger argues that the view of culture implicit in negative classicism obscures the question of how the media can best be used to help achieve freedom and enlightenment on a truly democratic basis.
Content:
1. Introduction: The two classicisms -- 2. The classical roots of the mass culture debate -- 3. "The opium of the people" -- 4. Some nineteenth-century themes: Decadence, masses, empire, gothic revivals -- 5. Crowd psychology and Freud's model of perpetual decadence -- 6. Three versions of modern classicism: Ortega, Eliot, Camus -- 7. The dialectic of enlightenment -- 8. Television: Spectacularity vs. McLuhanism -- 9. Conclusion: Toward post-industrial society
Note:
Cornell paperbacks
,
Includes bibliographical references and index
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0801493382
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Brantlinger, Patrick, 1941 - Bread and circuses Ithaca, N.Y. [u.a.] : Cornell Univ. Pr., 1993 ISBN 0801415985
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0801493382
Additional Edition:
Print version Brantlinger, Patrick, 1941- Bread & circuses Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 1985, ©1983
Language:
English
Subjects:
Sociology
Keywords:
Electronic books
URL:
Volltext
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