Hoofdstukken over kunstenaars en kunstuitingen vormen het uitgangspunt van deze Studie over de relatie tussen avant-garde kunst en de massacultuur

For Freshman Composition courses and Popular Culture courses. From Barbie to the Internet, the Simpsons to the malls, this engaging text on pop culture helps students develop critical and analytical skills and write clear prose while reading, thinking, and writing about subjects they find interesting. Spanning a full range of topics, this text provides key reading and writing strategies; it contains essays addressing a topic generally followed by an in-depth exploration of related material. In addition to the readings, each section begins with a catchy cultural artifact that leads students into a detailed introduction, discussion questions, essay topics, and suggestions for further reading and research.

In the United Kingdom, the notion of a common culture has always been suggestive of a national culture which is accessible to all and provides various kinds of benefits to all, including participation in national cultural life. Brian Russell Graham's exploration of the theme aims to clarify how we might define common culture in the twenty-first century, and offers a perspective on specific benefits of such a shared culture. Common culture can generate a sense of inclusive national identity, he argues. Additionally, it can even out differences in our so-called ‘cultural capital’ – it can make people more equal in terms of their cultural lives.

Teresa Pac provides a much-needed contribution to the discussion on shared culture as foundational to societal survival. Through the examination of common culture as a process in medieval Kraków, Poznań, and Lublin, Pac challenges the ideology of difference—institutional, religious, ethnic, and nationalistic. Similarly, Pac maintains, twenty-first century Polish leaders utilize anachronistic approaches in the invention of Polish Catholic identity to counteract the country’s increasing ethnic and religious diversity. As in the medieval period, contemporary Polish political and social elites subscribe to the European Union’s ideology of difference, legitimized by a European Christian heritage, and its intended basis for discrimination against non-Christians and non-white individuals under the auspices of democratic values and minority rights, among which Muslims are a significant target.

Reassesses the short life and career of American essayist, critic, and founder of cultural radicalism Bourne (1886-1918), known today mostly for his opposition to US military involvement in Europe and warnings about the military industrial complex. Vaughan (political science, U. of Minnesota-Duluth) argues that his stance from outside establishment perspectives was not a retreat from politics as many have claimed, but a form of political engagement free from the suppositions that impede genuine debate and democratic change. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

First Published in 1993. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.