Popular Pleasures
An Introduction to the Aesthetics of Popular Visual Culture
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6550435 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Paul Duncum (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Publication date | 2021-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | BOOK |
| Venue | Popular Pleasures (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing plc (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.5040/9781350193437 |
| OpenAlex | W4246659862 |
| Open Library | OL34770085M |
| ISBN | 9781350193406, 9781350193437 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
Today’s many popular aesthetic pleasures have a very long history. Paul Duncum considers the historical critical discourses, and socio-political issues raised by aesthetic pleasures in fifteen thematic chapters. Using illustrative examples from the past, present, and across cultures, he challenges the idea of any decline of cultural standards and argues that no grounds exist for cultural pessimism. Refusing to condemn popular culture on the basis of taste, he reserves critique for the socio-political ideologies aesthetics invariably serve. Art history, film, cultural studies, and philosophical aesthetics are each employed to show that the sensory/emotional lures of today’s popular culture are mostly identical to those of premodern fine art. They include the violent, the horrific, the sentimental, the exotic, the erotic, and the humorous. Some of these pleasures derive from our evolutionary biology; they are all an important part of what it means to be human, and central to understanding contemporary society. Examples are wide-ranging, including British seaside postcards, Disney films, Nazi propaganda, burlesque, modern advertising, as well as many exemplars of fine art. The book reveals fresh insights for all those studying visual culture, art history, aesthetics, media studies, and media and art education. Defining aesthetics as sensory, emotional lure, each of fifteen chapters addresses a particular visual culture pleasure: a realistic style, the illusionistic, the bright and busy, the highly emotional, the sentimental, the vulgar, the violent, the horrific, the miraculous, the exotic, the erotic, the spectacular, the narrative, the formulaic, and the humorous. Each is considered in terms of its historical discourse by elite critics; its many and varied lures; and its problematic socio-political issues. Illustrative examples are drawn from the visual culture of the past, the present, and across cultures. Premodern fine art is shown often to appeal to the same pleasures as popular culture. Throughout, the pleasures of today’s popular culture are shown to be perennial and offer no justification for the frequent claim of declining cultural standards. The pleasures themselves are treated as value neutral with criticism directed at the causes they serve
Aesthetics · Art · Ideology · Literature · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Sociology · Visual culture · Anthropology · Computer Science · History · Law · Public Spaces through Art · Visual Culture and Art Theory · Aesthetics (Philosophy) · Art & Visual Culture · Art and popular culture · History and Theory of Art (Art) · Philosophy of Art and Aesthetics (Art) · Theory of art
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |