Critical Positions On Popular Culture

1)Link to the famous marxist aphorism that men make history, but not under circumstances of their own choosing. We are subject to social conditions first.

2)Economic basis of society of society which gives birth to superstructure (dialectically) which in turn conditions consciousness.

3)Intellectual life, Cultural life and world view are all reflexes of the economic relations of Capitalism in general. MATERIALISM

4)Material productive forces - this is both the working class +industry +tendency toward overproduction inherent in Capitalism. This equals conflict and ultimately crisis

5)Shift in economic foundations = shift in consciousness - perhaps link to Williamson later. Also late capitalism /commodity culture /  Relational Aesthetics vs. early capitalism / taylorism / heartfield

Key concepts- cheap emotional appeals, weak imitations of actual life, sentiment- causes maladjustment in actual life. Hollywood films are ‘largely masturbatory’.

The Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) was a research centre at the University of Birmingham. It was founded in 1963 by Richard Hoggart, its first director. Its object of study was the then new field of cultural studies.

The Centre was the locus for what became known as the Birmingham School of Cultural Studies, or, more generally, British cultural studies. Birmingham School theorists such as Stuart Hall emphasized the reciprocity in how cultural texts, even mass-produced products are used, questioning the valorized division between "producers" and "consumers" that was evident in cultural theory such as that of Theodor Adorno and the Frankfurt School.