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on 3/23/2005, 2:46 pm, in reply to "John Fiske. Understanding popular Culture"
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Introduction
“Popular culture is made by the people at the interface between the products of the culture industries and everyday life. Popular culture is made by the people not imposed upon them; it stems from within, from below, not from above. Popular culture is the art of making do with what the system provides” (de Certeau, 1984 in Fiske, 1989, p. 25). But what exactly is popular culture? This paper will critically analysis the book “Understanding popular culture” written by John Fiske and published in 1989. Fiske was born in Great Britain and he is an expert in the field of cultural studies. He is a professor Communication Arts and he already published several books on popular culture, like “Reading television” (1979) and “Television culture” (1987). Due to professional obligations he spent a considerable amount of time in Australia and the United States and thus in his book he focuses on white, patriarchal capitalist societies and their way of creating as well as consuming popular culture.
In this paper Fiske’s book will be evaluated by firstly introducing Fiske’s point of view in opposition to two other theories. Furthermore the content of the book will be analysed according to his theory. The last part will examine the stylistic features of the book. Finally, the must important findings will be summarised in the conclusion.
In Fiske’s book “Understanding Popular culture “ he tries to show that people are not just passive victims but active consumers that constantly resisting the texts produced by the dominant forces by giving them new meanings. However, there are two other ways of seeing popular culture which Fiske tries to rebut within his book. One is a rather pessimistic view, among others, represented by Adorno. He claims that popular culture does not exist because the dominant forces of production are too powerful. According to him people are powerless and passive which leads to a standardised and homogenised mass culture (du Gay, Hall, Janes, Mackay and Negus, 1997). The second opposing view does not agree with Fiske as in this theory popular culture is seen as outside of the dominant forces of production. According to this view people are active as they attach their own meaning to the products they use (du Gay et al., 1997). However, Fiske argues, that one cannot ignore these dominant forces as they attach a meaning to a product immediately. Thus, people can change these meanings but they can never entirely escape these dominant forces. They can just try to resist which they do by transforming the original meaning. We can deduce that Fiske’s theory is in between these just presented ones as he takes the active consumer as well as the dominant forces into account. The following part examine his argumentation throughout the book.
Fiske starts the book by familiarising the reader with the concept of popular culture. He introduces the example of the jeans which are not only to be seen as functional but also culture objects. For him culture is “concerned with meanings, pleasures and identity rather than efficiency” (Fiske, 1989, p. 1). He shows that many different meanings are attached to jeans. Fiske argues that the commodities provided by the dominant forces are indeed used by the subordinated groups but they do not remain passive victims as they attach their own meanings to the products. For him popular culture is made by the people. He states that people do not only use commodities in the way they are supposed to be used. In an active process of resistance they change the original meaning by using the jeans in a different context. He is aware of the fact that producers try to integrate these changing meanings into their products in order to remain dominant but as this is an ongoing process they will never completely succeed. Popular culture thus combines both containment and resistance (Fiske, 1989).
In the following Fiske elaborates his argument even more. The second and the third chapter show how people can turn cultural commodities to their own interests in order to find pleasures in using them (Fiske, 1989, p.69). The second chapter about “Commodities and Culture” demonstrates that popular culture is “the active process of generating and circulating meanings and pleasures within a social system” (Fiske, 1989, p. 23). The chapter is concerned with culture as a living and active process which is determined by the people and their sense of differences. In reference to him that the term popular` is “determined by the forces of domination to the extend that it is always formed in reaction to them” (Fiske, 1989, p.45).
Fiske concentrates throughout the whole book on popular pleasure as opposed to hegemonic ones. This is due to the fact that he thinks that “popular pleasures arise from the social allegiances formed by subordinated people, they are bottom-up and thus must exist in some relationship of opposition to power that attempts to discipline and control them” (Fiske, 1989, p. 49). This becomes clear in the third chapter where he focuses on these pleasures which he calls productive pleasures. Unfortunately, he does not explain the term right away which makes the reader wonder what he means. However, according to Fiske “popular pleasures exist only in its practices , contexts and moments of production” (Fiske, 1989, p. 50), which can be seen as an explanation.
The chapter about “Offensive Bodies and Carnival Pleasures” focuses on the way in which the body and its pleasure “struggle between power and evasion, discipline and liberation” (Fiske, 1989, p.70). Fiske starts this chapter by giving a brief historical overview of how popular pleasures, like carnivalesque festivals developed. He states that these festivals can be seen as a reaction of the working class against the bourgeoisie and their control over the social order (Fiske, 1989, p.70) as “excessive pleasures always threaten social control, but when these pleasures are those of subordinated groups the threat is particularly stark” (Fiske, 1989, p.75).
In the following he outlines some characteristics of texts that enable them to be transferred into popular culture. Texts in this context include everything that has a meaning, whether it is an object or a person. Popular texts can be read in very different ways as every reader has a different social background and thus attaches individual meanings to these texts. We can deduce that the interpretation of popular text differs according to the reader’s personal situation which explains Fiske’s point of view that texts are diverse and based on the context. Thus, reading a text can be seen as a productive process as people construct their own meanings. Fiske also shows uses the theories of other cultural experts. The way he interprets contributes to his theory that popular culture is not standardised and homogenised. He defends popular culture to the extend that he condemns everything that is not popular He thus argues against high culture which for him is only determined by the dominant forces without providing space for personal interpretation (Fiske, 1989).
However, there must be certain reasons that have an impact on the process of selection. These are explained in the chapter about popular discrimination. The last part of the book is concerned with politics. He explains ones more why he sees popular culture as a positive process which becomes evident when he talks about popular culture on the micro level. For him the power of popular culture is often underestimated because it is not radical but rather progressive. These changes –even though progressive- have a strong impact on the lives of the people as they can keep the dominant classes under control.
He is never criticising popular culture throughout the whole book but even though this book is strongly influenced by the authors point of view it provides a clear and broad picture in order to understand popular culture. It discusses a variety of reasons that are linked to the concept of popular culture like among others popular texts, popular discrimination and politics. Although he uses a lot of arguments of other theorists in order to evaluate his view point he underlines his reasoning with striking examples everyone can identify with. This makes it even possible for people without a cultural studies background to understand his consistent and convincing reasoning and thus, the book can be seen as a good introduction to popular culture. One problem for the female reader might be that he sees women as part of the subordinated classes which might conflict with the personal opinion but nevertheless one can enjoy reading this book as it reflects the white, patriarchal and capitalist society in a very humorously way.
Conclusion
In his book ‘Understanding popular culture’ Fiske shows that popular culture combines both containment and resistance. As consumers attach their own meanings to the products they consume they change the original meaning provided by the dominant forces. Thus, popular culture is the culture of the people in resistance to the high culture of the dominant class. Unfortunately, he sometimes has a too optimistic view condemning everything that is not popular culture. Anyhow, his way of explaining popular culture is comprehensive for every reader as he uses a lot of examples in order to explain difficult theories. He reinterprets existing theories and thus this is an interesting and original way of explaining popular culture. The book is definitely recommendable as it explains popular culture in a very broad but understandable context.