Cultural Studies: Concept One - High Culture

Concept of High Culture 

Cultural Studies has emerged as a pivotal interdisciplinary field since the mid-20th century.

Its primary focus is the intricate relationships between culture, power, identity, and societal structures.

Within this framework, two fundamental concepts stand at the forefront: 

High culture and popular culture. 

Let's discuss here what high culture is.

Defining High Culture

High culture is conventionally understood as the domain of elite cultural practices and institutions, predominantly associated with the upper class.

Its cultural products include:

• Classical music, such as orchestras and operas
• Classical literature, fine arts (notably painting and sculpture)
• Classical theatre forms like ballet,
• Fashion is epitomised by haute couture

These cultural expressions are characterised by the following qualities:

• Refinement
• Elegance
• Sophistication
• Intellectualism
• Exclusivity

Thus, high culture is the dominant domain of a group or community with a higher socioeconomic status.

Critiques of High Culture

The notion of high culture has faced significant criticism for two main reasons:

• Perpetuating exclusionary practices, effectively sidelining "the other" and reinforcing a cultural hierarchy distinguishing between high and low cultures.
• Maintaining this hierarchical division fosters an environment where access to cultural legitimacy is restricted, thereby contributing to social stratification.

Evolving Definitions of High Culture 

The definition given above is not definite, as it evolves and changes continuously due to the impact of emerging movements such as enlightenment and modernity.

This poses the question: 

What specifically contributed to the evolving definitions of high culture?  

The simple answer is that all the preceding literary, social, and cultural movements from the Renaissance to the post-modern times contributed to it.

 

Let's discuss how these movements impacted the concept and distorted its definition:

The Renaissance (c. 14th - 17th Century): 

• Affirmed the existence of high culture by revering the classical texts and encouraged the rise of vernacular literature, which broadened the scope of cultural production. 
• Favoured wider dissemination of the Bible, a symbol of high culture (in the past) and also emphasised intellectual and artistic pursuits (the hallmarks of high culture)
• However, the patronage system kept the cultural production under the control of the high class. 

The Enlightenment (c. 17th - 18th Century):

• Emphasised reason, intellect, and order, and fostered the growth of academies, salons, and public concerts, which helped to codify and disseminate particular cultural forms deemed "enlightened" or "civilised." 
• Thinkers like Kant explored aesthetics and the judgment of taste, attempting to provide a philosophical basis for what constitutes "good" (ie, "high") art.   
• Laid the groundwork for broader public engagement with 'high culture', even if access was limited to the court and church.

Romanticism (Late 18th - Mid-19th Century):   

• Reacted against the strict rationality of the Enlightenment by championing emotion, individualism, the sublime, and the "genius" of the artist.
• Valued folk art, national traditions, and subjective experience.
• Implicitly questioned the exclusivity of high culture by highlighting the aesthetics of popular forms and individual emotional response, rather than just learned appreciation of classical forms. 

Rise of the Bourgeoisie & Industrial Revolution (18th - 19th Century): 

• High culture became a way for the new bourgeoisie to assert social status; for instance, Museums, opera houses, and concert halls became public (though not universally accessible) institutions. 
• The rise of popular entertainment (popular culture) created a clearer dichotomy between "high" and "low" culture. 
• And the mass production of cultural products (boosted by IR) led to the coexistence/collision of mass culture and high culture. 

Modernism (Late 19th - Mid-20th Century): 

• A radical break from traditional forms and values, modernists challenged the bourgeois tastes and societal norms, experimented with form, embraced abstraction, and often cultivated an intellectual, sometimes intentionally obscure, style.   
• Reinforced the idea of "high culture" as a difficult and more intellectually demanding field to appreciate and defined itself against mass culture, which it viewed as commercialised and superficial. 
• Think of the complexity of Joyce's Ulysses.

The Frankfurt School & Marxist Critiques (Early to Mid-20th Century):

• Thinkers like Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer analysed the culture industry.
• Argued that (mass) cultural products made in large amounts under capitalism keep people calm and in check, unlike "real" or "high" art, which can challenge and resist.
• Provided a powerful theoretical framework for understanding the distinction between high and mass culture.

The Advent of Mass Media (20th Century - Present):

• The printing press had started this, yet radio, film, television, and later the internet dramatically increased the accessibility and proliferation of various cultural forms (This blurred the lines between "high" and "low.")
• Initially, many new media (like film and popular music) were considered low culture, but gradually developed into a modern artistic canon (e.g., "art house" cinema, critically acclaimed jazz or rock music), challenging the traditional hierarchy.

Postmodernism & Post-Structuralism (Mid-20th Century - Present):

• Questioned and deconstructed grand narratives, fixed meanings, and hierarchies, promoted by social media, including the distinction between high and low culture. 
• Embraced pastiche, irony, and the blending of high and low cultural elements that led to a significant erosion of the traditional definition of high culture.
• Thinkers like Bourdieu explored how "taste" (and thus distinctions of high culture) is socially conditioned and serves as a form of "cultural capital."   
• The very idea of an objective, universal standard of aesthetic value came under scrutiny.
• Popular forms, genre fiction, street art, etc., are accepted as the legitimate areas of cultural production and study.   

Cultural Studies, Feminist Critiques, and Post-Colonial Critiques (Mid-20th Century - Present):

• Highlighted how traditional definitions of "high culture" often reflected the perspectives and values of dominant groups (e.g., white, male, European). 
• Worked to recover and validate cultural contributions from marginalised groups.
• Broadened the canon by including works by women, people of colour, and artists from non-Western traditions. 
• Challenged the Eurocentric and patriarchal biases inherent in many older definitions of high culture, leading to a more inclusive and diverse understanding of what constitutes valuable cultural expression.

As a result, the definition of high culture moved from the status of 'fixedly classical, aristocratic' to the status of 'fluid, contested, and continuously shifting.' Key shifts include:

• Broadening of forms: from 'exclusively classical and elite forms' into 'a wider range of artistic expressions and popular forms' (more inclusive)
• changing arbiters of taste: from 'the church and aristocracy' to 'the bourgeoisie, academics, critics' (more democratised but influenced by capitalism)
• Deconstruction of hierarchy: Recognition and dismantling of the sociopolitical factors that favour the concept of superiority of certain cultural forms over others. 
• Democratisation: incorporating cultural contributions from different types of social groups and global traditions. 

Texts in Favour of High Culture

Before the emergence of Cultural Studies as a formal field, notable thinkers such as Matthew Arnold, Immanuel Kant, and Friedrich Nietzsche delved into the significance of high culture and its interplay with societal dynamics.

• Arnold's "Culture and Anarchy" (1869)
• Kant's "Critique of Judgment" (1790)
• Nietzsche's "The Birth of Tragedy" (1872)

These texts laid the groundwork for understanding high culture’s role within the broader cultural discourse.

Critiques of High and Popular Cultures

Following the rise of Cultural Studies, a new group of thinkers, including F.R. Leavis, T.S. Eliot, José Ortega y Gasset, and Pierre Bourdieu, critically examined the relevance and decline of high culture in contemporary society. Their important works are:

• Eliot's The Waste Land (1922) and Tradition and Individual Talent (1919)
• Gasset's The Revolt of the Masses (1923)
• Leavis' The Great Tradition (1948)
• Dwight MacDonald's "Masscult and Midcult" (1960)
• Bourdieu's Distinction (1979)

All of these writers hypothesised an ambivalent idea of popular/low culture, while sharing a somewhat constructive notion of high culture. Thus, they significantly shaped the ongoing discussions of it.

In summary, the analysis of high culture within Cultural Studies reveals a complex relationship with societal norms, power dynamics, and changing cultural and literary landscapes, inviting continued dialogue about its significance in an increasingly democratised cultural environment.

We will discuss the following in the upcoming posts:

The role of the Birmingham School of theorists in the emergence of cultural studies as an authentic field of research, and the important concepts and terms connected with the theory.

THANK YOU FOR READING

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Key words: high culture, Cultural Studies, origin of cultural studies, important cultural theorists and writers, etc.