History

Examines the historical debates surrounding such key terms in cultural studies as “folk,” “mass,” and “popular” culture, through the lens of late-capitalist visual cultural production and cultural politics. Analyzes the modern implications of folk culture’s invention through Western European philosophy and its historical ties to Romantic nationalism; the creation of mass culture as a commodity form through the modern and global culture industries; and the modern and contemporary framing of popular culture as a contested terrain between state and corporate domination, subaltern resistance, and integral component of everyday life.