Popular Culture: A Reader

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005

E169

0-7619-7471-7

Popular culture; a reader.

Title main entry. Ed. by Raiford Guins and Omayra Zaragoza Cruz.

Sage Publications, [c]2005

549 p.

$94.95

Forty multidisciplinary essays, spanning 1867-2002, treat a range of topics in popular culture from definitional issues to marketing, consumption, and identification. The editors trace scholarly approaches to addressing aspects of mass culture. Deconstructions of popular culture include E.R. Leavis' 1930 paper on mass civilization and minority culture and T. Modleski's feminist perspective. Classic papers by K. Marx and T.W. Adorno critique the commodification of culture. Several readings focus on the national/transnational marketing of such pop culture items as the Barbie doll. Other themes include personal taste, identity, and specific subcultures.