“First, without appreciating good literature, no one will really understand the nature of society, second, literary critical analysis can be applied to certain social phenomenon other than “academically respectable” literature (for example, the popular arts, mass commuications) so as to illuminate their meanings for individuals and their societies (Hoggart, 1996) (Hebdige 146).
Hebdige’s use of Hoggart’s basic premises of cultural studies helps to explain the massive influence of Macherey’s notion of intertextuality. We are unable to understand our world around us without being influenced by what we have observed or read in the past. De Saussure also emphasizes this point: “Language is a system of independent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of others” (de Saussure 7).
I don’t believe that Hoggart is saying that in order to understand your role in society, one needs to have read every word of War and Peace, however, he is critical of the less serious media forms that have infiltrated society in such a grand scale and is worried that they have begun to define our current culture.
However, with the rise in DIYers (Jenkins) and the increasing popularity and following they receive, it seems unavoidable for “good literature” to dominant the public sphere. These forms of media, in my opinion, have a greater effect on this generation of viewers then those deemed “academically respectable” which are being pushed aside or even morphed into popular art. This overhauling of radical, liberal, or untraditional phenomenon certainly has “illuminated meanings for individuals and societies,” a trend that has certainly posed a threat to the neoconservative lifestyle.
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