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The Great Divide and Nobrow Culture by Yaiza Llamas

 

“After the Great Divide” and “Nobrow Culture” address the concept of high and mass culture in different ways. As in ‘The Great Divide’ we approach the concept of modernism and how it had different post eras. We understand that modernism is the insistence on the autonomy of the art work while post modernism rejects the theories and practices of the Great Divide. Furthermore, we develop the concept of historical avantgarde, which aimed at developing an alternative relationship between high art and mass culture. The Great Divide takes place in the last years of the 19th century and first decades of the 20th century.

In the Nobrow culture we understand that this term refers to the space between familiar categories of high and low culture. Highbrow and lowbrow are American inventions to render culture into class.

A common characteristic from both readings is that they classify culture as something that is set for educated people. On top of that we also get to understand that high class and mass culture have become two different concepts. In fact, in ´The Great Divide', we can read “boundaries between high art and mass culture have become blurred.” Husseyn appraises the idea that we should see this as an opportunity rather than a loss of quality and failure of nerve. (Husseyn, 1986, p9) Instead of getting the idea that the mixture of these two things should be something favorable for everyone. 

As we had the chance to discuss in class, I believe this kind of reasoning of culture being separated by high class and mass culture is blurry. On one hand it insists on the idea of culture or high arts as something that is not accessible to everyone and that in a way portraits sophistication. Instead of being a generalized idea that invites all people to become a part of it in some ways it marginalizes people. Husseyn mentions how artists attempted to incorporate mass cultural forms into their work. I interpret this as a way for artist trying to make approachable all types of art in order to reach a mass culture that doesn’t involve any kind of distinction within the definition of culture.

Comments

  1. RosanaOctober 12, 2020 at 1:14 PM

    Thanks for your reflections in the readings Yaiza, it looks like you've found them inspiring and that you have done and in-depth reading! I would like to read more about how these thoughts actually reflect on any commercial product that you are familiar with.

    ReplyDelete

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