High and Low Culture

Culture is something that will unite people in the same category and separate people into different categories based on their clothing, languages, lifestyle, preferences in hobbies and other different aspects.

High culture and low culture is one of the examples. High culture usually associates with fine arts such as opera, classical music, ballet, classical painting and so on. Meanwhile low culture which is also known as popular culture (pop-culture) is usually appeal to the taste of the masses.

According to Herbert Gans, an American sociologist, people select and choose the preferences which is meaningful and make sense to them based on their given resources in income and education. He also stated that 'high and low culture' is just functioned as domination and self-serving for elites to affirm their own standards and to express for other standards. For example, plays are usually associate with the high culture and the elites but historian 'Lawrence Levine shows that both the rich and the poor Americans enjoyed the works of William Shakespeare. 


References and Bibliography:
Benzecry. E.C, (2014) 'An Opera House For The "Paris Of South America": Pathways To The Institutionalization Of High Culture'. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43694714 [Accessed on 16th November 2018].

Berger. B. M, (1977) 'Popular Culture And High Culture: An Analysis And Evaluation Of Taste'. Available at: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/stable/2066324?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents [Accessed on 16th November 2018].

Garrod. J and Lawson. T, (2001) 'Dictionary Of Sociology'. Available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/herts/reader.action?docID=1074695&query=&ppg=121 [Accessed on 16th November 2018].

Heller. A, (2015) 'Gyo¨ rgy Ma´rkus’s Concept Of High Culture: A Critical Evaluation'. Available at: https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/doi/10.1177/0725513614565057 [Accessed on 16th November 2018].

Markus. G, (2013) 'The Path Of Culture'. Available at: https://www-tandfonline-com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/doi/abs/10.1179/1440991713Z.0000000003 [Accessed on 16th November 2018].

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