We are taking cultural Studies in Mac 101 this year, and I will discuss the question "what is popular culture" in my essay. "Popular culture" is building up from the "popular" and "culture", so we want to understand what popular culture is, we must know the meaning for the two words. In my essay, I will introduce what is "popular" and the meaning of "culture" first, in these part, I will define some key point of popular culture by using Raymond Williams and John Story' studies. After that I will define the important word "ideology" in cultural Studies. At the last part, I will give an example about the film for my essay writing, to support this essay. .
Popular.
If want to define what is popular culture we need to define the term popular first. "Popular" is a quit popular word in English language, when we check the dictionary, there are at list 20 meanings about it. But the most common and useful meaning is Accepted by or prevalent among the people in general and liked by acquaintances; sought after for company. .
Culture.
Raymond Williams calls culture one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language' (John Story, 1997 p2). Following Williams, we can break the culture into three meaning: .
First one is culture can refer to a general process of intellectual, spiritual and aesthetic development'. This kind of meaning about culture is simple to understand, the culture is all products of human work and thought.
Secondly, culture is a particular way of life whether of a people a period or a group'. This definition means products considered as the expression of a particular period, class, community, or population. .
The last meaning of culture in Williams' suggests is that culture could be used to refer to the works and practices of intellectual and especially artistic activity'. (John Story, 1997 p2). This kind of meaning is including intellectual and artistic activity, and the works produced by it.
