Reference no: EM133750199

QUESTION 1. (10 points) While the Culturalism movement was in many ways a reaction against the elitism of the Culture and Civilization tradition, its main figures nonetheless repeated a core assumption of both Arnold and the Leavisites. What was this assumption?

QUESTION 2. (10 points) What three specific claims does Adorno make about popular music?

QUESTION 3. (30 points) The culture industry today (in the form of Hollywood, Bollywood, the music industry, Broadway, the fashion industry, etc.) often constructs its image in ways that reflect both the values and aesthetics of traditional high culture and contemporary popular culture. An artist like Beyoncé produces work in the intimate and popular format of a music video, but also appears at lavish (expensive) galas alongside other popular icons. Similarly, its defenders and critics both with appeal to high cultural values and popular culture aesthetics to praise or critique contemporary cultural production. Using one of the methods we've discussed in this class, offer a criticism or defense of the contemporary culture industry that reflects an awareness of key arguments around popular culture. Your response should draw on a specific example (a film, album, artist, related event, etc.). This question will require a few paragraphs to answer, but not an essay.

QUESTION 4. (10 points) The Marxist theorist Frederic Jameson in his essay "Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism" asks for a dialectical understanding of capitalism. He suggests that Marx asks us to see that "capitalism is at one and the same time the best thing that has ever happened to the human race, and the worst" (86). How do Marx, and other Marxist scholars, see capitalism as in one sense a positive force?

QUESTION 5. (10 points) Post-modernism can be understood as a reaction against modernism in culture and art. Describe post-modernism's main critiques of modernism.

QUESTION 6. (30 points) The advent of online shopping (Amazon, Uber Eats), streaming services (Spotify, Netflix), and social media (Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok) have together shifted our cultural experience in a variety of ways, potentially altering our perceptions of global phenomena, community, and material goods and services. Supporters of these services often promote them for their capacity to shrink distances in our world, while critics instead observe that they promote increasing separation while only achieving the feeling of proximity, isolating their convenience from their consequences. Using one specific lens or method from those we have discussed this term, make a claim as to how one of these services has altered our cultural experience. Your perspective may be critical, supportive, or even neutral, but it must show an awareness of the arguments made by the theorists you include and an understanding of how their main concepts are relevant to the question. You do not need to include quotes or references, but a complete response will include an accurate use of key terms from these theorists' work. As before, this question will require a few paragraphs to answer,