Report on culture towards critical rapport: basis for cautious, conscious and careful contemporary cultural studies and literacy

Abstract

PurposeThis paper offers a critical exegesis of popular culture and its intersections with the other cultural expressions in the contemporary Philippine scene. As a distinct Reformed-Evangelical critique, the paper hopes to shed light on the areas of popular culture that are often assumed rather than discussed; affirmed but not analysed.Design/methodology/approachAlthough the following exposition is readily and arguably Western by orientation, most especially on the (post)modern mood in the space it belongs, as hegemonised by Anglo-American discourse, most of the concepts that this paper tackles are definitely universal and principled in praxes. The persuasion is that these criticisms will cover even the Filipino sub-/culture and sensibility in its attempt to exegete culture ontologically and contemplate on the phenomenon of popular culture at the very least. In that case, everyone who reads and specialises in cultural hermeneutics is thereby urged to offer a conscious understanding, comprehension and correspondence on the aforementioned particular aspects, albeit not everyone in the masses can readily grasp what this paper intends to build its discourse on. In carrying out this cultural exegetical task, certain markers and indicators will be used as halters, so to defamiliarise one’s attention on matters that may have immediate correspondence to the Filipino culture in its contemporary scene/sense, be it urban, suburban or rural depending on the spatial location of the readers as they interact with this treatise. As a whole, this paper endeavours to mould and uphold one’s glocal consciousness, distinctions, and differentiations in the assessment of culture, popular culture and popular culture in the Philippines vis-a-vis or vs other factors of this shared reality, sub-/culture and literacy and their probable popular culture counterparts elsewhere in the signifying and significant human experiences, challenges and perspectives.FindingsThe paper finds out that without a critico-practical approach to the implications of popular culture, it will be an insidious challenge to anyone who wishes to coexist with it, most especially the subcultural expressions of certain communities.Originality/valueThe paper possesses novelty in its being an intersection of cultural studies, criticism, theology and philosophy as basis for interpretation of certain socio-cultural phenomena in the contemporary urban space.