Abstract
forms have proliferated in recent years, theories about the connection between mass-produced art and culture have not. In fact, studies characterized by considerable variety in subject matter and method are united by their common assumption that popular literature tends only to reconfirm cultural convention.' In the face of this critical consensus, however, several theorists have elaborated a qualified version of the traditional approach, suggesting that the power of popular literature's conservatism rests with its ability to disarm, even if only temporarily, actual dissatisfaction with the social institutions and forms legitimated by those conventions. Fredric Jameson and Umberto Eco agree with the early theorists of mass culture who defined its function as the expression of the ideological status quo.2 Their agreement is tempered nonetheless by their additional
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