Popular Cultural Phenomenon Research Articles

Ethnic minority community access to popular culture in the context of tourism (case of Thai ethnic group in Lac Village, Mai Chau, Hoa Binh, Vietnam)

Abstract Tourism is a growing service economic sector that creates jobs for many communities in the world. Ethnic minority communities in many countries are also now taking part in tourism activities. Vietnam is a country with great potentials for natural landscapes, historical values, indigenous culture of ethnic groups with habits and lifestyles, rich culinary culture of regions. It is the basis for development of tourism. Through tourism, tourists will understand the daily life of indigenous peoples, but at the same time people in these ethnic minority communities will have the opportunity to access popular cultural phenomena. This thesis discusses the ethnic minority communities’ access to popular culture through tourism such as mass media, popular culinary culture or mass tourism. The case study was conducted in a village of ethnic minorities in Hoa Binh province, North Vietnam which has been undergoing changes under the impact of tourism in recent years.

<em>The Simpsons</em> Do the Nineties

<em>The Simpsons</em> Do the Nineties

Newly generated ritual in the age of digital technology

Abstract This study aims at re-constructing the philosopher Walter Benjamin’s celebrated contention from his 1936 article, ‘The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction’, regarding the disappearance of aura and ritual within widely replicated artworks. By introducing artworks that circulate within virtual space, I will demonstrate how, in the era of digital technology, numerous examples show us that mass reproduction helps aura to exist; leads to the creation of new ritual phenomena; and both recuperates and transforms the idea of the ‘disappearance’ of rituals. In this article, transformation of these newly generated rituals appears via the generation of online fan fiction. First, the article details rituals created by the character, Spock, in the television series, Star Trek (Roddenberry, 1966–69), followed by the phenomenon of 1990s Korean popular culture, fan fiction. In addition, the scope expands to include an example of ‘after school programs’ incorporating K-pop, allowing digital spaces to produce and foster new forms of ritual via online artworks. This article references sociocultural examples from film and aura in American television, and then highlights two Korean fan communities to suggest an extended interpretation of Benjamin’s ideas to include artworks circulating in digital environments.

Nordic Modernists in the Circus. On the Aesthetic Reflection of a Transcultural Institution

Around 1900 the circus was not only an important and highly popular cultural phenomenon all over Europe, but also an inspiration to writers and artists at the onset of Modernism. As an intrinsically intermedial form with international performers, it can be seen as an expression of certain important characteristics of modern life like innovation, mobility, dynamics, speed and vigor. Its displays of color and excitement, of bodies in motion and often provocative gender relations were experienced by authors as a challenge to create new aesthetic forms. However, the circus does not only figure prominently in well-known works by Kafka and Thomas Mann and paintings by Degas, Macke or Leger, it is also thematized in texts by Scandinavian authors. When writers like Henrik Ibsen, Herman Bang, Ola Hansson and Johannes V. Jensen referred to the circus in their works, they represented it as an experience of modernity and addressed themes like alterity, mobility, voyeurism, new gender relations and ambivalent emotions. As a self-reflexive sign, the circus even served to represent the fragile status of art in modernity and thus made an important contribution to the development of Modernism.

Game of Thrones and the hidden apocalypse

Abstract HBO’s Game of Thrones (2011–present) is based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (1996–ongoing) book series. This Gothic fantasy world, which is based in a medieval-like period, where a struggle for the iron throne of Westeros is marked by a kingdom-wide civil war that encompasses wave after wave of massacres, betrayals and clandestine affairs, has become a popular culture phenomenon. The presence of ‘priests’ and ‘priestesses’ through the storyline provide religious undertones with the predatory, hive-minded zombie White Walkers being the key threat to the kingdom from the frozen north. Apocalyptic scenarios in popular culture have often been secularized, however, Martin explores the mysteries of what it is to be human and the fragility of existence by using religion as a central plot element, which this article will explore. Buried truths come to the fore in the ultimate battle of the living against the dead, and the trajectory of the narrative highlights the plot’s impending apocalyptic event, bringing otherwise enemies together. The article explores the connections made between the characters to that of biblical texts from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, and the prophesized destruction of the earth.

MASS HUMAN AND THE PSYCHAGOGIE PROBLEM IN THE CONDITIONS OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL CRISIS DEEPENING

Problem setting. The anthropological crisis in XX-XXI centuries led human to the edge of extinction as metaphysical so actual. The problem became especially aggravated in Post-structuralism and Post-modernism as well as with emergence of the transhuman- ism. Today there is no philosophic doctrine proposing the real ways of the crisis negotia- tion but they ought to be built otherwise human will have no future in its philosophical meaning.Recent research and publications analysis. One of the first who claimed and substantiated the anthropological crisis was E. Husserl. Concerning the problems of mass society, popular culture and mass human specifying the anthropological crisis we have to name the researches of Frankfurt School thinkers, K. Jaspers, O. Spengler,H. M. Enzensberger, J. Baudrillard, others. The attention has to be paid to the J. Orte- ga y Gasset who formulated the concepts of «mass society» and «mass human» and who identified these phenomena with the anthropological crisis. The M. Buber’s andM. Foucault’s works were useful to explain the anthropological crisis essence and to build the new human life strategy in particular with the Foucault’s elaboration of the psychagogie.Paper objective. The general analysis of the anthropological crisis, the detection of the interdependency between the crisis and mass society, popular culture and mass human phenomena could be named as the aims of the article. To show the abruption between the human being and the knowledge production which is turned into the consciousness indus- try are also the task of the research. To bear in mind the technical factor and its influence on the anthropological crisis deepening the article is also aimed at the research of psy- chagogie as the possible way of the human formation.Paper main body. The development of the western civilisation naturally formed the mass society and mass human phenomena. Mass human is mediocrity with no genius. As a product of a mass society mass human is characterised by the continual increasing of the needs and by the inborn ingratitude to everything that realises those needs. Such paradox transformed human into the product of popular culture. Counting technical com- ponent and the productive character of the knowledge receiving its necessary to interpret human as a result of the consciousness industry when any knowledge is considered to be unfamiliar to the human being, not enrooted into the human life. So progress in knowledge is transformed into the simple accumulation, it doesn’t influence on the human being, and the truth of human life is lost. To overcome the anthropological crisis and to avoid the further abruption between the human being and the knowledge as the essence of the mo- dernity it is proposed to change the way of human formation by implementation of the psychagogie. This method is considered to be not only the way of human nurturing but as well the condition of changing the notion about human.Conclusions of the research. The anthropological crisis is deepening and civilisation doesn’t propose the exit from this situation. So one of the ways of its overcoming is to implement the new approach into the nurturing system using psychagogie as the true philosophical basis of the human self-consciousness.

When popular culture phenomena provide experimental grounds for science: The example of death’s perception, bereavement and mourning

Abstract

Internet rumours with Chinese characteristics

Abstract Internet rumours are a global popular culture phenomenon. For instance, the claims that Barack Obama was not born in America persisted throughout his presidency. Despite the technological means used to control the Internet and the legislation against the spread of rumours there are many false stories on the Internet in China and removing them is a full-time task. Although the quote, ‘When you open the window, some flies may come in’ 打开窗户，苍蝇可能会飞进 (Deng Xiaoping on the Open Door Policy), refers to the opening up of China in 1978, it is still relevant as a response to the consequences of the Internet and the way it is managed. This article investigates the discourses surrounding the regulations about the spreading of rumours and argues that the regulations are used to maintain control over the narrative of events so as to preserve and reaffirm the government’s legitimacy to rule. The legislation is used as a justification to censor information that the government deems sensitive and this has been used as a reason to imprison activists and to shape popular culture. The regulations are also used to prevent widespread public panic or unrest, as was the case in 2011, when there was panic buying of salt thought to give protection from nuclear fallout that was rumoured to be heading to China from Fukushima. The application of the law can at times be arbitrary and planted rumours are used during factional fighting that is played out in the media and online. Xi Jinping has also used the tightening of rumour regulations as a part of factional fighting and in his consolidation of power. The following case studies act as empirical data to further illustrate the ways in which rumour and the legislative attempts to control it are used to shape Chinese cyberspace and online popular culture.

Karaoke, Imitatio Prominentis, and Imitatio Dei

This article investigates the relation between the religious concept imitatio dei and the popular cultural phenomenon, karaoke, which is extremely popular all around the world but, in particular, in Asia. Imitatio dei, the imitation of divinity, can be linked to karaoke by tracing both phenomena back to a philosophic-anthropological feature: imitatio prominentis, the imitation of outstanding persons. According to research findings in comparative religion, imitatio dei, the imitation of god(s) in cultic-religious contexts, is found in several religious rituals in diverse cultures—for example, in transition rituals such as birth, initiation, marriage, and funeral rituals. It can be inferred that imitatio dei is a sub-phenomenon of imitatio prominentis, the imitation of outstanding beings or persons. It can be shown that imitatio prominentis is a philosophic-anthropological datum or a part of human nature. Karaoke must be rendered as a popular cultural manifestation of imitatio prominentis. The investigation takes a transdisciplinary-synthetic approach interweaving research findings from cultural critique, cultural studies, art theory, philosophical anthropology, and comparative religious studies.

Cultural Mediators Seduced byMad Men: How Cultural Journalists Legitimized a Quality TV Series in the Nordic Region

Based on theories about the role of cultural mediators in cultural production and using the TV series Mad Men as a case, this article investigates how cultural journalists in the Nordic countries have contributed to legitimizing “quality TV series” as a worthy field of aesthetic consumption. Key analytical points are as follows: (1) cultural journalists legitimize Mad Men’s quality by addressing aspects internal (aesthetic markers) and aspects external (culture industry markers) to the series, as well as the series’ broader social and historical anchoring; (2) Nordic cultural journalists position themselves positively toward the TV series based on their professional expertise and their personal taste preferences and predilections; (3) these legitimation processes take place across journalistic genres, pointing to the importance not only of TV criticism, epitomized by the review, but of cultural journalism more broadly in constructing affirmative attitudes toward popular culture phenomena such as TV series.

Художественно-экспрессивное мышление и современное художественное пространство Yкраины

Artistic-expression Thinking in Ukrainian Modern Popular CultureThe article is devoted to the question of the necessarity of differentia in the art thinking such as the artistic-expression thinking, and also analyses its nature and its original features made in artistic space of Ukraine.Connection between artistic-expression thinking, as phenomenon, and artistic products in Ukrainian modern popular culture is analyzed. The article is devoted to the problem of the main feature of the Ukrainian national character, and also the domination of ideal of beauty in Ukrainian national tradition is considered.The development of aesthetical sensitizm, but not sentimentalism, is a key trait as the feature of the Ukrainian national temper.

State‐Endorsed Popular Culture: A Case Study of the North Korean Girl Band Moranbong

AbstractThis article examines the emergence of Moranbong as a new popular cultural phenomenon in North Korea. I am interested to examine the patron–client relationship in North Korea by analysing the personal patronage extended by North Korean autocrat Kim Jong‐un to the all‐female pop band Moranbong. In return for propaganda performances to convey images of material well‐being of the regime and extolling the virtues of the ultimate leader, the autocratic regime bestows social recognition, legitimacy and fame to Moranbong members as a reward. Through an analysis of patron–client relationship in the North Korean political system, I move on to examine the ideological contents of Moranbong and the propaganda value‐add they bring to the North Korean political system. Here, interpretations of Moranbong's symbolisms by both internal and external audiences are examined based on media reports and other writings that originated from both Korean and international sources.

The Charismatic Cultural Life of Cybernetics: Reading Norbert Wiener as Visible Scientist

Background Despite cybernetics’ short, incandescent life as a scientific knowledge, it has had an enduring cultural legacy.Analysis This article reads Norbert Wiener, the “father of cybernetics,” as a visible scientist, through an analysis of his media profile, in order to explore cybernetics as a popular culture phenomenon in the United States in the late 1940s and the 1950s.Conclusion and implications Cybernetics emerges in the post-WWII era as a charismatic knowledge whose aura of wonder and future possibility shapes our interpretation of computing technology to this day.

Resistance to Western Popular and Pop-Culture in India

The essay is designed to present the phenomena of popular culture, its difference from pop culture, both products of modern West, and their impact on film and advertisement media in India. First, the discussion focuses on the Critical School which proposed the initial thesis of commodification of culture with a resultant “lowering” of standards to appeal to “the masses”, and an appeal to the “average” tastes. In the essay an argument is presented that pop culture is a “critique” of popular culture and is an elitist position attempting to shock popular mores and media content. Given this setting, it is argued that while India has followed both the globalizing popular and pop cultures, neither are adequate to encompass Indian media, specifically their film content.

Yoga Jam: Remixing kīrtan in the Art of Living

Yoga Jam are a group of musicians from the United Kingdom who are active members of the Art of Living, a transnational Hindu-derived meditation group. Yoga Jam organize events—also referred to as yoga raves and yoga remixes—that combine Hindu devotional songs (bhajans) and chants (mantras) with modern Western popular musical genres, such as soul, rock, and particularly electronic dance music. This hybrid music is often played in a clublike setting, and dancing is interspersed with yoga and meditation. Yoga jams are creative fusions of what at first sight seem to be two incompatible phenomena—modern electronic dance music culture and ancient yogic traditions. However, yoga jams make sense if the Durkheimian distinction between the sacred and the profane is challenged, and if tradition and modernity are not understood as existing in a sort of inverse relationship. This paper argues that yoga raves are authenticated through the somatic experience of the modern popular cultural phenomenon of clubbing combined with therapeutic yoga practices and validated by identifying this experience with a reimagined Vedic tradition.

Pendidikan Kristiani sebagai Instrumen Penyadaran Pentingnya Pertumbuhan Spiritualitas dalam Konteks Budaya Populer

This article is written based on my observation and experience, who "sucked"� into populer culture. People inevitably will always "sucked"� into the black hole of culture. In popular culture, people are considered to be humans if only they satisfy their libido. So, popular culture can blurring self identity in the society, because communal similarity is preferred. Self identity formed from communal understanding of popular culture concept and force� someone to follow it. Therefore, the challenge of popular culture to spirituality is very obvious because it concerns a person identity. Spirituality always departs from the inside to the outside. While the phenomenon of popular culture, the meaning is controlled by the community and adapted into self. This article written to realizing the importance of spiritual growth in the context of popular culture, which can be done firstly through Christian Education.

A KORA ÚJKORI POPULÁRIS KULTÚRA VÁLTOZATAI ANGLIÁBAN

A tanulmány röviden felvázolja azokat a jelenségeket, melyek a kora újkori Angliában a korabeli populáris és elit kultúra közti komplex interakciók eredményeként jöttek létre, főként William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson és más, kevésbé ismert szerzők (Philip Stubbes, Nicholas Breton) műveire támaszkodva, elemezve azt, hogy a korabeli közszínház és népszerű könyvkiadás miként használta fel és alakította át az eredetileg orális-rituális és nem profitorientált alkotásokat saját szórakoztatóipari, politikai vagy kritikai céljai érdekében. A kutatás különböző státuszú, eredetű és műfajú szövegeket vizsgál meg, hogy az általánosabb tendenciák kirajzolódjanak, azonban szem előtt tartja azokat a finom különbségeket, melyek részben abból adódnak, hogy szóbeli-rituális jelenségeket írott szövegeken keresztül igyekszünk feltérképezni (erről lásd Jan Assmann elméletét a kulturális emlékezetről), részben pedig arra vezethetők vissza, hogy különböző szerzők saját céljaik érdekében más-más módon használták fel a korabeli populáris kultúra elemeit.

The language used in describing autobiographical memories prompted by life period visually presented verbal cues, event-specific visually presented verbal cues and short musical clips of popular music

ABSTRACTHere, we examined linguistic differences in the reports of memories produced by three cueing methods. Two groups of young adults were cued visually either by words representing events or popular cultural phenomena that took place when they were 5, 10, or 16 years of age, or by words referencing a general lifetime period word cue directing them to that period in their life. A third group heard 30-second long musical clips of songs popular during the same three time periods. In each condition, participants typed a specific event memory evoked by the cue and these typed memories were subjected to analysis by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) program. Differences in the reports produced indicated that listening to music evoked memories embodied in motor-perceptual systems more so than memories evoked by our word-cueing conditions. Additionally, relative to music cues, lifetime period word cues produced memories with reliably more uses of personal pronouns, past tense terms, and negative emotions. The findings provide evidence for the embodiment of autobiographical memories, and how those differ when the cues emphasise different aspects of the encoded events.

Unexplored aspects of traditional Ukrainian wedding

The article emphasizes necessity to carefully analyze entertainment and game program of traditional Ukrainian wedding, which includes, in particular, the "obscene" rituals, songs, games and dances. The study of these phenomena of popular culture was for a long time hampered due to political persecution, the church and the moral censorship presure. Nevertheless, vivid and original Ukrainian wedding studied several generations of scientists. This case paid tribute to many ukrainian and foreign ethnographers, historians, folklorists, musicologists and other experts. Lack of focus on entertainment and gaming component is an old flaw of our ukrainian ethnology. Censorship and persure of erotic folklore continued inSoviet Uniontimes. Suffice it to recall that even in academic publications “Ukrainian wedding ceremonies and songs”, which were published in 70-80 years of the last century, editors were forced to distort facts, and to escape from publication some of authentic texts because of its "obscene" content. The history of wedding folklore discuss the reasons of disappearing of any rituals. Initial culture was based on a synthesis of philosophical ideas and art forms. But over time, due to the destruction of old ideological foundations of ancient ritual form or phenomena became artistic activities and holiday entertainment, or gradually were replaced by the sphere of life.

Kultura popularna w obiektywie lingwistyki (wybrane zagadnienia)

In the article, the author tries to bring closer the popular culture problems present in linguistic works. Discussed research proves that the popularity of this issue gradually increases. The linguists apply different and various theories and methodologies in their research. They are interested both in Polish and foreign phenomena of popular culture. The authors of the linguistic research on popular culture place their analysis on a broad background of contemporary culture and society. One can hope that subsequent research provides us with more know ledge and better understanding of the present day.