Research On The Popular Culture Theory Of Birmingham School

The Birmingham School was formed in the 1960 s.It is a cultural research group centered on the historical research members of the Centre for Contemporary Culture Studies of the University of Birmingham.The Birmingham school absorb Marxism,Deconstruction,Feminism,Anthropology and other theories,extend literary studies to cultural studies,after World War II,the school focus on British working-class culture to the study of emerging business culture;from the exploration of the relationship between popular culture and power to the study of popular culture in the consumer society,formed a unique cultural theory route.The Birmingham school uses culturalism and structuralism as the research paradigm,and takes “popular culture” as the focus of its research.Through the exploration of the working class’ s life experience,it forms a unique reflection on popular culture.The core idea is that popular culture is the daily life of the working class;popular culture is the commercial culture of the mass media;popular culture is the “field of power struggle”,and popular culture is “the art of making do”.These popular cultural concepts have been subverted by their populist research standpoint.The elitist cultural outlook of Levisism and Frankfurt School made the enthusiasm of popular culture audiences valued.And explore the creativity and artistry of the masses in symbolic consumption in the field of consumer culture,seek meaning for the public’ consumer behavior and even life,and form a variety of subcultures,racist culture,consumer culture,etc.The research trend of cultural styles puts forward many theoretical propositions of key significance in the field of cultural research,greatly expands the discourse domain of popular culture research.It is not only for the study of the contemporary industrialized capitalist society.Life and cultural phenomena provide new theoretical ideas,as well as a brand-new research model for cultural studies worldwide.The thesis attempts to take the Birmingham School’s popular culture theory as the starting point,and on the basis of systematically combing the multiple meanings of the Birmingham School’s popular cultural concepts,it deeply analyzes the main method characteristics of the Birmingham School’s popular culture theory,that is,“Ethnographic”research methods that transcends “close reading”,from the paradigm of culturalism to the paradigm of structuralism and then to the paradigm of “the turn to Gramsci”.Finally commented on the contribution and limitations of Birmingham School’s popular culture theory.It is expected to enrich the existing research results of popular culture theory,and at the same time provide theoretical reference and reference for the investigation of current popular culture phenomenon in China and the discipline establishment of cultural theory research.