[ecrea] CfA: Diffractions - Issue 4 | Popping the Question: The Question of Popular Culture

Call for Articles



Diffractions – Graduate Journal for the Study of Culture





POPPING THE QUESTION: THE QUESTION OF POPULAR CULTURE





Deadline for article submissions: November 30, 2014?






As a concept, the popular – or popular culture for that matter – has 
never ceased to be debatable and ambivalent. Although it has come to 
occupy a particular place under the spotlight over the past decades 
within the broad study of culture, such apparently privileged position 
has not deprived it of the manifold ambiguities, complexities or 
misconceptions that have often involved its general understanding (John 
Storey, 2012; Angela McRobbie, 1994; Andrew Ross, 1989; John Fiske, 1989).



Following its emergence within the context of the processes of 
industrialization and the changes they brought about, namely in terms of 
cultural relations and the development of the capitalist market economy, 
the concept of popular culture was, for a considerable period of time, 
not only utterly rejected by intellectuals and scholars alike, but also 
denied any possibility of constituting a serious and valid topic for 
academic debate. Up until the mid twentieth-century, popular culture was 
often equated to a poor and simplistic form of entertainment and 
pleasure, and was even deemed morally and ethically questionable, not to 
mention aesthetically. However, and particularly after the 1950s, new 
perspectives would soon alter this perception in very significant ways, 
especially with the emergence of Cultural Studies and the influence 
their project had on both sides of the Atlantic (Lawrence Grossberg, 
1997). From severe condemnation, popular culture quickly evolved into a 
discourse of positive reception and celebration, which resulted from 
critical work developed inside the academia, but also popular demand 
outside it.



The concept of the popular was then adopted both as an intrinsic 
feature, and as topic in its own right of artistic creation developed 
under the sign of pop. From pop art to pop music, a new understanding of 
culture has been put forth, building from what is embedded in the 
ambivalence of the popular and its many possibilities of intersection 
with new artistic forms of expression.



After the first decade of the twenty-first century, popular culture 
finds itself at a crossroads: has the concept been drained of its 
meaning because of its overwhelming popularity? After the euphoria 
around the popular, what afterlife can be expected from it? Should we 
still be discussing the popular as opposed to high and folk culture? And 
where and how do pop art forms intersect with the current notion of the 
popular?



Themes to be addressed by contributors may include but are not 
restricted to the following:



-       Popular Culture in Theory

-       Life and Afterlife of Popular Culture

-       Popular, Power and Politics

-       Popular Culture: Globalization, Centres and Peripheries

-       Material Culture

-       Popular music studies

-       Celebrity culture and Fandom: The Dynamics of Popularity

-       Contemporary Cinema and Digital Culture

-       2.0 and Convergence practices

-       Youth cultures, Subcultures, Scenes and Tribes

-       Retromania, Nostalgia and Authenticity

-       Pop and Popular: Overlap, Dissemblance and Divergence

-       Popular Culture and the Practices of Everyday Life

-       Folklore, Tradition and Preservation

-       National Identities and Transnational Circulations

-       Cultural memory and popular culture

-       Fashion and luxury

-       Television and the Seriality of Popular Culture

-       Feminism, Postfeminism and Popular Culture

-       Popular Culture and Masculinities

-       Queering Popular Culture

-       Games Culture and New Media

-       Graffiti, Street Art and Urban Policies

-       Creative Industries and Cultural Economy





We look forward to receiving full articles of no more than 20 A4 pages 
(not including bibliography) and a short bio of about 150 words by 
November 30, 2014 at the following address: (submissions /at/ diffractions.net).


DIFFRACTIONS also accepts book reviews that may not be related to the 
issue’s topic. If you wish to write a book review, please contact us at 
(reviews /at/ diffractions.net).





Find us online at www.diffractions.net.


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