Table of types of culture popular mass elite. Folk culture, elite and mass

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Elite (high) and folk (grassroots) culture. Authorship and anonymity, innovation and tradition. Popular culture as a phenomenon of the twentieth century. Prerequisites for the appearance mass culture... Modern forms of mass culture, its mechanisms and principles. Cultural concepts mass society: apologetic (T. Parsons, L. White) and socially critical (F. Nietzsche, H. Ortega y Gasset, T. Adorno, M. McLuhan. E. Fromm). Mass culture as a parody of high culture (D. MacDonald). Forms of mass culture: mass art, mass media, mass social mythology, mass political movements, "industry of childhood". The need for a mass spectacle as an anthropological given. Mass and crowd, mass and elite.

Elite culture. The culture of the elite: depth, sophistication, refinement, narrow specialization, creativity, uniqueness, originality, disunity, individualism, misunderstanding and unwillingness to hear another. Image problem. The ideology of "art for art". Elite culture and classical art. Kitsch as a loss of taste and as a mass art for the elite.

Elite , or high, culture is created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. As a rule, the elite culture is ahead of the level of perception of its average educated person... The motto of the elite culture is "Art for the sake of art." A typical manifestation of aesthetic isolationism, the concept of “ pure art"Is the activity of the art association" World of Art ".

Elite culture.

The subculture of the privileged groups of the society, characterized by fundamental closeness, spiritual aristocracy and value-semantic self-sufficiency. Appealing to a select minority of their subjects, as a rule, who are both its creators and addressees (in any case, the circle of both almost coincides), E. to. consciously and consistently opposes the culture of the majority, or mass culture in broad sense(in all its history. and typological varieties - folklore, folk culture, official culture of this or that estate or class, the state as a whole, the cultural industry of the technocratic society of the 20th century, etc.). Moreover, E. to. needs a constant context of mass culture, since it is based on the mechanism of repulsion from the values ​​and norms accepted in mass culture, on the destruction of the prevailing stereotypes and patterns of mass culture (including their parodying, ridicule, irony, grotesque, polemics, criticism, refutation), on demonstrative self-isolation in general nat. culture. In this regard, E. to. - a characteristic marginal phenomenon within the framework of any story. or nat. type of culture and is always secondary, derivative in relation to the culture of the majority.

Many culturologists regard elite culture as the antipode of mass culture. The producer and consumer of elite culture is the highest privileged stratum of society - the elite (from the French elite - the best, selective, selected). However, in philosophy and cultural studies, the understanding of elite as a special stratum of society endowed with specific spiritual abilities. There is an elite in every social class. The elite is the part of society most capable of spiritual activity, endowed with high moral and aesthetic inclinations. It is she who ensures social progress, so art should be focused on meeting her needs and demands. The main elements of the elite concept of culture are already contained in the philosophical works of A. Schopenhauer and F. Nietzsche.

In his founding work"The World as Will and Representation" A. Schopenhauer sociologically divides humanity into two parts: "People of genius"(i.e., capable of aesthetic contemplation and artistic creative activity) and "People of benefit"(i.e., focused only on purely practical, utilitarian activities).

In cultural concepts F. Nietzsche, formulated by him in his famous works, the elite concept manifests itself in the idea of ​​a "superman". This "superman", having a privileged position in society, is endowed, according to F. Nietzsche, with a unique aesthetic sensitivity.

Art does not have to be popular at all, that is, it should not be generally understandable, universal. New art, on the contrary, should alienate people from real life.

Culturological theories, opposing mass and elite cultures to each other, are a reaction to the processes that have developed in art. A typical manifestation of elite culture is the theory and practice of "pure art" or "art for art", which has found its embodiment in a number of currents of domestic and Western European artistic culture... So, for example, in Russia on turn of XIX-XX centuries, the ideas of elite culture were actively developed and implemented artistic association "World of Art". The leaders of the "world of art" were the editor of the magazine of the same name S. P. Diaghilev and talented painter A. N. Benois. Diaghilev openly and openly declared the "self-sufficiency" and "self-usefulness" of art, considering at the same time "truth in art." Focusing on the human personality, the leaders of the "world of art" in the spirit of the elite cultural concepts of K. Leontiev and F. Nietzsche came to the absolutization of the personality of the creator. It was considered strictly necessary to have in any picturesque and piece of music special author's vision of reality.

This culture, in principle, only appeals to the elite. It does not strive to be understood by everyone: it is closed, hermetic, accessible only to outstanding people. Among the masses, the favorite is such an art, the focus of which is the person and his passions.

For a long time, the features of elite culture were considered "by contradiction", the starting point was mass culture. The elite culture opposes the unification and triviality of the latter with originality and individuality in search of new artistic solutions; simplicity and accessibility - closed and encrypted cultural codes; minimum visual media- the widest range of means of expression, etc.

But the main difference between elite culture and mass culture is that elite culture is truly creative: it is here that new cultural forms and ways of further development are determined. The famous "Ulysses" by J. Joyce, works by G. Hesse and H.L. Borges, French " new romance"; paintings by P. Picasso, K. Malevich, V. Kandinsky; films by A. Tarkovsky, A. Sokurov, J. Jarmusch, P. Greenaway; music by J. Cage and E. Denisov are an example of this.

In the elite component of culture, the approbation of what, after years, will become a publicly available classic, and possibly become a trivial art (to which researchers refer the so-called "pop-classics" - "The Dance of Little Swans" by P. Tchaikovsky, "The Seasons "A. Vivaldi, for example, or some other overly replicated work of art). Time blurs the boundaries between mass and elite cultures. That new in art, which today is the lot of a few, in a century it will already be understood significantly more recipients, and even later can become a common place in culture.

Unlike the elite folk culture created by anonymous creators who do not have vocational training... Folk culture is also called amateur (but not by level, but by origin), or collective. According to their performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (presentation of a legend), group (performance of a song, dance), mass (carnival processions) Another name for folk culture is folklore. It is always localized, as it is associated with the traditions of the area, and democratic, since everyone is involved in its creation.

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. Its greatest scope begins in the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media penetrated into most countries. The mechanism for the dissemination of mass culture is directly related to the market. Its products are intended to be consumed by the masses. This is an art for everyone, and it must take into account his tastes and needs. Anyone who pays can order their own "music".

Popular culture can be international and national. As a rule, it has less artistic value than elite or folk art. But unlike elite mass culture, it has a larger audience, and in comparison with folk culture it is always author's. It is designed to satisfy the immediate needs of people, reacts to any new event and seeks to reflect it.

The serial nature of its products has a number of specific features:
primitivization of relations between people;
entertainment, amusement, sentimentality;
naturalistic savoring of violence and sex;
a cult of success, strong personality, thirst for possession of things;
the cult of mediocrity, the convention of primitive symbolism.

The specific features presented are due to the fact that mass culture is based on archetypes. (From the Greek. Arche - the beginning and typos - the image; in K. Jung's analytical psychology, the unconscious form of perception of the fundamental structures of everyday life: love, violence, happiness, labor, etc.). These archetypes include the unconscious interest of all people in eroticism and violence. And this interest is the basis for the success of mass culture and its works. Nevertheless, samples of mass culture are quickly losing their relevance and going out of fashion. This does not happen with works of folk and elite culture.

Elite, or high, culture is created by a privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature, as well as innovative directions. An elite culture is a culture that is complex in content and difficult for an unprepared perception. Commercial gain is not a goal for its creators, who strive for innovation, full self-expression and artistic embodiment of their ideas. Perhaps the emergence of unique works of art, which sometimes bring their creators not only recognition, but also considerable income, becoming very popular.

The main feature of an elite culture is an orientation towards a narrow circle of connoisseurs, prepared to perceive works that are complex in form and content. These include the novels of J. Joyce, paintings by P. Picasso, films by A.A. Tarkovsky, music by A. Schnittke, etc.

Popular culture is commercial culture because works of art, science, religion, etc. act in it as consumer goods capable of making a profit when selling, if the tastes and demands of the mass viewer, reader, music lover are taken into account. Popular culture is called differently: entertainment art, the art of anti-fatigue, kitsch (from German jargon - trash), semi-culture, pop culture.

Its main features are: a wide range of consumers, commercial orientation, accessibility and entertainment, standardization, simplicity and, in a sense, democracy. This is pop music, soap series, comics. Mass culture is inseparable from the mass informatics (mass media); it originated and spread simultaneously with the emergence of cinematography, radio, illustrated magazines, etc.

Pop culture and elite culture are not hostile to each other. Achievements, artistic techniques, the ideas of elite art after a while cease to be innovative and are adopted by mass culture, raising its level. At the same time, profitable pop culture, over time, enables film companies, publishing houses, and model houses to support the creators of elite art.

Folk culture- a specific area of ​​national culture, this is its most stable part, a source of development and a repository of traditions. This is a culture created by the people and existing among the masses. At the end of the XX century. it unfolds in the space between classical folklore tradition and popular culture. Her layers:

Folklore;

Amateur performances;

Applied creativity;

Student, school amateur performances, etc.

Popular culture is created by anonymous creators who have no professional training. It is called amateur or collective.

It is often transmitted orally. Often, works of folk art whose authors are well-known, but they are perceived as folk works. This happens if the works correspond to the main feature of folk culture - correspond to the values ​​of the people, reflect folk character.
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So, the songs "Katyusha", "Oh, frost-frost" have authors, but most people consider these songs to be folk.

V recent decades they started talking about the displacement of "book culture" by screen culture. Young people get acquainted with works of literature not in the original, but in film adaptations. Computer "virtual reality", the Internet, television and television are replacing traditional trips to the theater, dance floors and amateur circles. In this regard, some scientists talk about screen culture as a special kind of culture.

Elite culture

Elite or high culture is created by a privileged part of society, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture, such as Picasso painting or Schnittke's music, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an average educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its variety includes secular art and salon music. The formula for elite culture is “art for art”.

Elite culture is intended for a narrow circle of highly educated public and opposes both popular and popular culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.

The elite culture includes avant-garde trends in music, painting, cinema, complex literature of a philosophical nature. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as residents of the "ivory tower", fenced off by their art from the real Everyday life... As a rule, elite culture is non-profit, although sometimes it can turn out to be financially successful and become mass culture.

Modern tendencies such that popular culture penetrates into all areas of "high culture", mixing with it. At the same time, mass culture lowers the general cultural level of its consumers, but at the same time itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level.

Folk culture

Folk culture is recognized as a special form of culture. Unlike elite folk culture, culture is created by anonymous creators who have no professional training. The authors of the folk creations are unknown. Folk culture is called amateur (not by level, but by origin) or collective. It includes myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances. In terms of performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (presentation of a legend), group (performance of a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name for folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, it is associated with the traditions of the area, and is democratic, since everyone is involved in its creation. Jokes and urban legends can be attributed to modern manifestations of folk culture.

Mass culture

Mass or public culture does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media (radio, print, television, gramophone records, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Popular culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Popular culture, as a rule, has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But she has the most wide audience... It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with the works of elite and folk culture. Pop culture is a slang term for popular culture, and kitsch is a variety of it.

Screen culture is a variant of mass culture shown on screens (movies, video clips, television series and TV programs, computer games, PSPs, game consoles, etc.).

In addition to the levels of culture, there are also types of culture:

Dominant culture- This is a set of values, beliefs, traditions, customs, which are guided by the majority of members of society. For example, most Russians like to visit and receive guests, they strive to give their children higher education, are benevolent and friendly.

Subculture- part general culture, the system of values, traditions and customs inherent in a certain group of people. For example, national, youth, religious.

Counterculture- the kind of subculture that opposes the dominant one. For example, hippies, emo, criminal world.

One of the forms of culture associated with the creative activity of a person to create an imaginary world is art.

The main directions of art:

ü Music,

ü Painting, sculpture,

ü Architecture,

ü Literature and folklore,

ü Theater and cinema,

ü Sports and games.

The specificity of art as a creative activity is that art is figurative and visual and reflects the life of people in artistic images. The artistic consciousness is also characterized by specific ways of reproducing the surrounding reality, as well as the means by which the creation takes place. artistic images... In literature, such a means is the word, in painting - color, in music - sound, in sculpture - volumetric-spatial forms.

The mass media (mass media) are also one of the types of culture.

The media is a periodical print edition, radio, television, video programs, newsreels, etc. The position of the media in the state characterizes the degree of democratization of society. In our country, the provision on freedom of the media is enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

People's culture consists of two types - popular and folklore. Popular culture describes today's life, customs, customs, songs, dances of the people, and folk culture describes its past. Legends, fairy tales and other genres of folklore were created in the past, today they exist as a historical heritage. Some of this heritage is still being performed today, which means that, in addition to historical legends, it is constantly replenished with new formations, for example, modern urban folklore.

The authors of folk creations are often unknown. Myths, legends, tales, epics, fairy tales, songs and dances belong to the highest creations of folk culture. They cannot be classified as elite culture just because they were created by anonymous folk artists. Its subject is the entire people, the functioning of folk culture is inseparable from the work and life of people. Its authors are often anonymous, works usually exist in many variants, passed down orally from generation to generation.

In this regard, we can talk about folk art ( folk songs, fairy tales, legends), folk medicine(medicinal herbs, conspiracies), folk pedagogy etc. In terms of performance, elements of folk culture can be individual (presentation of a legend), group (performance of a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). The audience of folk culture is always the majority of society. This was the case in traditional and industrial society, but the situation in post-industrial society is changing.

Elite culture inherent in the privileged strata of society, or who consider themselves as such. It is distinguished by its comparative depth and complexity, and sometimes by the sophistication of its forms. Elite culture was historically formed in those social groups, which had favorable conditions for familiarizing with culture, a special cultural status.

Elite (high) culture is created by the privileged part of society, or by its order, by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art”. High culture, for example, Picasso painting or Bach's music, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand.

The circle of consumers of elite culture is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary critics, regular visitors to museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. As a rule, high culture is decades ahead of the level of perception of an average educated person. In the case when the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands significantly.

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the XX century. This is the time of the spread of the mass media (radio, print, television). Through them, it became available to representatives of all social strata - a “necessary” culture. Popular culture can be ethnic or national. Pop music serves as a vivid example of it. Popular culture is understandable and accessible to all ages, to all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.

Popular culture has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But it has the most massive and widest audience, since it satisfies the "momentary" needs of people, promptly responding to any new event in public life. Therefore, its samples, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become outdated and out of fashion.

This does not happen with the works of elite and folk culture. High culture denotes the addictions and habits of the ruling elite, and popular culture denotes the addictions of the "lower classes." The same types of art can belong to high and popular culture. Classical music is an example of high culture, and popular music is an example of mass culture. The situation is similar with the fine arts: Picasso's paintings represent high culture, and popular prints.

The same thing happens with specific works of art. Organ music Bach refers to high culture... But if it is used as musical accompaniment figure skating, it is automatically credited to the category of mass culture. At the same time, she does not lose her belonging to a high culture. Numerous orchestrations of Bach's works in the style of light music, jazz, or rock do not compromise the very high level of the author's work.

Popular culture is a complex social and cultural phenomenon that is characteristic of modern society. It became possible due to the high level of development of communication and information systems and high urbanization. At the same time, popular culture is characterized by high degree alienation of individuals, loss of individuality. Hence the "idiocy of the masses" due to manipulation and imposition of behavioral cliches through the channels of mass communications.

All this deprives a person of freedom and disfigures his spiritual world. In the environment of the functioning of mass culture, it is difficult to carry out true socialization of the individual. Here everything is replaced by standard consumption patterns that are imposed by mass culture. She offers averaged models for the inclusion of a person in social mechanisms. A vicious circle is created: alienation> abandonment in the world> illusion of belonging to mass consciousness> models of average socialization> consumption of samples of mass culture> "new" alienation.

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The concepts of mass and elite culture define two types of culture of modern society, which are associated with the peculiarities of the way culture exists in society: the methods of its production, reproduction and distribution in society, the position that culture occupies in the social structure of society, the attitude of culture and its creators to everyday life. life of people and socio-political problems of society. Elite culture arises before mass culture, but in modern society they coexist and are in complex interaction.

Mass culture

Definition of the concept

In modern scientific literature there are various definitions of mass culture. In some, mass culture is associated with the development in the twentieth century of new communicative and reproductive systems (mass press and publishing, audio and video recording, radio and television, xerography, telex and telefax, satellite communications, computer technology) and global information exchange arising from the achievements scientific and technological revolution... Other definitions of mass culture emphasize its connection with the development of a new type social structure industrial and post industrial society, which led to the creation of a new way of organizing the production and transmission of culture. The second understanding of mass culture is more complete and comprehensive, since it not only includes a changed technical and technological basis cultural creativity, but also examines the socio-historical context and trends in the transformation of the culture of modern society.

Popular culture is called a type of product that is produced daily in large volumes. This is a set of cultural phenomena of the 20th century and the peculiarities of production cultural property in a modern industrial society, designed for mass consumption. In other words, it is a conveyor belt production through various channels, including the media and communications.

It is assumed that popular culture is consumed by all people, regardless of place and country of residence. This is the culture of everyday life, presented on the widest channels, including on TV.

The emergence of mass culture

Relatively prerequisites for the emergence of mass culture there are several points of view:

1. Popular culture originated at the dawn of Christian civilization. As an example, the simplified versions of the Bible (for children, for the poor), designed for a mass audience, are cited.
2. V XVII-XVIII centuries v Western Europe the genre of adventure, adventure novel appears, which significantly expanded the audience of readers due to huge circulations. (Example: Daniel Defoe - the novel "Robinson Crusoe" and 481 more biographies of people in risky professions: investigators, military men, thieves, prostitutes, etc.).
3. In 1870, Great Britain passed the Universal Literacy Act, which allowed many to master the main form of artistic creativity XIX century - a novel. But this is only the prehistory of mass culture. In a proper sense, popular culture showed itself for the first time in the United States on at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries.

The emergence of mass culture is associated with the massization of life at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. At this time, the role of the masses of people increased in various areas of life: economics, politics, management and human communication. Ortega y Gasset defines the concept of masses as follows:

The mass is the crowd... The crowd is quantitatively and visually many, and the multitude from the point of view of sociology is the mass. Mass is an average person. Society has always been a mobile unity of the minority and the masses. A minority is a set of individuals singled out separately, a mass - not singled out by anything. Ortega sees the reason for the advancement of the masses to the forefront of history in the low quality of culture, when a person of a given culture "does not differ from the rest and repeats the general type."

The prerequisites of mass culture can also include the emergence during the formation of the bougeroise society of a system of mass communications(press, mass publishing, then radio, television, cinema) and the development of transport, which made it possible to reduce the space and time required for the transmission and dissemination of cultural values ​​in society. Culture emerges from local, local existence and begins to function on the scale of the nation state (a national culture emerges that overcomes ethnic restrictions), and then enters the system of interethnic communication.

Among the prerequisites for mass culture should also be attributed to the creation within the framework of bourgeois society of a special structure of institutions for the production and dissemination of cultural values:

1. The emergence public institutions education (general education schools, professional school, higher educational institutions);
2. Creation of institutions for the production of scientific knowledge;
3. The emergence of professional art (academies of fine arts, theater, opera, ballet, conservatory, literary magazines, publishing houses and associations, exhibitions, public museums, exhibition galleries, libraries), which also included the emergence of the institute art criticism as a means of popularizing and developing his works.

Features and significance of mass culture

Popular culture in its most concentrated form manifests itself in artistic culture, as well as in the field of leisure, communication, management and economics. The term "mass culture" was first introduced by the German professor M. Horkheimer in 1941 and the American scientist D. McDonald in 1944. The content of this term is rather contradictory. On the one hand, popular culture - "Culture for all", on the other hand, this is "Not quite culture"... The definition of mass culture emphasizes proliferationinjury and general accessibility of spiritual values, as well as the ease of their assimilation, which does not require a special developed taste and perception.

The existence of mass culture is based on the activities of the media, the so-called technical arts (film, television, video). Popular culture exists not only in democratic social systems, but also in totalitarian regimes, where everyone is “cogs” and everyone is equal.

Currently, some researchers abandon the view of "popular culture" as an area of ​​"bad taste" and do not consider it anticultural. Many people realize that popular culture has not only negative traits. It affects:

• the ability of people to adapt to the conditions of a market economy;
• adequately respond to abrupt situational social changes.

Besides, popular culture is capable of:

• compensate for the lack of personal communication and dissatisfaction with life;
• to increase the involvement of the population in political events;
• to increase the psychological stability of the population in difficult social situations;
• make the achievements of science and technology available to many.

It should be recognized that mass culture is an objective indicator of the state of society, its delusions, typical forms of behavior, cultural stereotypes and a real value system.

In the sphere of artistic culture, it calls on people not to rebel against the social system, but to fit into it, find and take their place in an industrial society of a market type.

TO negative consequences mass culture its property belongs to mythologizing human consciousness, mystifying real processes taking place in nature and society. There is a rejection of the rational principle in the mind.

They were once beautiful poetically images. They talked about the richness of the imagination of people who could not yet correctly understand and explain the action of the forces of nature. Today myths serve the poverty of thinking.

On the one hand, one might think that the purpose of mass culture is to relieve tension and stress from a person in an industrial society - after all, it is entertainment in nature. But in fact, this culture does not so much fill leisure as it stimulates consumer consciousness in the viewer, listener, reader. There is a type of passive, uncritical perception of this culture in humans. And if so, a personality is created whose consciousness easy manipulate, the emotions of which are easy to direct to the desiredside.

In other words, mass culture exploits the instincts of the subconscious sphere of human feelings and, above all, feelings of loneliness, guilt, hostility, fear, and self-preservation.

In the practice of mass culture, mass consciousness has specific means of expression. Popular culture is more focused not on realistic images, but on artificial created images- images and stereotypes.

Popular culture creates the formula for the hero, repetitive image, stereotype. This situation creates idolatry. An artificial "Olympus" is created, the gods are "stars" and a crowd of fanatical admirers and female admirers arises. In this regard, mass artistic culture successfully embodies the most coveted human myth - happy world myth. At the same time, she does not call her listener, viewer, reader to build such a world - her task is to offer a person a refuge from reality.

The origins of the widespread dissemination of mass culture in modern world lie in the commercial nature of all public relations... The concept of "product" defines all the diversity social relations in society.

Spiritual activity: movies, books, music, etc., in connection with the development of mass communication, become a commodity in the conditions of conveyor production. The commercial attitude is transferred to the realm of artistic culture. And this determines the entertaining nature of works of art. It is necessary for the clip to pay off, the money spent on the production of the motion picture yielded a profit.

Popular culture forms a social stratum in society, called the "middle class"... This class has become the backbone of the life of an industrial society. The modern representative of the "middle class" is characterized by:

1. Striving for success. Achievement and success are the values ​​on which the culture is guided in such a society. It is no coincidence that stories are so popular in it how someone escaped from the poor to the rich, from a poor emigrant family to a highly paid "star" of mass culture.
2. The second distinguishing feature of a "middle class" person is possession of private property ... A prestigious car, a castle in England, a house on the Cote d'Azur, apartments in Monaco ... As a result, relations between people are replaced by relations of capital, income, that is, they are depersonalized and formal. A person must be in constant tension, survive in a tough competition. And the strongest survives, that is, the one who succeeds in the pursuit of profit.
3. The third value inherent in a person of the "middle class" - individualism ... This is the recognition of the rights of the individual, his freedom and independence from society and the state. The energy of a free individual is directed into the sphere of economic and political activity. This contributes to the accelerated development of the productive forces. Equality is possible stey, competition, personal success - on the one hand, this is good. But, on the other hand, this leads to a contradiction between the ideals of a free personality and reality. In other words, as a principle of person-to-person relationship individualism is inhuman, but as a norm of a person's attitude to society - antisocial .

In art, artistic creation, mass culture performs the following social functions:

• introduces a person to the world of illusory experience and pipe dreams;
• promotes the dominant lifestyle;
• distracts large masses of people from social activity, makes them adapt.

Hence the use in art of genres such as detective, western, melodrama, musicals, comics, advertising, etc.

Elite culture

Definition of the concept

Elite culture (from French elite - selective, the best) can be defined as a subculture of privileged groups of society(however, sometimes their only privilege may be the right to cultural creativity or to preserve cultural heritage), which is characterized by value-semantic isolation, closeness; elite culture asserts itself as the work of a narrow circle of "the highest professionals", the understanding of which is available to an equally narrow circle of highly educated connoisseurs... Elite culture claims that it stands high above the "routine" of everyday life and takes the position of the "highest court" in relation to the socio-political problems of society.

Elite culture is considered by many culturologists as the antipode of mass culture. From this point of view, the producer and consumer of the elite cultural class is the highest, privileged stratum of society - elite ... In modern cultural studies, the understanding of the elite as a special stratum of society endowed with specific spiritual abilities has been established.

The elite is not just the upper stratum of society, the ruling elite. There is an elite in every social class.

Elite- this is the part of society most capable of doingspiritual activity, endowed with high moral and aesthetic inclinations. It is she who ensures social progress, so art should be focused on meeting her needs and demands. The main elements of the elite concept of culture are contained in the philosophical works of A. Schopenhauer ("The world as will and representation") and F. Nietzsche ("Human, too human", " Fun Science"," Thus Spoke Zarathustra ").

A. Schopenhauer divides humanity into two parts: "people of genius" and "people of benefit." The former are capable of aesthetic contemplation and artistic activities, the latter are focused only on purely practical, utilitarian activities.

The demarcation of elite and mass culture is associated with the development of cities, printing, the emergence of a customer and a performer in the field. Elite - for sophisticated connoisseurs, mass - for an ordinary, ordinary reader, viewer, listener. Works that serve as a standard of mass art, as a rule, reveal a connection with folklore, mythological, popular prints that existed before. In the 20th century, Ortega y Gasset summarized the elite concept of culture. In the work of this Spanish philosopher "The Dehumanization of Art", it is argued that the new art is addressed to the elite of society, and not to its mass. Therefore, it is absolutely unnecessary for art to be popular, generally understandable, universal. New art should alienate people from real life. "Dehumanization" - and is the basis of the new art of the twentieth century. There are polar classes in society - majority (masses) and minority (elite) ... New art, according to Ortega, divides the public into two classes - those who understand it and those who do not, that is, artists and those who are not artists.

Elite , according to Ortega, this is not the tribal aristocracy and not the privileged strata of society, but that part of it that has a "special organ of perception" ... It is this part that contributes to social progress. And it is to her that artists should turn with their works. The new art should help to ensure that "... The best know themselves, learn to understand their mission: to be in the minority and fight the majority."

A typical manifestation of elite culture is theory and practice of "pure art" or "art for art" , which found its embodiment in Western European and Russian culture at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. For example, in Russia, the ideas of elite culture were actively developed by the art association "World of Art" (artist A. Benois, editor of the magazine S. Diaghilev, etc.).

The emergence of an elite culture

Elite culture, as a rule, arises in an era of cultural crisis, the breakdown of old and the birth of new cultural traditions, methods of production and reproduction of spiritual values, a change in cultural and historical paradigms. Therefore, representatives of elite culture perceive themselves as either “creators of the new”, rising above their time, and therefore not understood by their contemporaries (most of them are romantics and modernists - figures of the artistic avant-garde who are making a cultural revolution), or “keepers of fundamental foundations” who should be protected from destruction and the meaning of which is not understood by the "mass".

In such a situation, elite culture acquires traits of esotericity- closed, secret knowledge, which is not intended for wide, universal use. In history, the bearers of various forms of elite culture were priests, religious sects, monastic and spiritual knightly orders, Masonic lodges, craft workshops, literary, artistic and intellectual circles, and underground organizations. Such a narrowing of potential addressees of cultural creativity gives birth to its carriers awareness of your creativity as exceptional: "True religion", "pure science", "pure art" or "art for art."

The concept of "elite" as opposed to "mass" is introduced into circulation in late XVIII century. The division of artistic creation into elite and mass was manifested in the concepts of romantics. Initially, among romantics, the elitist carries in itself the semantic meaning of being chosen, exemplary. The concept of the exemplary, in turn, was understood as identical to the classical. The concept of the classic was especially actively developed in. Then the normative core was the art of antiquity. In this understanding, the classic was personified with the elite and exemplary.

Romantics sought to focus on innovation in the field of artistic creation. Thus, they separated their art from the usual adapted art forms... The triad: "elite - exemplary - classic" began to crumble - the elite was no longer identical to the classic.

Features and significance of elite culture

A feature of elite culture is the interest of its representatives in the creation of new forms, a demonstrative opposition to the harmonious forms of classical art, as well as an emphasis on the subjectivity of the perception of the world.

The characteristic features of an elite culture are:

1. the desire for cultural development of objects (natural phenomena and social peace, spiritual realities), which stand out sharply from the totality of what is included in the field of subject development of the "ordinary", "profane" culture of the given time;
2. inclusion of one's subject in unexpected value-semantic contexts, the creation of its new interpretation, unique or exclusive meaning;
3. creation of a new cultural language (language of symbols, images), accessible to a narrow circle of connoisseurs, the decoding of which requires special efforts and a wide cultural outlook from the uninitiated.

Elite culture is dual, contradictory in nature... On the one hand, elite culture acts as an innovative enzyme of the sociocultural process. Works of elite culture contribute to the renewal of the culture of society, bring into it new issues, language, methods of cultural creativity. Initially, within the boundaries of elite culture, new genres and types of art are born, cultural, literary language societies, extraordinary scientific theories, philosophical concepts and religious teachings, which, as it were, “break out” beyond the established boundaries of culture, but then can enter the cultural heritage of the entire society. Therefore, for example, they say that truth is born as heresy, and dies as a banality.

On the other hand, the position of an elite culture opposing itself to the culture of society may mean a conservative departure from social reality and its topical problems into the idealized world of “art for art,” religious-philosophical and socio-political utopias. Such a demonstrative form of rejection the existing world can be both a form of passive protest against it, and a form of reconciliation with it, recognition of its own powerlessness of elite culture, its inability to influence the cultural life of society.

This duality of elite culture determines the presence of opposite - critical and apologetic - theories of elite culture. Democratic thinkers (Belinsky, Chernyshevsky, Pisarev, Plekhanov, Morris, etc.) were critical of elite culture, emphasizing its isolation from the life of the people, its incomprehensibility to the people, and its service to the needs of rich, satiated people. At the same time, such criticism sometimes went beyond the limits of reason, turning, for example, from a criticism of elite art into a criticism of any art. Pisarev, for example, declared that "boots are above art." L. Tolstoy, who created high samples of the novel of the New Time ("War and Peace", "Anna Karenina", "Sunday"), in late period of his work, when he switched to the position of peasant democracy, he considered all these works of his unnecessary to the people and began to compose popular stories from peasant life.

Another trend in the theories of elite culture (Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Berdyaev, Ortega y Gasset, Heidegger and Ellul) defended it, emphasizing its content, formal perfection, creative search and novelty, the desire to resist stereotypes and lack of spirituality everyday culture, viewed it as a haven for the creative freedom of the individual.

A variety of elite art in our time is modernism and postmodernism.

References:

1.Afonin V.A., Afonin Yu.V. Theory and history of culture. Tutorial for independent work students. - Lugansk: Elton-2, 2008 .-- 296 p.

2. Culturology in questions and answers. Toolkit to prepare for tests and exams at the rate "Ukrainian and foreign culture»For students of all specialties and forms of education. / Resp. Editor Ragozin N.P. - Donetsk, 2008, - 170 p.