Popular culture is different from folk culture. Forms of culture

Depending on who creates culture and what its level is, sociologists distinguish three forms: elite, popular, and mass.

Elite (high) culture is created by a privileged part of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture (for example, the painting of Picasso) is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. Its variety includes secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art’s sake.”

Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual quest of the people. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the means mass media(radio, print, television) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Mass culture can be international and national. Pop music - shining example This: it is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of level of education.

Mass culture, as a rule, has less artistic value than elite or popular culture. But it has the widest audience and is original. It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to and reflects any new event. Therefore, its samples, in particular hits, quickly lose relevance, become obsolete, and go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and popular culture. High culture refers to the preferences and habits of townspeople, aristocrats, the rich, and the ruling elite, while mass culture refers to the culture of the lower classes. The same types of art can belong to high and mass culture: classical music - high, and popular music- mass, Fellini's films - high, and action films - mass, Picasso's paintings - high, and popular prints - mass. However, there are genres of literature (fiction, detective stories and comics) that are always classified as popular or mass culture, but never as high. The same thing happens with specific works of art.

High culture is created not by an ethnic group or people, but by the educated part of society - writers, artists, philosophers, scientists. As a rule, high culture is initially experimental, or avant-garde, in nature. For the first time those are used artistic techniques, which will be perceived and correctly understood by wide layers of non-professionals many years later. Experts sometimes call the period 50 years. Today, the avant-garde, especially in popular culture, becomes fashion almost the next day.

ChapterIII. Folk, elite and mass culture

Substantial– essential, basic (from lat. substantia essence), functional(from lat. function activity, departure), activity.

As already emphasized in previous sections of the textbook, culture is the second created by man, i.e. artificial nature (Hegel). First, natural, nature without a person, lies outside the culture and does not know it. The complex, multifaceted, multifaceted world of culture is “ cultivated" , "nurtured" human habitat created through various forms and methods of their activity and saturated with a variety of products (results) of this activity. Every culture on the planet embodies a specific set of methods social practice, which always corresponds to a specific historical type of society. Culture exists in life, in history, in time and, therefore, in development only thanks to people. This means that culture is a characteristic human society, its people, past (history) and present. It is possible to study any culture, counting on success, only in organic unity with the corresponding type of society, life and activities of people.

Subject

(creator, bearer, custodian) of culture and its structural differentiation

But not everything is as simple as it might seem at first glance. Firstly, culture, on the one hand, appears as complex and interconnected integrity, and on the other hand, how a collection of many cultural elements, making up its structure (structure), a functioning organism. The entire set of cultural elements is usually divided into two “blocks”: substantial And functional. The morphological study of these “blocks” that make up the structure of culture, according to scientists, involves several interrelated areas of research activity:

Morphology- (from Greek. morphe- form, logos– concept, doctrine) – science (teaching) about the laws of structure, processes of formation of phenomena, organisms in their development.

1) geneticbirth and formation cultural forms;

2) historicaldynamics of cultural forms and configurations in historical scale time;

3) microdynamicdynamics of modern cultural forms (within the life of three generations);

4) structural-functionalprinciples and forms of organizing cultural objects and processes in accordance with the objectives of meeting the needs, interests and requests of members of society;

5) technologicaldistribution of cultural potential in physical and sociocultural space.

Subject(lat. subjectus ­– underlying visa, underlying) – a carrier of subject-specific practical activity and cognition (individual or social group), a source of activity aimed at an object. An object(lat. objectum subject) – that which opposes the subject and towards which objective-practical and cognitive activity is directed.

Secondly, when studying the phenomenon of culture, the question inevitably arises about its subject, i.e. about who creates it, stores it, reproduces it and transmits it in time and space. Thirdly, there is a problem object– what and how, in what way is created in the world of culture. In cultural studies, objects, mechanisms, methods of their creation, use, preservation of cultural achievements and experience are usually called “ cultural text».

Cultural text– this is not text in the usual sense (i.e. written, graphic text). Under cultural text is understood as: lifestyle, socio-normative, household, aesthetic, artistic and other ideas, practical skills, beliefs, knowledge, etc., as well as the subject environment (home, tools, household utensils).

So, culture exists and develops as a living organism while a person is active. He is the goal and the means, the beginning and the result of its functioning. Man creates, transforms, preserves, distributes, consumes material and spiritual products of culture . But he does not create culture alone: human life and activity are collective in nature and therefore involve interaction between participants (creators) of the social process. Starting from reproduction and raising offspring, including all forms of joint actions and ending with play, a person acts in relationships with other people. Therefore, the main (“general”) subject (creator) of culture, as well as history itself and all public life, performs a people who creates, preserves, and increases the diversity of cultural values. But the people are not a faceless, frozen homogeneous mass, but a complex social education with its own organization and hierarchical structure (gender, age, settlement, property, socio-professional-cultural, etc.). In it during historical process various social groups, layers, classes are formed, which in turn also act as subjects in the creation of diverse cultural phenomena, forming in the final in the end complex whole system– culture.

Structure of culture: substantial and functional “blocks”

"Block" is substantial

"Block" functional

Sloboda- suburban village.

Consideration of such a complex and diverse phenomenon as culture requires systematization, generalization of the material, and its typology. The concept of “type” (from Greek.typos– imprint, sample for a group of phenomena) is used to designate a set of phenomena, processes, united on the basis of common features, properties, characteristics (criteria) cultural phenomena. This is an ideal, abstract category, but in a generalized, schematized form it indicates the essential, repeating (typical) features of real cultures, abstracting from their specific features. The main condition for typologization is the unity of the criterion. For example, from the point of view of territorial affiliation, one can distinguish urban, rural, suburban cultural variety ; Based on the way of transmitting cultural experience, skills, knowledge, we can talk about specialized ( professional) and non-specialized ( unprofessional) culture, etc.

From the point From the perspective of the bearer - the subject of culture, you can get different structural options.

By national-ethnic affiliation these are:

– ethnic,

– national,

World culture;

according to socio-cultural criteria:

– folk,

– elitist,

– mass and many other variants of culture.

IN modern world function and coexist in parallel Various types cultures that have their own carriers-subjects, their own cultural texts, distinctive features. This makes the culture heterogeneous and diverse. In its complex structure, scientists identify and analyze, first of all, the main typological varieties:

– folk culture,

– elitist,

– massive.

Each of them is characterized by its own characteristics (cultural texts, speakers, etc.) and differences. Thus, the following table indicates the differences between the carriers, which ultimately determine this or that type of culture and its specific features.

Folk culture, its subject and

distinctive features

Throughout the long history of mankind, folk culture has been and remains the basis, the foundation of all diverse sociocultural system, every community on Earth, world civilization as a whole. Folk culture (or traditional, unprofessional, folklore) is historically the first " basic» typological variety cultural activities of people. It is created by the people themselves and passed on from generation to generation in the process life together and activities through traditions, oral tradition and education. The people are hers great creator, bearer and custodian: he is not only the force that creates everything material values, he is the only, inexhaustible source of spiritual values, the first in time, beauty and genius of creativity, philosopher and poet, who created all the great poems, all the tragedies of the earth and the greatest of them - the history of culture().

Folk culture is a multifaceted, multidimensional phenomenon. It includes in its composition (content) a variety of achievements and accomplishments:

§ folk worldview and understanding of the world (ideas, meanings, ideas, knowledge about nature, the world as a whole, about man, etc.), value orientations and aspirations;

§ way of life and way of life, applied empirical knowledge and skills in the field of material production;



The result of creativity acquires independent existence and orientation towards the audience (consumers), which shares the creative attitudes of the authors and makes special demands on professionalism, level of skill, unique author's handwriting, imaginative vision in art, original approaches and solutions in science and technology . This necessitates special training within the framework of artistic-aesthetic, scientific, technical, ethical-legal, political, etc. creativity. The author's originality, skill, and talent are always “piece goods.” Creativity in all types of activities, including material production, becomes authorial, but in artistic creativity: literature, painting, sculpture, music, etc., it is especially significant.

Esoteric (esoterikos- internal) secret, hidden.

Elite culture V in the narrow sense sometimes understood as a subculture: fundamentally closed areas, directions, trends, oriented towards a narrow circle of experts and supporters with a pronounced focus on experimentation and innovation. This is the result of the specialization of labor and the stratification of society. In this case, the elite culture is “sovereign”, sometimes opposing the national culture, and to a certain extent isolated from it. It manifests itself in the intellectual (scientific, philosophical, religious, etc.) and especially artistic activity. The range of such trends in art is quite wide. : impressionism, abstractionism, futurism, cubism and other modernist movements, etc. It is characterized by relative closedness, esotericism, and develops its own norms, ideals, language, and sign systems. Despite their essential differences, there is reason to talk about the commonality of ideological and aesthetic positions:

§ complexity of language, figurative structures, innovation;

§ individualization and rigidity of the system of norms and values ​​accepted by this direction as mandatory for “initiates”;

§ complication of the socio-cultural, sign-semantic system, its deliberately subjective nature;

§ semantic closure, isolation of elite culture, its “sacralization” (sanctification), “esotericization”.

Within this kind of elite culture, especially its artistic directions, a contrast between academic traditionalism and avant-garde emerged (avant-garde is a collective name for trends that denied realism, proclaimed the independence of art from reality, a rebellion against traditions, their destruction, a tireless search for new ideas, technologies, meanings - in science, technology, art, etc.) .

Spanish philosopher H. Ortega y Gasset justifies the expediency of this kind of movement by the fact that art should alienate people from real life . The artist “aims to boldly deform reality, break it, break the human aspect, dehumanize it” . These goals are realized to one degree or another within the framework of modernist trends.

The prospects for elite destinations may be different.

Ø Firstly, their democratization is possible through inclusion in a broader socio-cultural context. An example is the rapprochement of the Russian noble culture with the folk culture, which gave the world its original national art XIX century.

Ø Secondly, it is possible to become isolated in a narrow circle of like-minded people on the basis of creative experiments, deepening into the world of subjective ideas, intuitive insights and, as a result, detachment from the realities of life, from a person, for example, surrealism (superrealism), Suprematism, etc.

Elite culture is contradictory. It combines the search for something new and an attitude toward preserving what is already known. A protest against the absurdity of life results in opposition to the achievements of the past, but at the same time enriches the figurative and meaningful outline, expands the spectrum expressive means, ideals, ideas, ideas, theories .

Elite culture included in different areas cultural practice, performing different functions (roles) in it: informational and cognitive, replenishing the treasury of knowledge, technical achievements, artistic innovations; socialization, including a person in the world of culture; normative and regulatory, etc. But special role belongs to cultural creativity, the function of self-realization, self-actualization of the individual; in the field of aesthetic and demonstration - presentation of samples of author's creativity to the general public. Authorship becomes a value, and the master strives to capture and preserve given name in your creation.

Mass culture, its subject and distinctive features

Mass culture is a product of the industrial and post-industrial era, related to the formation mass society and mass production and consumption. Not only technology, but economic ( private property ), the political and sociocultural conditions of bourgeois society became the basis for its formation in late XIX-XX centuries This professional culture created by professionals for the masses. It is understood as a “mass” way of being of culture in the conditions of modern industrial society, a type of “cultural industry” that produces cultural products, often commercial, on a daily basis on a large scale, designed for mass consumption, subordinated to it as its goal, which is distributed through channels that include technically sophisticated media and communications. Its appearance is attributed to end of the 19th century V. in USA. Famous American political scientist and public figure Z. Brzezinski spoke : If Rome gave the world law, England - parliamentary activity, France - culture and republican nationalism, then the modern USA gave the world a scientific and technological revolution and mass culture.

Prerequisites and conditions for the formation of mass culture

Ø Strengthening urbanization, scientific and technological progress.

Ø Population growth, its concentration in a relatively limited space - the path to massification of society.

Ø Development of large mechanized and automated, constantly improving production.

Ø Transformation of collectives of workers into an impersonal, passive, controlled mass.

Ø The emergence of a commercial type of “cultural industry” profit-oriented, commercial success-oriented.



Population migration, rapid changes in media technologies, and their widespread dissemination have led to a mixing of cultures, values, standards and ways of life. To adapt to a new, informational variety of culture, a special mechanism is developed, the ability of a mass, undifferentiated set to adapt to changed conditions is formed. This mechanism was mass culture, which arises at a certain, fairly high stage of development of society, especially the stage of information culture.

Marcuse G. (1– German-American philosopher, sociologist. Collaborated with the Russian Center at Harvard University, was engaged in anti-fascist propaganda.

Currently, the subject of mass culture is losing its integrity and breaks down into several components - creators, custodians, translators, consumers.

Among them:

A) power structures society;

b) commercial links;

d) show business elite;

e) consumers themselves, who not only consume, but also distribute mass culture.

Bell D. (Bell) (1919-) American sociologist, specialist in theory and history social thought, political trends.

In conditions of increasing complexity of socio-cultural life, differentiated all components of the phenomenon of mass culture. The subject-carrier of mass culture, its components, artifacts ( artifact - artificially made). Professional creators confront the mass of consumers of the products offered, purposefully form this mass, a mass person, mass consciousness . They know their craft, the goals and requirements of customers, accept their conditions, focus on them, while they themselves can profess other values, for example, elite.

As a result, they create certain standards, examples of characters who are successful in business, not constrained by moral standards in achieving commercial, career, etc. goals, unprincipled thugs, supermen.

The masses (consumers) as an undifferentiated set have no organization, do not make decisions (D. Bell). This is a crowd that does not reason, but obeys. The mass person, averaged, impersonal, does not differ from thousands and millions of others, becomes a consumer of mass culture and an object of manipulation by professional creators and customers . Acquiring traits of herdism, unification, and stereotypes, he loses his individuality and personal responsibility and is immersed in the offered, equally amorphous, undifferentiated products, assimilating the standards and values ​​offered to him. A person becomes not a goal, but a means (a grain of sand) in the total mass of consumers.G. Marcuse calls him a “one-dimensional man,” considering him the product of a one-dimensional society, the consequence of which was an increase in aggression, which was reflected in mass culture, where the aestheticization of the terrible, terrible, super-violence, and vice came to the fore.

Texts of mass production are focused on “ human mass", the average person as his own addressee, which leads to their simplification and averaging. Such are, for example, “pop” adaptations of classical musical works (for example, etc.), or the transformation of Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” into an entertaining detective story, and L. Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” into a comic book. At the same time, there is an erosion of personal authorship (deindividuation), primitivization of language and figurative structure.

With increasing specialization of knowledge, increasing complexity creative activity, sign systems are not all achievements, values, meanings, ideas of the elite, and folk cultures are accessible to a wide audience. They are spread in a simplified form by mass culture. Thus, it makes a connection between ordinary, everyday and specialized consciousness, becoming one of the means that contribute to the transmission of ideas and meanings necessary for the ruling elite.

At the same time, another element very specific to mass culture appears - mediator-communicator, using a powerful arsenal of technical means. These are managers, producers, etc. Without them, it is impossible to create works, organize exhibitions, shows, festivals, although, according to the French aesthetics of S. Lalo, “they only sell some and buy others, caring about immediate profit » , as well as constant stimulation of the consumer. For this purpose, his tastes and requests are purposefully formed and a cult of various kinds of idols (“stars” of cinema, pop, sports, etc.), a cult of things, role models, who are worshiped as gods or demigods, is created.

Thus, mass culture finds its niche and becomes one of the mechanisms for implementing normative-regulatory, value-orientation, and socialization functions. This allows mass culture to occupy its niche and become one of the mechanisms for controlling the masses, mass consciousness. It gives an opportunity to the mass person, translating complex patterns and norms into a language accessible to him, to adapt and navigate in a complex socio-cultural environment, to assimilate the standards, ideals, and ways of behavior offered to him. Here, achieving commercial success and making a profit comes to the fore. The attitude of seeking entertainment “works” for this, creating the illusion of overcoming the feeling of loneliness in conditions of socio-cultural alienation, and a focus on escaping reality ( escapism) through immersion in the illusory world of cloudless happiness, material wealth, variety of impressions and availability of any consumer goods.

The goal in this case is to consume (consumerism) without spending any special intellectual effort, Therefore, the samples offered to humans are simple, even primitive, and easily perceived. Thus, “mass culture educates the consumer by killing the citizen”.

This, in all likelihood, is the reason for the good adaptability of mass culture to rapidly changing sociocultural conditions and the reasons for its vitality.

Literature

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Gromyko of the Russian village. M., 1991

Gromyko, norms of behavior and forms of communication of Russian peasants in the 19th century. M., 1986.

Gurevich culture. M., 1994. Ch. 13.

Davydov and the elite. M., 1966.

Vigilant and replicated. M., 1981.

Kozlova of the masses and the taste of intellectuals // Social Sciences and modernity. 1994. No. 3.

, Lazutin oral folk art. M., 1977

Kostya culture as a phenomenon post-industrial society. M., 2003.

Kostina. M., 2008.

Kukarkin mass culture (theories, ideas, varieties, images). M., 1985.

Culturology as a general theory of culture. M., 2002.

Culturology. XX century. Dictionary. St. Petersburg, 1998.

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Nekrasov art as part of culture. M., 1983

Ortega y Gasset. Selected works. M., 1997.

Ortega y Gasset. Aesthetics. Philosophy of culture. M., 1981.

Putilov and folk culture. St. Petersburg, 1994.

Russians: Folk culture (history and modernity). T. 4. Social life and holiday culture. M. 2000.

Saprykin culture: concept, genesis, originality, ambivalence. M., 2005.

Shestakov of the twentieth century. M., 1988.

Elite and mass in Russian artistic culture. M., 1996.

Materials for lectures on general theory culture and culture ancient Rome. M., 1993. S. 17, 28.

Cm.: Morphology of culture // Culturology. Encyclopedia. XX century. T. II. M., 1998. P. 64.

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Quote By.: Kukarkin A.V.“Bourgeois mass culture. M., 1978. P. 70.

Mythology of the 20th century. M., 1988. P. 33.

Elite culture has rather blurred boundaries, especially nowadays with the tendencies of mass elements to strive for the expression of individuality. Its peculiarity is that it is doomed to be misunderstood by most people, and this is one of its main characteristics. In this article we will find out elite culture, what its main characteristics are and compare it with mass culture.

What it is

Elite culture is the same as “high culture”. It is contrasted with mass, which is one of the methods for detecting it in general cultural process. This concept was first identified by K. Mannheim and J. Ortega y Gasset in their works, where they derived it precisely as the antithesis of the concept of mass culture. They meant by high culture one that contains a core of meaning capable of developing human individuality, and from which the continuation of the creation of its other elements can follow. Another area that they highlighted is the presence of special verbal elements accessible to narrow social groups: for example, Latin and Sanskrit for clergy.

Elite and mass culture: contrast

They are contrasted with each other by the type of impact on consciousness, as well as by the quality of the meanings that their elements contain. Thus, the mass one is aimed at a more superficial perception, which does not require specific knowledge and special intellectual efforts to understand the cultural product. Currently, there is an increased spread of popular culture due to the process of globalization, which, in turn, is distributed through the media and is stimulated by the capitalist structure of society. unlike elitist, it is intended for a wide range of people. Now we see its elements everywhere, and it is especially pronounced in programs television channels and cinema.

Thus, Hollywood cinema can be contrasted with arthouse cinema. Moreover, the first type of film focuses the viewer’s attention not on the meaning and idea of ​​the story, but on the special effects of the video sequence. Here quality cinema implies an interesting design, an unexpected but easy-to-understand plot.

Elite culture is represented by arthouse films, which are judged by different criteria than Hollywood products this kind, the main one of which is meaning. Thus, the quality of the footage in such films is often underestimated. At first glance the reason Low quality filming is due to either the lack of good funding or the amateurism of the director. However, this is not so: in arthouse cinema, the function of video is to convey the meaning of an idea. Special effects can distract from this, so they are not typical for products of this format. Arthouse ideas are original and deep. Very often, in the presentation of a simple story, it is hidden from superficial understanding. deep meaning, the real tragedy of the individual is revealed. While watching these films, you can often notice that the director himself is trying to find the answer to the question posed and studying the characters as they shoot. Predicting the plot of an arthouse movie is almost impossible.

Characteristic high culture

Elite culture has a number of characteristics that distinguish it from mass culture:

  1. Its elements are aimed at displaying and studying the deep processes of human psychology.
  2. It has a closed structure, understandable only to extraordinary individuals.
  3. It is distinguished by original artistic solutions.
  4. Contains a minimum of visual aids.
  5. Has the ability to express something new.
  6. It tests what may later become a classic or trivial art.

- , adapted to the tastes of the broad masses of people, is technically replicated in the form of many copies and distributed using modern communication technologies.

The emergence and development of mass culture is associated with the rapid development of mass media, capable of exerting a powerful influence on the audience. IN media There are usually three components:

  • mass media(newspapers, magazines, radio, television, Internet blogs, etc.) - replicate information, have a regular impact on the audience and are aimed at certain groups of people;
  • means of mass influence(advertising, fashion, cinema, popular literature) - do not always regularly influence the audience, are aimed at the average consumer;
  • technical means of communication(Internet, telephone) - determine the possibility of direct communication between a person and a person and can be used to transmit personal information.

Let us note that not only the media have an impact on society, but society also seriously influences the nature of the information transmitted in the media. Unfortunately, the demands of the public often turn out to be low culturally, which reduces the level television programs, newspaper articles, variety shows, etc.

IN last decades in the context of the development of means of communication they talk about a special computer culture. If previously the main source of information was the book page, now it is the computer screen. A modern computer allows you to instantly obtain information over the network and supplement text graphic images, video films, sound, which provides a holistic and multi-level perception of information. In this case, text on the Internet (for example, a web page) can be represented as hypertext. those. contain a system of references to other texts, fragments, non-textual information. The flexibility and versatility of computer information display tools greatly enhance the degree of its impact on humans.

At the end of XX - beginning of XXI V. popular culture began to play important role in ideology and economics. However, this role is ambiguous. On the one hand, mass culture made it possible to reach wide sections of the population and introduce them to the achievements of culture, presenting them in simple, democratic and understandable images and concepts, but on the other hand, it created powerful mechanisms of manipulation public opinion and formation of an average taste.

The main components of mass culture include:

  • information industry- the press, television news, talk shows, etc., explaining current events in clear language. Mass culture was initially formed in the sphere of the information industry - the “yellow press” of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Time has shown the high efficiency of mass communication in the process of manipulating public opinion;
  • leisure industry- films, entertaining literature, pop humor with the most simplified content, pop music, etc.;
  • formation system mass consumption, which centers on advertising and fashion. Consumption here is presented as a non-stop process and the most important goal of human existence;
  • replicated mythology - from the myth of " American dream", where beggars turn into millionaires, to the myths of " national exclusivity"and the special virtues of a particular people in comparison with others.

Select correct judgments about the culture and its varieties and write down the numbers under which they are indicated.

1) Obtaining commercial benefit is the purpose of creating works mass art.

2) Elite culture reflects the urgent spiritual needs of the broad masses.

3) Elite art is designed for a narrow circle of consumers prepared to perceive works that are complex in form and content.

4) Works of popular culture are, as a rule, anonymous.

5) Works of folk culture are often transmitted orally.

Explanation.

Elite culture

Elite or high culture is created by a privileged part of society, or at its request by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture, for example, the painting of Picasso or the music of Schnittke, is difficult for an unprepared person to understand. As a rule, it is decades ahead of the level of perception of an averagely educated person. The circle of its consumers is a highly educated part of society: critics, literary scholars, regulars of museums and exhibitions, theatergoers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population increases, the circle of consumers of high culture expands. Its varieties include secular art and salon music. The formula of elite culture is “art for art’s sake.”

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

Elite culture includes avant-garde movements in music, painting, cinema, and complex literature of a philosophical nature. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as inhabitants of the “ivory tower”, who have fenced themselves off with their art from the real world. Everyday life. As a rule, elite culture is non-commercial, although sometimes it can be financially successful and move into the category of mass culture.

Modern trends are such that mass culture penetrates into all areas of “high culture”, mixing with it. At the same time, mass culture reduces the overall cultural level its consumers, but at the same time itself gradually rises to a higher cultural level. Unfortunately, the first process is still much more intense than the second.

Folk culture

Folk culture is recognized as a special form of culture. Unlike elite culture, folk culture is created by anonymous creators who do not have professional training. Authors folk creations 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 execution, elements of folk culture can be individual (statement of a legend), group (performing a dance or song), or mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, associated with the traditions of a given area, and democratic, since everyone participates in its creation. Modern manifestations of folk culture include jokes and urban legends.

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 media (radio, print, television, recordings, tape recorders, video) penetrated into most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. Mass culture can be international and national. Popular and pop music is a striking example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of level of education.

Mass culture, as a rule, has less artistic value than elite or popular culture. But it has the widest audience. It satisfies the immediate needs of people, reacts to and reflects any new event. Therefore, examples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose relevance, become obsolete, and go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and popular culture. Pop culture is a slang name for mass culture, and kitsch is a type of it.

1) Obtaining commercial benefits is the goal of creating works of mass art - yes, that's right.

2) Elite culture reflects the urgent spiritual needs of the broad masses - no, that’s not true.

3) Elite art is designed for a narrow circle of consumers prepared to perceive works that are complex in form and content - yes, that’s right.

4) Works of mass culture, as a rule, are anonymous - no, that’s not true.

5) Works of folk culture are often transmitted orally - yes, that’s right.