This book examines nobrow, a cultural formation that intertwines art and entertainment into an identifiable creative force. In our eclectic and culturally turbocharged world, the binary of highbrow vs. lowbrow is incapable of doing justice to the complexity and artistry of cultural production. Until now, the historical power, aesthetic complexity, and social significance of nobrow artertainment have escaped analysis. This book rectifies this oversight. Smart, funny, and iconoclastic, it scrutinizes the many faces of nobrow, throwing surprising light on the hazards and rewards of traffic between high entertainment and genre art.
1. Introduction Browbeaten into Pulp: Nobrow Positions and Oppositions; Peter Swirski and Tero Eljas Vanhanen.- 2. Pop Culture and Nobrow Culture From Lil Abner to Discourse Theory and Back: A Culture Critics Odyssey; Arthur Berger.- 3. Nobrow, American Style: From Goldilocks to the Golden Mean; Peter Swirski.- 4. Middlebrow and Nobrow: Tracing Patterns Across Culture; Beth Driscoll.- 5. Prequels to Nobrow: Battles of the Brows from Socrates to Cervantes; Kenneth Krabbenhoft.- 6. Gothic Literature in America: The Nobrow Aesthetics of Murder and Madness.- Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet.- 7. Neither Indian Reservation Nor Baboon Patriarchy: Science Fiction as Nobrow Phenomenon; Nicholas Ruddick.- 8. Mambo Clothing and Australian Nobrow: Wearable Art for a Global Audience; Christopher McAuliffe.- 9. Guilty Pleasures, or Nobrow Treasures? Popular Judgment and the Affective Economy of Taste; David McAvoy.- 10. The Good, the Bad, and the Nobrow: Structures of Taste and Distaste in the Nobrow Age; Tero Eljas Vanhanen.- Bibliography.- Inlc)
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