The new validation of popular culture: Sense and sentimentality in academia

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Abstract
In recent years the study of popular culture has gained legitimacy in American universities. Several intellectual developments have stimulated this: a sociological perspective on the “production of culture” that tends to minimize the differences between high and popular culture; work in anthropology and other fields that has broadened the concept of what can be studied as a “text” and increasing attention in several disciplines to the role of audiences in constructing the works of art they read or interpret. This essay critically reviews these developments and discusses their implications for the university.