Popular Modernisms

Book excerpt: Popular Modernisms examines a process that has occurred throughout the history of art; one that accelerated with the social effects of the industrial revolution, the development of capitalism and the inception of modern social relations. It argues that the shocks of modernist art encouraged the production of visual satires, parodies, ironies and pastiches; and that, in the company of other forms of text or performance-based criticism, these were the means by which those in marginal, or subordinate social positions could exercise their displeasure and opposition to the ruling ideas and dominant classes of the day. Expressing feelings ranging from mild discomfort to pure rage, this criticism enabled social subordinates to contest or resist the dominance of high culture over low; in terms eloquently described by Antonio Gramsci, as the hegemony of the dominant centre culture over its margins. The focus upon graphic satires (cartoons and comics) of modern art attempts to provide some practical explication of the symbolic contest of power as this process represents the struggle to achieve and maintain, cultural hegemony. A further aim in this book is to investigate the symbolic contestation of cultural meanings in social terms and thereby enrich our understanding of classed society. There are, I believe, many social and political confluences that intersect within the symbolic construction and interpretation of culture. This contest of power can be read as ideological conflict between various dominant, and subordinate groups, classes and class.