Culture as a Process in Levines Highbrow, Lowbrow Essay -- Highbrow L

Culture as a Process in Levines Highbrow, LowbrowIn Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine argues that a distinction between high and low subtlety that did not exist in the first half of the 19th century emerged by the turn of the century and solidified during the 20th century, and that despite a run away in the last few decades toward a more ecumenical variation of enculturation, the distinction between high art and popular entertainment and the revering of a canon of sacred, inalterable cultural works persists. In the prologue Levine states that one of his important arguments is that concepts of cultural boundaries have changed over the period he treats. Throughout Highbrow, Lowbrow, Levine defines culture as a process rather than a fixed entity, and as a product of interactions between the past and the present. Levines first chapter presents establish that 19th century Americans of all social classes enjoyed Shakespe be as an integral smash of their culture and entertainment. Shakesp eares works were familiar enough to the populace that a variety of parodies were written and performed for large crowds that displayed their engagement with the works by applause, vegetable-throwing, interruptions, and commands to the actors. Shakespeares plays were performed in frontier communities and in cities, in churches and theatres and make-shift stages, attended by passel of all classes. He describes the integration of Shakespeare into the Americans language and imagination, and explains Shakespeares popularity on the reason of its compatibility with 19th century Americans oral rhetorical style and their ability to let out their own cultures emphasis on individualism and moral philosophy reflected in Shakespeares characters and stories. Levine ex... ... and others whom Levine treats are a different breed of reformers because they are concerned exactly indirectly with morality. But when Brown laments that todays youth are intellectually wanting and have no connecter with their cultural heritage, he uses bold phrases such as junk victuals for the soul, indicating that the erosion of appreciation for high culture is changing not only the common forms of entertainment but the character of todays youth. other parallel exists in Browns conception of culture and the Springhalls reformers concept of morality as something that youth can access if they occupy to break away from the evil influences of mass or popular culture with the help, of course, of their moral or intellectual superiors, who long to inculcate their own (perhaps technologically or culturally outdated) ways of thinking into the next generation.