General characteristics of mass and elite culture. Features and significance of elite culture
elite culture. 3
Mass culture. 4
Mass culture and its social functions. 5
Art and mass culture. eleven
Kitsch and popular culture. 12
Mass culture as a culture of mass society. 14
Conclusion. 18
List of used sources. 21
Introduction
The growth of interest in the problems of culture is characteristic of the entire world science of the 20th century and is associated with many historical and socio-cultural reasons: the formation of a multicultural post-industrial civilization; search for means of "cultural adaptation" of a person to the achievements of the technogenic world and information culture; the spread of the phenomenon of mass culture; the increase in the "anthropological" nature of science, the transfer of its interest from a person - a product of culture to a person - the creator of culture. All this stimulated the development in most countries of the world of a complex of cultural and anthropological sciences, cultural studies became the domestic equivalent of such a science.
Elite culture
An elite or high culture is created by a privileged part of society, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine art, classical music and literature. High culture, such as the painting of Picasso or the music of Schoenberg, 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 critics, frequenters of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, 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". High culture denotes the passions and habits of the townspeople, aristocrats, the wealthy, the ruling elite. 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 some genres of literature, in particular fantasy, detective stories and comics, which are always classified as popular or popular culture, but never as high. The same thing happens with specific works art. Bach's organ mass belongs to high culture, but if it is used as musical accompaniment in figure skating competitions, it is automatically included in the category of mass culture, without losing its belonging to high culture. Numerous orchestrations of Bach's works in the style of light music, jazz or rock do not compromise high culture at all. The same applies to the Mona Lisa on a toilet soap box or a computer reproduction of it hanging in the back office. Elite culture is created not by the whole people, but by an educated part of society - writers, artists, philosophers, scientists, in short, the humanities. As a rule, high culture is initially experimental or avant-garde. It tries those artistic techniques that will be accepted and correctly understood by the general public many years later. Experts sometimes call exact terms - 50 years. With such a delay, examples of the highest artistry are ahead of their time.
Mass culture
With the advent of the mass media (radio, mass print media, television, records, tape recorders), the distinctions between high and popular culture were blurred. This is how a mass culture emerged, which is not associated with religious or class subcultures. Media and popular culture are inextricably linked. A culture becomes "mass" when its products are standardized and distributed to the general public.
Mass culture (lat. massa - lump, piece) is a concept that in modern cultural studies is associated with such social groups that are characterized by an "average" level of spiritual needs.
Mass culture, a concept that covers the diverse and heterogeneous cultural phenomena of the 20th century, which became widespread in connection with the scientific and technological revolution and constant updating funds mass communication. The production, distribution and consumption of mass culture products is of an industrial-commercial nature. The semantic range of mass culture is very wide - from primitive kitsch (early comics, melodrama, pop hit, soap opera) to complex, content-rich forms (some types of rock music, "intellectual" detective story, pop art). The aesthetics of mass culture is characterized by a constant balancing between the trivial and the original, the aggressive and the sentimental, the vulgar and the sophisticated. Actualizing and objectifying the expectations of the mass audience, mass culture meets its needs for leisure, entertainment, play, communication, emotional compensation or relaxation, etc. Mass culture does not express the refined tastes or spiritual searches of the people, it has less artistic value than elite or folk culture. But she has the widest audience and she is the author. It satisfies the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. It can be international and national. Pop music is a vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.
Mass culture and its social functions
In the morphological structure of culture, two areas can be distinguished: ordinary and specialized culture. An intermediate position with the function of a translator is occupied by mass culture. The gap between ordinary and specialized cultures in antiquity was small (the specialty of an artisan or merchant was mastered in the process of home education), but as scientific and technological development it has increased a lot (especially in knowledge-intensive professions).
Everyday culture is realized in the appropriate forms of lifestyle. The way of life is determined, among other things, by the type of professional occupation of a person (a diplomat inevitably has other ways of life than a peasant), the aboriginal traditions of the place of residence, but most of all - the social status of a person, his estate or class affiliation. It is the social status that sets the direction of the economic and cognitive interests of the individual, the style of her leisure, communication, etiquette, informational aspirations, aesthetic tastes, fashion, image, household rites and rituals, prejudices, images of prestige, ideas about own dignity, worldview attitudes, social philosophy, etc., which constitutes the main array of features of everyday culture.
Ordinary culture is not specially studied by a person (with the exception of emigrants who purposefully master the language and customs new homeland), but is acquired spontaneously in the process of children's upbringing and general education, communication with relatives, the social environment, colleagues in the profession, etc., and is adjusted throughout the life of the individual as the intensity of his social contacts.
Modern knowledge and cultural patterns are developed in the depths of highly specialized areas social practice. They are understood and assimilated by the relevant specialists, but for the bulk of the population, the language of modern specialized culture (political, scientific, artistic, engineering, etc.) is almost inaccessible. Therefore, society needs a system of means for "translating" information from the language of highly specialized areas of culture to the level of ordinary understanding of unprepared people, for "interpreting" this information to its mass consumer, for a certain "infantilization" of its figurative incarnations, and also for "managing" the consciousness of the mass consumer.
This kind of adaptation has always been required for children, when in the processes of upbringing and general education "adult" meanings were translated into the language of fairy tales, parables, entertaining stories, simplified examples. Now such an interpretive practice has become necessary for a person throughout his life. Modern man, even being very educated, remains a narrow specialist in one area, and the level of his specialization increases from century to century. In other areas, he needs a permanent "staff" of commentators, interpreters, teachers, journalists, advertising agents and other kinds of "guides" who lead him through the boundless sea of information about goods, services, political events, artistic innovations, social conflicts, etc.
The mass culture became the implementer of such needs. The structure of being in it is given to a person as a set of more or less standard situations, where everything has already been chosen by the same "guides" in life: journalists, advertising agents, public politicians, etc. In popular culture, everything is already known in advance: the “correct” political system, the only true doctrine, leaders, a place in the ranks, sports and pop stars, the fashion for the image of a “class fighter” or “sexual symbol”, movies where “ours” are always right and always win, etc.
This begs the question: weren't there problems in the past with the translation of the meanings of a specialized culture to the level of everyday understanding? Why did mass culture appear only in the last one and a half or two centuries, and what cultural phenomena performed this function before?
Apparently, before the scientific and technological revolution of the last centuries, there really was no such gap between specialized and ordinary knowledge. Religion was the only exception. We well know how great was the intellectual gap between "professional" theology and the mass religiosity of the population. It really needed a "translation" from one language to another. This task was solved by preaching. Obviously, we can consider church preaching as the historical predecessor of the phenomena of mass culture.
The phenomena of mass culture are created by professional people who deliberately reduce complex meanings to the primitive. It cannot be said that this kind of infantilization is easy to perform; It is well known that the technical skill of many show business stars causes sincere admiration among representatives of the "artistic classics".
Among the main manifestations and trends of mass culture of our time, the following can be distinguished:
the industry of "subculture of childhood" (artistic works for children, toys and industrially produced games, goods specifically for children's consumption, children's clubs and camps, paramilitary and other organizations, technologies for collective education of children, etc.);
a mass general education school that introduces students to the basics of scientific knowledge, philosophical and religious ideas about the world around them with the help of standard programs;
mass media (printed and electronic), broadcasting current information, "interpreting" to an ordinary person the meaning of ongoing events, judgments and actions of figures from specialized fields;
a system of ideology and propaganda that shapes the political orientations of the population;
mass political movements initiated by the elite with the aim of involving broad sections of the population in political actions, most of them far from political interests, who have little understanding of the meaning of political programs;
the entertainment leisure industry, which includes mass artistic culture (in almost all types of literature and art, perhaps with the exception of architecture), mass staged and spectacular performances (from sports and circus to erotic), professional sports, structures for organizing organized entertainment (corresponding types of clubs, discos, dance floors, etc.) and other types of shows. Here, the consumer, as a rule, acts not only as a passive spectator, but is also constantly provoked into active inclusion or an ecstatic emotional reaction to what is happening. Mass artistic culture achieves the effect through a special aestheticization of the vulgar, ugly, physiological, i.e. acting on the principle of a medieval carnival and its semantic "shifters". This culture is characterized by:
replicating the unique and reducing it to the ordinary public;
the industry of health-improving leisure, physical rehabilitation of a person and correction of his bodily image (resort industry, mass physical culture movement, bodybuilding and aerobics, sports tourism, as well as a system of medical, pharmaceutical, perfumery and cosmetic services for correcting appearance);
the industry of intellectual leisure ("cultural" tourism, amateur performances, collecting, hobby groups, various societies of collectors, lovers and admirers of anything, scientific and educational institutions and associations, as well as everything that falls under the definition of "popular science ", Mind games, quizzes, crossword puzzles, etc.), introducing people to popular science knowledge, scientific and artistic amateurism, developing the general "humanitarian erudition" of the population;
consumer demand management system for things, services, ideas for both individual and collective use (fashion advertising, image-making, etc.), which forms the standard of socially prestigious images and lifestyles, interests and needs, types of appearance;
play complexes- from mechanical slot machines, electronic set-top boxes, computer games and so on. to systems virtual reality;
all kinds of dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, catalogs, electronic and other banks of information, special knowledge, the Internet, etc., designed not for trained specialists, but for mass consumers.
And no one is forcing this "cultural production" on us. Everyone retains the right to turn off the TV whenever he wants. Mass culture, as one of the freest in terms of its distribution of goods in the information market, can exist only in conditions of voluntary and rush demand. Of course, the level of such excitement is artificially supported by interested sellers of goods, but the very fact of increased demand for this particular product, made in this figurative style, in this language, is generated by the consumer himself, and not by the seller.
In the end, the images of mass culture, like any other image system, show us nothing more than our own "cultural face", which in fact has always been inherent in us; it's just that in Soviet times this "side of the face" was not shown on TV. If this "face" were absolutely alien, if there were no really massive demand for all this in society, we would not react to it so sharply.
Although mass culture, of course, is an "ersatz product" of specialized areas of culture, does not generate its own meanings, but only imitates phenomena, one should not evaluate it only negatively. Mass culture is generated by the objective processes of modernization of society, when the socializing and inculturating functions of traditional culture lose their effectiveness. Mass culture actually assumes the functions of an instrument for ensuring primary socialization. It is quite probable that mass culture is the embryonic precursor of some new ordinary culture that is just emerging.
One way or another, but mass culture is a variant of the everyday culture of the urban population, competent only in a narrow area, but otherwise preferring to use printed, electronic sources of reduced "for complete fools" information. In the end, pop singer, dancing at the microphone, sings about the same as Shakespeare wrote about in his sonnets, but only in this case translated into the language of "two stomp, three stomp".
Art and popular culture
This problem affects today not only the relationship between art and the economy, but also the very problem of artistry. In the 20th century, art uses sources of sound, color, and light that did not exist before. In every home, thanks to television, video, radio, one can hear classical music, see masterpieces from the collections of the best museums in the world, watch movies and theatrical productions of the greatest directors of our time. However, mass production and reproduction of works of art turns into the appearance of a standard not only in the material but also in the spiritual sphere, and this, in turn, leads to the development of an average taste. Can we distinguish in the stream of music that falls upon us daily, artistic from non-artistic, art from pseudo-art, an ersatz of culture? The standardization of tastes contributes to the averaging of the level of works of art. Quite often, it is not talent that creates the image of a particular star, but the presence of a good producer and advertising. Art begins to obey the laws of the market, where the creation of works of art depends on supply and demand. There is a sharp competitive struggle for the viewer, and it is not by chance that we are talking about the whole system of show business. Few people go to museums, classical music concerts, and tens of thousands go to shows of rock musicians. Mass culture is dominated by sensual expression and enjoyment.
Of course, mass culture has its positive aspects. Entertaining, delivering sensual pleasure, it gives a person the opportunity to forget about their problems, to relax. However, works of mass culture or kitsch are momentary and only imitate the techniques of genuine art, designed for an external effect.
kitsch and popular culture
The word "kitsch" comes from the German verbs "kitschen" (to hack, to create shoddy works), "verkilschen" (to sell cheaply, to sell for next to nothing, to make cheap stuff). If the first manifestations of kitsch were widespread only in applied arts, then as it developed, the field of kitsch began to capture all areas of art: from easel painting to all types of art, including not only traditional ones - literature, music, theater, architecture, but also cinema and television. At the same time, in each country, one can clearly define the specific national features of kitsch: the "saccharine vulgarity" of German kitsch, the "outright obsceneness" of French kitsch, the ecstatic sentimentality of Italian kitsch, and the flat primitiveness of American kitsch. Kitsch was also widely used in Russia.
In the modern world, kitsch is so common that there are already various classifications of it. Several varieties can be distinguished.
Retrokich - a fashion for classic historical kitsch. Today, many people collect classic kitsch: figurines, boxes, rugs, postcards.
Fair kitsch - modern market cats - piggy banks, toys, vaguely reminiscent of folk, and other crafts.
Neokich, which includes design kitsch, gadget kitsch (various kinds of souvenirs that are strikingly absurd: a pen - a flashlight, cufflinks with a thermometer or a gun that shoots cigarettes).
And, finally, camp - pseudo-intellectual examples of the ugliest manifestations of kitsch.
The very etymology of the word indicates that it is hack and bad taste. As a rule, kitsch works mimic real phenomena of art, but they are not. Kitsch is characterized by a set of surrogates, stereotypes, sententiousness, a set of worldly formulas, pomposity, excesses, and cosmopolitanism.
Kitsch is characterized by affectation of feelings, hypertrophy of attractions, shocking hyperbolism of situations. At the same time, the hypertrophy of feelings is associated with the shameless nakedness of the innermost. Therefore, in kitsch works, an apology for violence and gross eroticization is so common.
Ultimately, kitsch forms primitiveness, conformity, lack of independence of thinking, which is easy to manipulate. That is why kitsch forms people who are able to easily perceive the most inhumane, inhumane ideas. It is no coincidence, therefore, that in the age of the triumph of kitsch, the infection of fascism, racist ideas and national disunity spread widely.
Kitsch captures the sphere not only of amateur and professional art, but even such a sphere not subject to corrosive effects as folk art. Here we find elements of defolklorization, when professionals "tweak" folk dances and songs, and already these pseudo-artistic works are spreading as standards of folk art.
Kitsch is a phenomenon of creativity transition period, the collapse of the old cultural formation and the formation of a new one. Fear of insecurity, helplessness in the face of the formidable and incomprehensible forces many to look for ways to disconnect from reality, to go into the illusory peace of home comfort. For a person with an undeveloped taste, this is a departure into the world of kitsch.
Mass culture as a culture of mass society
In many ways, the impetus for the study of mass culture was the changes in technology that had such a dramatic impact on the fate of culture - the invention of photography, the entry of cinema on the cultural stage, the development of radio and television. The very fact that art and culture began to be reproduced on the widest scale created a number of problems for traditional ideas about the role of culture and art in society. The introduction of the principles of mass production into the realm of culture meant that cultural artifacts could be treated like any other mass-produced product. This meant, from the point of view of critics of mass society and popular culture, that cultural products such as films could not be considered as art, since they did not have an aura. original works art. At the same time, they could not be attributed to folk culture, since they, unlike folklore genres, did not come from people and could not reflect their experience and interests. The problems of this new type of culture were associated by its researchers with the change in social structures and cultural orders in the industrial age. The new type of society - "mass society" - had its own culture, which embodied the values and lifestyles of the broadest sections of the population.
The theory of mass society considers popular culture as mass, i.e. belonging to the mass society. The main point in its formation is the process of industrialization and urbanization, which had devastating consequences for culture. The emergence of large-scale and mechanized industrial production, the growth of densely populated cities led to the destabilization of the previous value structures that united people. The destruction of land-based rural labour, the rural cramped society, the decline of religion, the secularization associated with belief in science, the spread of mechanical and alienated factory labor, the establishment of life patterns in the big city, the lack of a moral foundation - all this underlies mass society and mass culture. .
The most important characteristic of a mass society is the atomization of individuals. This means that society is made up of people connected like atoms, the individual becomes detached from the community in which he can find his identity. There is a decline in social connections and institutions that could help the individual (village, church, family). As a result, in a mass society, people are atomized socially and morally.
"Mass society", "mass man"- these concepts become decisive for studies of mass culture of the first half of the 20th century, inclined to see its features in the specifics of social structures and the general character of culture changing under the influence of new technologies.
An important role in the theoretical understanding of the forms of mass culture at an early stage was played by the works of F. Leavis. The views of F. Leavis are based on an unusually high assessment of the role of culture (by which he means the elite culture of an enlightened minority) in the life of society. According to F Leavis, the minority that defines true culture is in crisis at the beginning of the 20th century. It faces a hostile environment, being cut off from the forces that rule the world, in its place as cultural center a false center arises. What is the reason for this loss of authority, this shift in the value system? F. Leavis sees it in the Americanization of culture, expressed in standardization, in the management of mass production from overseas, in the penetration of mass tastes into all areas of mass culture - the press, advertising, broadcasting, cinema. The success of Hollywood cinema is especially indicative in this sense. In the most common forms of mass culture - cinema and broadcasting - there is a model of passive perception, standardization. In advertising, F. Leavis also sees a danger, since mass psychological control over the audience is carried out through it.
If we analyze the works of F. Leavis from the point of view of cultural problems today, one can see that these works contain many points that are quite relevant for modern studies of mass culture. Among them are the following:
Popular Literature and popular culture are a source of cheap and common pleasures for the mass public, which needs to satisfy the needs shaped by urbanization and the destruction of small communities;
Mass culture cannot be analyzed as genuine culture;
The cheap and easily accessible pleasures of best-selling, light and dance music have led to the over-the-top, pervasive eroticization of contemporary popular culture;
These pleasures are passive, they do not require the active participation of the perceiver;
These pleasures lead to an excessive increase in the role of the visual element, which is in fact subordinate to reading.
Conclusion
A common motive for criticizing mass culture is the standardization that inevitably accompanies its "production". Such criticism always explicitly or implicitly proceeds either from the idealization of traditional culture, which allegedly did not know the standard, or from the reduction cultural property of the past only to the highest, unique classical models (at the same time, they forget that the "middle" and "lower" floors often simply sunk into oblivion). It is appropriate to note that doing this means becoming like a person who would compare, for example, a modern typical residential building built using a mass industrial method with some Florentine palazzo of the 15th century. and vigorously argue the obvious aesthetic defects of the first in comparison with the second, implying that huts simply did not exist in Florence at that time.
Replication is by no means necessarily a "vulgarization" of the high and unique (although losses are possible and inevitable here). According to research by art critics in modern era familiarity with the replicated creations of culture often leads to a deep penetration into the unique essence of the originals.
Standardization, closely related to mass character, is a universal social process, and the task is by no means to "expose" standardization as such. Undoubtedly, it is necessary to support and cultivate the value of the unique and inimitable in every possible way, especially in artistic creativity(without which it simply does not exist), but it is important to remember that it can (and sometimes should) become the standard, although not necessarily eternal and ubiquitous.
Of paramount importance in the functioning of culture is the creation of original and diverse cultural standards, no matter how paradoxical this statement may seem at first glance. Over time, the standard can become (and has become in history) unique. And, finally, it is required to raise the level of content of already existing standards of mass culture.
Undoubtedly, in the process of massification, a certain decrease in the quality of outstanding cultural creations is possible and even inevitable. But historical process dialectical in nature, any gains are accompanied by losses.
Dilemmas like "mass - popular", "mass - classical", etc. are highly artificial and devoid of logical and historical grounds. It is more appropriate and closer to reality to compare mass culture with elite, traditional and specialized culture. But here, too, it is important to be aware of the conditionality and mobility of this distinction. In modern societies, the elitist, traditional and mass elements are intersecting and interpenetrating elements of culture, which often cannot exist without each other. It is also necessary to take into account the complexity of such seemingly understandable phenomena as the elite and tradition.
The concept of a cultural elite is rather vague: firstly, it does not coincide with the concept of a social elite; secondly, it does not coincide with the concept of "creators" of culture. Therefore, even serious researchers are forced to introduce an evaluative component into the interpretation of the "elitist - mass" dichotomy. Attributing something to mass culture often simultaneously contains a hidden allusion to the existence of an elitist (denoted as "high", "genuine", etc.). When critics, art critics or literary critics classify a work as a "high" ("non-mass") culture, they are naturally guided by their very different value and taste orientations. As a result, both an empty, colorless (and unreadable) novel and a masterpiece can be classified as elite.
While theorists stubbornly expose mass culture, occasionally and reluctantly recognizing the right to exist of such "base" genres as variety art, circus or operetta, life shows us that the most diverse types creative activity and its results are somehow involved in the sphere of mass culture. Some of them are partially or from time to time "included" in it, others exist in it from the very beginning. The latter include Industrial Design, designing the subject environment in accordance with human needs and certain social ideals.
Thus, mass culture, just like fashion in culture, is a phenomenon much more complex and rooted in socio-historical reality than its many critics think.
If we move from a negative-evaluative interpretation of these phenomena to their objective historical, cultural and sociological analysis If we stop passing off a part as a whole, then it turns out that mass culture is not a special, rigidly fixed formation with a certain set of features, but a certain state due to the current stage of historical development. The specificity of mass culture is not that it is "bad" in its content, but that, no matter how trivial this statement looks, it is mass culture. Therefore, in the sphere of mass culture in different time with a greater or lesser degree of probability, there may be different and even opposing samples of it, including classical, folklore, and elite, etc. It is this last circumstance that makes it possible to successfully work to ensure that genuine values, as created in the past, and formed before our eyes, did not close either on the upper, hard-to-reach and little-visited floors of culture, or on the lower ones, but lived a full life together and everywhere. And then, perhaps, in the reasoning of cultural theorists, "top" will not look so unattainably high, and "bottom" - so obscenely low, as they often look today.
List of sources used
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concept elite stands for the best. Exists political elite(part of society with legitimate power), the economic elite, scientific elite. German sociologist G.A. Lansberger defines the elite as a group that largely influences decisions on key issues of a national nature. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld believed that the elite is that part of society that is capable of being responsible for the majority of people. Ortega y Gasset believed that elite- this is the most creative and productive part of society, with high intellectual and moral qualities. In the context of cultural studies, it can be said that it is in the elite sphere that the foundations of culture and the principles of its functioning are formed. Elite- this is a narrow layer of society, capable of generating in its mind values, principles, attitudes around which society can consolidate and on the basis of which culture is able to function. Elite culture belongs to a special social stratum with rich spiritual experience, developed moral and aesthetic consciousness. One of the variants of the elite culture is the esoteric culture. The concepts themselves esoterics And exoteric derived from the Greek words esoterikos – interior And exoterikos – external. Esoteric culture is accessible only to the initiates and absorbs knowledge intended for a select circle of people. Exoteric means popularity, general availability.
The attitude in society to the elite culture is ambiguous. Culturologist Dr. Richard Steitz (USA) identifies 3 types of people's attitudes towards elite culture: 1) Eustatism- a group of people who are not the creators of an elite culture, but they enjoy it and appreciate it. 2) Elitism– consider themselves to be an elite culture, but they treat mass culture with disdain. 3) Eclecticism- accept both types of cultures.
One of the factors that exacerbated the need of the society of the 19th century to separate the elite culture from the mass culture is related to the rethinking of the Christian religion, which offered those norms and principles that were accepted by all members of society. The rejection of the norms of Christianity meant the loss of a meaningful single ideal of absolute perfection, the absolute criterion of holiness. There was a need for new ideals capable of stimulating and directing social development. As a matter of fact, the split in the minds of people of ideas about the value of the common Christian culture meant the splitting of society into social groups, cultures, subcultures, each of which adopted its own ideals, stereotypes and norms of behavior. Elite culture, as a rule, is opposed to mass culture. We single out the main features that characterize one and the other type of culture.
Features of the elite culture:
1. Permanence, that is, the products of elite culture do not depend on historical time and space. Thus, the works of Mozart from the moment of their creation are a model of classics at all times and in any state.
2. The need for spiritual work. A person living in an environment of elite culture is called to intense spiritual work.
3. High requirements for human competence. In this case, it means that not only the creator, but also the consumer of the products of the elite culture must be capable of intensive spiritual work, be sufficiently well prepared in the art history sense.
4. Striving for the creation of absolute ideals of perfection. In an elite culture, the rules of honor, the state of spiritual purity acquire a central, pronounced meaning.
5. Formation of that system of values, those attitudes that serve as the foundation for the development of culture and the center for the consolidation of society.
Features of mass culture:
1. The possibility of conveyor production of products related to culture.
2. Satisfying the spiritual needs of the majority of the population.
3. The possibility of attracting many people to the social and cultural life.
4. Reflection of those patterns of behavior, stereotypes and principles that prevail in the public mind for a given period of time.
5. Fulfillment of political and social order.
6. Incorporation into the mental world of people of certain patterns and patterns of behavior; creation of social ideals.
It is important to take into account that in a number of cultural systems the concept of elite culture is conditional, because in some communities the boundary between the elite and the masses is minimal. In such cultures, it is difficult to distinguish between mass culture and elite culture. For example, many fragments of everyday life receive the academic status of a "source" only if they are removed from us in time or have an ethnographic-folklore character.
In the modern world, however, the blurring of the boundaries between mass and elite culture is so destructive that it often leads to the depreciation of cultural heritage for future generations. Thus, pop culture has affected all spheres of life, creating such phenomena as pop ideology, pop art, pop religion, pop science, etc., involving everything from Che Guevara to Jesus Christ into its space. Often pop cultures are perceived as a product of culture economically. developed countries capable of providing themselves with a good information industry and exporting their values and stereotypes to other cultures. When it comes to developing countries, pop culture is often considered an alien phenomenon, certainly of Western origin, with destructive consequences themselves. Meanwhile, in the "third world" its own pop culture has long appeared, asserting, albeit in a somewhat simplified form, the cultural identity of non-European peoples. This is the Indian film industry and kung fu films, Latin American songs in the style of "nueva trova", various schools of popular painting and pop music. In the 1970s, a craze for reggae music arose in Africa, and at the same time for the “Rastafari movement” or “Rastafari culture” associated with it. In the African environment itself, the passion for pop culture products sometimes blocks the rooting and spread of the norms of elite culture. As a rule, its fruits are better known in European countries than where they were produced. For example, the production of distinctively colorful masks in Africa is mainly focused on marketing them to tourists, and some of the buyers are more familiar with the cultural meaning of these exotic masks than those who profit from their sale.
Difficulties in distinguishing the line between elite and mass cultures sometimes lead to the development of a sectarian movement, when a person asserts dubious ideals as meaning-forming in the life of society. This is clearly illustrated by the example of the "Rastafari movement". It is difficult to determine what it is: is it a messianic sect or a folk-religious movement, or a cult, or a movement for cultural identity, is it a surrogate for a pan-African ideology, or a political anti-racist movement, or negritude "for the poor", maybe a slum subculture lumpenstva or youth fashion? For 60 years, Rastafarism (Rastafarianism, more often just “Rasta”) has gone through amazing, even incredible metamorphoses.
Rastafarism arose as a sect that deified the race (local ruler) Tafari Makonnen (hence the name of the sect), who was crowned on November 2, 1930 under the name of Haile Selassie (“the power of the Trinity”). The sect originated in Jamaica in the early 30s, but in the 60s its adherents appeared among young people of color in the USA, Canada and Great Britain. In the 70s, it turned into a pop religion, and then just a youth fashion, thereby causing a boom among the urban youth of the African continent. Despite the fact that the “rasta” came to Africa from outside, it turned out to be long-awaited, filling a certain spiritual vacuum.
The first scholar to conduct field research on Rastafarian sects was the sociologist of religion George Eaton Simpson, author of many works on African-descended cults in the Caribbean. Based on the materials of his observations in 1953-1954. he tried to describe the cult in terms of functionalism in sociology. Simpson considers the sect as a tool for removing frustration and adapting the minority to the dominant culture in an indirect way - through the rejection of benefits that are inaccessible to the social bottom. The description of the cult itself is given in passing, being reduced, in general, to five main provisions: Haile Selassie is a living god; Haile Selassie is omnipotent, even nuclear energy is subject to him; blacks are Ethiopians, a new incarnation of the ancient Jews; the gods of the Romans were wooden idols, the British consider God to be a spirit, incorporeal and invisible, in fact, God is alive and in the world - this is Haile Selassie; heaven and paradise are deceit, the black man's paradise is on Earth, in Ethiopia. Noting the "militantly anti-white rhetoric" of the cult, Simpson considers it to be quite peaceful, and verbal militancy - designed to relieve socio-psychological tension. In general, Simpson defines Rastafarism as a counterculture, which, however, turns into a subculture.
The essence of the ideas of the Rastafari is as follows: Haile Selassie I, the Lion of Judea, the King of Kings, etc. - a descendant of the house of Solomon, the next incarnation of God, the deliverer of the chosen race - black Jews. This is how the Rastafarians interpret the history of the Jewish people, as set out in Old Testament: this is the history of the Africans; Jews from fair skin- impostors posing as God's chosen people. For their sins, the black Jews were punished by slavery in Babylon. Pirates under Elizabeth I brought blacks to America, that is, to Babylon. Meanwhile, God has long forgiven his chosen people, soon they will return to Zion, which is understood as Addis Ababa. Ethiopia is seen as heaven for the black man, America is hell, and the church is the instrument of Babylon to deceive the blacks. Deliverance awaits them not in heaven, but in Ethiopia. It is the weakness or absence of an elitist culture that can lead to such sectarian movements.
Middle culture
concept middle culture was introduced by N.A. Berdyaev. The essence of this culture is to search for the form and meaning of human existence between extreme oppositional attitudes, for example, God exists And There is no god. In this concept of a middle culture, in essence, lies an attempt to find a place for a person between extreme beliefs. It is common for an individual to always choose one of these extremes, and the choice itself is inevitable for a person. The Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset writes in his work “The Revolt of the Masses”: “To live means to be eternally condemned to freedom, to eternally decide what you will become in this world. And decide tirelessly and without respite. Even giving ourselves up to chance, we decide not to decide.” The main choice a person makes when deciding on his essence, who he will be. The active comprehension of this peculiarity of people became an important feature of the culture of the Renaissance, when society tried to build the world not according to divine laws, but not according to demonic ones, but exclusively on the basis of human ones. In Europe in the 15th century, this idea was expressed by Mirandola in the treatise “Speech on the Dignity of Man”. The Thinker writes: “We do not give you, O Adam, either your own place, or a certain image, or a special duty, so that you have a place, a person, and a duty according to own will according to his will and his decision. The image of other creations is determined within the limits of the laws we have established. You are not constrained by any limits, you will define your image according to your decision, in whose power I will provide you. The last part of this quote emphasizes not only the possibility free choice of a person, but also the fact that the image that he takes will become decisive for his essence, his train of thought. In other words, the individual himself will choose what will have power over him. If a person establishes himself in a reasonable spiritual form, then he will follow reasonable requirements, but the adoption of a demonic quality will make the individual dependent on the dark beginning. Meanwhile, the choice is inevitable, because a person, having two natures: potency (potenzia) and activity (atto), cannot but strive to take on some form. In Russia, the dilemma of oppositional concepts, as a rule, was denoted by the concept divine And demonic and was repeatedly reflected in the works of many Russian philosophers. So, F.M. Dostoevsky in the novel The Brothers Karamazov writes: “A man who is even higher in heart and with a loftier mind, begins with the ideal of the Madonna, and ends with the ideal of Sodom. It is even more terrible, who, with the ideal of Sodom in his soul, does not deny the ideal of the Madonna ... ". This kind of attitude is largely explained by the dogma of the Orthodox dogma, according to which a person is called to become like God through the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. However, if we allow deification, then, therefore, likeness to a demon is also possible.
Following Russian philosophical thought and Russian culture in general, it is appropriate to note that the middle culture is impossible for human society who reached statehood. As noted by A.P. Chekhov, “... between "there is a god" and "there is no god" lies a whole huge field, which a true sage passes with great difficulty. A Russian person knows one of these extremes, but the middle between them is of no interest to him, and it usually does not mean anything or very little.
Before considering these types of cultures, it is worth dwelling on a more detailed classification, which is a division of culture into levels.
From the point of view of the environment in which the culture is spread, one can single out the original, root or folk culture, on the one hand, and the high, professional culture, on the other.
Folk (folklore) culture is a culture based on artistic traditional images, archetypes.
Folk culture is the most ancient variety of culture, from which all the others subsequently appeared, it is the result of folk art, arises from everyday work and everyday life. Its most important characteristic is anonymity, the absence of the author. For example, fairy tales, epics and proverbs, folk songs and lamentations have no author. We do not know the inventors of the ax and wheel, the builders of irrigation facilities of antiquity, etc.
Professional (high) culture is a culture that is created by professionals in the field cultural creativity- painters and sculptors, scientists and inventors, religious reformers and political leaders. As a rule, the names of these people are widely known, and their creations remain forever in the memory of their descendants.
The social stratification of society underlies the division of culture into democratic and elite.
Democratic culture is a culture that is inextricably linked with the activities of the bulk of the population, directly producing material goods for people working in the service sector (trade, catering and non-manufacturing areas). The bulk of doctors, teachers, local officials are also the creators and consumers of democratic culture.
Elite culture is an area of culture associated with the life and activities of the "top" of society - the tribal aristocracy, political leaders, big businessmen. As a rule, these people can afford the items and products themselves. best quality, unique and valuable. This applies to their household items, clothing, jewelry, dwellings, cars, works of art. In addition, today to the elite (from fr . elite - the best) refer to and creative intelligentsia– artists and scientists who create new cultural values.
The features of an elite culture are a high degree of specialization and complexity, that is, inaccessibility for most people. For example, in artistic culture, new trends in art become elitist, incomprehensible to the general consumer, designed for a highly educated person.
Thus, the elite culture is associated with the part of society that is most capable of spiritual activity or has power capabilities due to its position. In their environment, certain rituals and etiquette features, some cultural standards are accepted.
But recently the boundaries between elitist and democratic cultures have begun to blur. First of all, it concerns the sphere of artistic culture. It has repeatedly happened that some elite trend or work of art has turned over time into a model of democratic culture, and vice versa.
In addition, the works of high, elite culture are becoming available to an ever wider mass of the population thanks to modern media and communication. Therefore, more and more often modern modernized culture is characterized by the term "mass culture".
Mass culture- this is a generalized characteristic of the type of culture that dominates in modern society. It is an industrial-commercial form of production and distribution of standardized spiritual goods with the help of mass media.
This is the culture of everyday life, therefore the content of mass culture is the products of modern industrial production, cinema, television, books, newspapers and magazines, sports, tourism, etc.
The formation of mass culture is associated with the formation of an industrial society.
A huge role in its formation was played by the spread of universal literacy of the population. Therefore, the time of the existence of mass culture is counted from the 1870s-1890s, when, first in Great Britain, and then in other European countries, laws on compulsory universal literacy of the population were adopted.
Because of this, mass culture is inextricably linked with the means of mass communication. At first, she used the technical capabilities of the printing industry - cheap popular newspapers and magazines, as well as cheap books - fiction (love and detective novels) and comics. At the end of the XIX century. Cinematography was invented, and still remains the most important medium of mass art. By the 1960s, the technical capabilities of mass culture had increased many times over - the mass use of television, satellite communications began, tens of millions of records, cassettes, and CDs appeared. Recently, the capabilities of personal computers and the Internet have been added to this.
Today, most people, especially young people, get ideas about the necessary style of behavior, lifestyle, career, relationships between people from mass culture. Food, clothing, housing, household appliances, household items, education - all this also comes to a person through the mechanisms of mass culture. Today, a product becomes prestigious and valuable when it becomes a subject of mass demand.
Thus, mass culture becomes a means of stimulating consumption, for which advertising is actively used, on which huge sums are spent today. At the same time, national boundaries are erased and eliminated, mass culture becomes the foundation of world culture.
The negative aspects of mass culture led to the fact that for a long time When evaluating mass culture, critics spoke only about its negative aspects, emphasizing the baseness, vulgarity of its products, as well as the orientation of mass culture towards the formation of a spiritual standard, the education of a person with low needs in the field of art, his focus on consumption, and not on creativity.
Can be distinguished positive sides mass culture. Its main achievement is the spread of universal literacy of the population, the availability of cultural values a large number of people. Of course, this creates quite a lot of low-quality products, but indisputable masterpieces are also replicated, which do not get worse from this, but can push a person to a deeper study of these and other works.
Among the main manifestations and directions of mass culture, the following can be distinguished:
Childhood industry - production of goods and toys for children, children's clubs and camps, collective education of children;
Mass secondary school - introduces children to the basics of scientific knowledge, forms a picture of the world based on value orientations this society, brings up the same stereotypes of behavior in children;
Mass media - inform the general population of current information, evaluate it, forming public opinion;
The system of national (state) ideology and propaganda - forms the political reliability of the bulk of the population;
Mass political movements and parties are used by representatives of the political and state elite to achieve their goals;
World social mythology - pseudoscientific teachings, the creation of idols, the formation of gossip and rumors - all this provides simple explanations for all modern problems;
Leisure entertainment industry - mass artistic culture (literature and art), entertainment performances, professional sports as a spectacle, clubs, discos, etc.;
Health-improving leisure industry - resorts, sports tourism, mass physical education, cosmetic companies and services;
The industry of intellectual and aesthetic leisure - "cultural" tourism, amateur art, collecting, hobby groups and societies, scientific and educational institutions;
Various game complexes - accustom and adapt a person to the modern pace and rhythm of life;
Dictionaries, reference books, encyclopedias, electronic information banks, libraries designed for the mass consumer - popularize modern knowledge.
These types of culture closely interact. For example, mass culture, one way or another, nourishes the elite culture materially, and the elite mass culture - ideologically and figuratively. To confirm this, it is enough to recall the image of the "Gioconda" by Leonardo da Vinci on T-shirts and jackets. On the other hand, mass culture, which is close to popular culture, borrows a lot from elite culture.
Thus, of all the listed types of cultures, mass culture is a new, more developed form of the cultural existence of modern man, new mechanisms of inculturation and socialization.
Similar information.
By the nature of the creations, one can single out the culture represented in single samples And popular culture. The first form, according to the characteristic features of the creators, is divided into folk and elite culture. folk culture is a single work of most often anonymous authors. This form of culture includes myths, legends, tales, epics, songs, dances, and so on. Elite culture- a set of individual creations that are created well-known representatives privileged part of society or by its order by professional creators. We're talking about creators here. high level education and well known to the enlightened public. This culture includes art, literature, classical music, etc.
Mass (public) culture represents the products of spiritual production in the field of art, created large circulations for the general public. The main thing for her is the entertainment of the widest masses of the population. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education. Its main feature is the simplicity of ideas and images: texts, movements, sounds, etc. Samples of this culture are aimed at emotional sphere person. At the same time, popular culture often uses simplified examples of elite and folk culture (“remixes”). Mass culture averages the spiritual development of people.
Subculture is a culture social group: confessional, professional, corporate, etc. As a rule, it does not deny the universal culture, but it has specific features. Signs of a subculture are special rules of behavior, language, symbols. Each society has its own set of subcultures: youth, professional, ethnic, religious, dissident, etc.
Dominant culture- values, traditions, views, etc., shared only by a part of society. But this part has the ability to impose them on the whole of society, either because it constitutes the ethnic majority, or because it has a mechanism of coercion. A subculture that opposes the dominant culture is called a counterculture. The social basis of the counterculture is people who are alienated to a certain extent from the rest of society. The study of the counterculture allows us to understand the cultural dynamics, the formation and spread of new values.
The tendency to evaluate the culture of one's nation as good and correct, and another culture as strange and even immoral has been called "ethnocentrism". Many societies are ethnocentric. From the point of view of psychology, this phenomenon acts as a factor in the unity and stability of this society. However, ethnocentrism can be a source of intercultural conflicts. The extreme forms of manifestation of ethnocentrism are nationalism. The opposite is cultural relativism.
Elite culture
Elite, or high culture created by a privileged part, or by its order by professional creators. It includes fine arts, classical music and literature. High culture, such as 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 critics, frequenters of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, writers, musicians. When the level of education of the population grows, 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”.
Elite culture It is intended for a narrow circle of highly educated public and opposes both folk and mass culture. It is usually incomprehensible to the general public and requires good preparation for correct perception.
The avant-garde trends in music, painting, cinema, complex literature of a philosophical nature can be attributed to the elite culture. Often the creators of such a culture are perceived as inhabitants of the "ivory tower", fenced off by their art from real 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 general cultural level of its consumers, but at the same time, it 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. In contrast to the elite culture of the people, culture is created by anonymous creators who do not have professional training. The authors of folk creations are 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 (retelling of a legend), group (performing a dance or song), mass (carnival processions). Folklore is another name for folk art, which is created by various segments of the population. Folklore is localized, that is, associated with the traditions of the given area, and democratic, since everyone participates in its creation. Anecdotes and urban legends can be attributed to modern manifestations of folk culture.
Mass culture
Mass or public 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 mass media(radio, print, television, records, 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 vivid example of mass culture. It is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education.
Popular culture is usually less artistic value than elitist or popular culture. But it has the widest audience. It satisfies the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete, go out of fashion. This does not happen with works of elite and folk culture. pop culture is a slang term for mass culture, and kitsch is a variation of it.
Subculture
The set of values, beliefs, traditions and customs that guide the majority of members of society is called dominant culture. Since society breaks up into many groups (national, demographic, social, professional), each of them gradually forms its own culture, i.e., a system of values and rules of conduct. Small cultures are called subcultures.
Subculture- part of a common culture, a system of values, traditions, customs inherent in a certain. They talk about the youth subculture, the subculture of the elderly, the subculture of national minorities, the professional subculture, the criminal subculture. The subculture differs from the dominant culture in language, outlook on life, behavior, hair, dress, customs. The differences can be very strong, but the subculture does not oppose the dominant culture. Drug addicts, the deaf and dumb, the homeless, alcoholics, athletes, and the lonely have their own culture. The children of the aristocrats or the middle class are very different in their behavior from the children of the lower class. They read different books, go to different schools, are guided by different ideals. Each generation and social group has its own cultural world.
Counterculture
Counterculture denotes a subculture that is not only different from the dominant culture, but opposes, is in conflict with the dominant values. Subculture of terrorists resists human culture, and the hippie youth movement in the 1960s. denied the dominant American values: hard work, material success, conformity, sexual restraint, political loyalty, rationalism.
Culture in Russia
The state of the spiritual life of modern Russia can be characterized as a transition from upholding the values associated with attempts to build a communist society, to the search for a new meaning of social development. We have reached the next round of the historical dispute between Westernizers and Slavophiles.
The Russian Federation is a multinational country. Its development is due to the peculiarities national cultures. The uniqueness of the spiritual life of Russia lies in the diversity of cultural traditions, religious beliefs, moral standards, aesthetic tastes, etc., which is associated with the specifics cultural heritage different peoples.
At present, in the spiritual life of our country, there are conflicting trends. On the one hand, the mutual penetration of different cultures contributes to interethnic understanding and cooperation, on the other hand, the development of national cultures is accompanied by interethnic conflicts. The latter circumstance requires a balanced, tolerant attitude towards the culture of other communities.
Features of the production and consumption of cultural values allowed culturologists to identify two social forms of existence of culture : mass culture and elite culture.
Mass culture is a type of cultural production that is produced daily in large volumes. It is assumed that mass culture is consumed by all people, regardless of place and country of residence. Mass culture - it is the culture of everyday life, presented to the widest possible audience through various channels, including the media and communications.
Mass culture (from lat.massa- lump, piece) - a cultural phenomenon of the 20th century, generated by the scientific and technological revolution, urbanization, the destruction of local communities, the blurring of territorial and social boundaries. The time of its appearance is the middle of the 20th century, when the mass media (radio, print, television, record and tape recorder) penetrated most countries of the world and became available to representatives of all social strata. In its proper sense, mass culture manifested itself for the first time in the United States at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The well-known American political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski liked to repeat a phrase that became commonplace over time: “If Rome gave the world the right, England parliamentary activity, France culture and republican nationalism, then modern USA gave the world scientific and technological revolution and popular culture.
The origins of the widespread dissemination of mass culture in the modern world lie in the commercialization of all social relations, while the mass production of culture is understood by analogy with the conveyor industry. Many creative organizations (cinema, design, TV) are closely associated with banking and industrial capital and are focused on the production of commercial, box office, and entertainment works. In turn, the consumption of these products is mass consumption, because the audience that perceives this culture is a mass audience of large halls, stadiums, millions of viewers of television and movie screens.
A striking example of mass culture is pop music, which is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population. It satisfies the momentary needs of people, reacts to any new event and reflects it. Therefore, samples of mass culture, in particular hits, quickly lose their relevance, become obsolete and go out of fashion. As a rule, mass culture has less artistic value than elite culture.
The purpose of mass culture is to stimulate the consumer consciousness of the viewer, listener, reader. Mass culture forms a special type of passive, non-critical perception of this culture in humans. It creates a personality that is quite easy to manipulate.
Consequently, mass culture is designed for mass consumption and for the average person, it is understandable and accessible to all ages, all segments of the population, regardless of the level of education. In social terms, it forms a new social stratum, called the "middle class".
Mass culture in artistic creativity performs specific social functions. Among them, the main one is illusory-compensatory: introducing a person to the world of illusory experience and unrealizable dreams. To do this, mass culture uses such entertainment types and genres of art as circus, radio, television; stage, hit, kitsch, slang, science fiction, action movie, detective, comics, thriller, western, melodrama, musical.
It is within the framework of these genres that simplified “versions of life” are created that reduce social evil to psychological and moral factors. And all this is combined with open or covert propaganda of the dominant way of life. Popular culture in more focuses not on realistic images, but on artificially created images (image) and stereotypes. Today, the newfangled "stars of the artificial Olympus" have no less fanatical admirers than the old gods and goddesses. Modern mass culture can be international and national.
Peculiaritiesmass culture: general accessibility (comprehensibility to everyone and everyone) of cultural values; ease of perception; stereotypes created by social stereotypes, replicability, entertainment and fun, sentimentality, simplification and primitiveness, propaganda of the cult of success, a strong personality, the cult of the thirst for possession of things, the cult of mediocrity, the conventionality of primitive symbolism.
Mass culture does not express the refined tastes of the aristocracy or the spiritual searches of the people, the mechanism of its distribution is directly related to the market, and it is predominantly a priority of megacity forms of existence. The basis of the success of mass culture is people's unconscious interest in violence and eroticism.
At the same time, if we consider mass culture as a spontaneously developing culture of everyday life, which is created by ordinary people, then its positive aspects are the focus on the average norm, simple pragmatics, appeal to a huge reader, viewer and listener audience.
As the antipode of mass culture, many culturologists consider elite culture.
Elite (high) culture - the culture of the elite, intended for the upper strata of society, possessing the greatest ability for spiritual activity, a special artistic susceptibility and gifted with high moral and aesthetic inclinations.
The producer and consumer of elite culture is the highest privileged stratum of society - the elite (from the French elite - the best, selective, chosen). The elite is not only a tribal aristocracy, but that educated part of society that has a special "organ of perception" - the ability for aesthetic contemplation and artistic and creative activity.
According to various estimates, consumers of elite culture in Europe for several centuries have remained approximately the same proportion of the population - about one percent. Elite culture is, first of all, the culture of the educated and wealthy part of the population. Under the elite culture usually means a special sophistication, complexity and high quality of cultural products.
The main function of elite culture is the production of social order in the form of law, power, structures of the social organization of society, as well as the ideology that justifies this order in the forms of religion, social philosophy and political thought. An elite culture involves a professional approach to creation, and the people who create it receive a special education. The circle of consumers of elite culture is its professional creators: scientists, philosophers, writers, artists, composers, as well as representatives of highly educated strata of society, namely: frequenters of museums and exhibitions, theater-goers, artists, literary critics, writers, musicians and many others.
Elite culture is distinguished by a very high level of specialization and the highest level of social claims of the individual: love for power, wealth, fame is considered the normal psychology of any elite.
In high culture, those artistic techniques are tested that will be perceived and correctly understood by wide layers of non-professionals many years later (up to 50 years, and sometimes more). For a certain period of time, high culture not only cannot, but must remain alien to the people, it must be endured, and the viewer must mature creatively during this time. For example, the painting of Picasso, Dali or the music of Schoenberg is difficult for an unprepared person to understand even today.
Therefore, elite culture is experimental or avant-garde in nature and, as a rule, it is ahead of the level of perception of it by an averagely educated person.
With the growth of the level of education of the population, the circle of consumers of elite culture is expanding. It is this part of society that contributes to social progress, therefore “pure” art should be focused on meeting the demands and needs of the elite, and it is to it that artists, poets, and composers should turn their works. Formula of elite culture: "Art for the sake of art".
The same types of art can belong to both high and mass culture: classical music is high, and popular music is mass, Fellini films are high, and action films are mass. The organ mass of S. Bach belongs to high culture, but if it is used as a musical ringtone on a mobile phone, it is automatically included in the category of mass culture, without losing its belonging to high culture. Numerous orchestrations
Bach's performances in the style of light music, jazz or rock do not compromise high culture at all. The same applies to the Mona Lisa on a toilet soap package or a computer reproduction of it.
Features of the elite culture: focuses on "people of a genius" capable of aesthetic contemplation and artistic and creative activity, there are no social stereotypes, a deep philosophical essence and non-standard content, specialization, sophistication, experimentalism, avant-gardism, the complexity of cultural values for understanding an unprepared person, sophistication, high quality, intellectuality .
Conclusion.
1. From the point of view of scientific analysis, there is no more complete or less complete culture; these two varieties of culture are culture in the full sense of the word.
2. Elitism and mass character are only quantitative characteristics related to the number of people who are consumers of artifacts.
3. Mass culture meets the needs of people in general, and therefore reflects the real level of humanity. Representatives of the elite culture, creating something new, thereby maintain a fairly high level of general culture.
