ABSTRACT

The term ‘popular culture’ was not invented by those who consume the forms of culture it designates but by those who took them as objects of study. The term has now migrated outside of the academy and is used differently in vernacular compared to academic contexts. In this article I argue that academics can take three lessons from vernacular usage of the term ‘popular culture’. The first is to be precise in our definitions of our objects of study. The second is that discussions about whether popular forms of culture are authentically of the people are unanswerable as they are currently formulated. The third is that loving something does not mean we are necessarily thoughtless about it.

摘要

“大众文化”这个词不是那些消费它所指的文化形式的人发明的，而是那些把它们作为研究对象的人发明的。该术语现在已经迁移到学院之外，并且与学术环境相比，在白话中的使用方式有所不同。在本文中，我认为学者可以从“流行文化”一词的白话用法中吸取三个教训。首先是我们对研究对象的定义要准确。第二个是关于流行文化形式是否真正属于人民的讨论是无法回答的，因为它们目前正在制定。第三是热爱某事并不意味着我们一定对它不加思索。