The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 2007
This article addresses Pierre Bourdieu's idea of heroic ages in art and the American comic book. ... more This article addresses Pierre Bourdieu's idea of heroic ages in art and the American comic book. Bourdieu characterized the French literary field in the mid nineteenth century as a heroic age. During this age writers and critics generated criteria of judgment that were autonomous from market forces and elite patronage. I argue that in the 1970s a similar heroic age began in American comic books where principles of autonomy and independent criteria of judgment appeared. I present a number of basic strategies during the heroic age of comic books that articulated these emerging principles of autonomy; yet show how several of these strategies were distinctly different than those found during the heroic age of French literature. I show how this difference reflected a structure in the comic book field markedly different from the structure in the field of French literature in the nineteenth century. I conclude by arguing that the case of American comic books shows how popular art fields can express the same heroic rebellion attributed to only high art fields in the work of Bourdieu.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1999
This article presents an analysis of the musical syncretism involved in the development of a mode... more This article presents an analysis of the musical syncretism involved in the development of a modern jazz tradition in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It shows how a professional ethos among popular musicians during this period guided their reinterpretation and reinvention of folk, popular, and classical music practices in the creation of this music tradition. It further argues that this ethos led them, in their low-status positions as popular musicians, to affirm their legitimacy through the creation of a high-art aesthetic. In general, this study shows how the social context in the diffusion of jazz practices affected the transformation of these practices in value and form in this century.
A major contribution of Pierre Bourdieu to the study of art was his analysis of the autonomizatio... more A major contribution of Pierre Bourdieu to the study of art was his analysis of the autonomization of modern art fields. His model of autonomy and legitimacy in modern art was based on a study of the genesis of an avant-garde in French art in the late nineteenth century. I argue that a similar autonomization of art occurred in the midtwentieth century in the United States. I present studies in music and film to demonstrate the genesis of an American avant-garde during this period. This general process of autonomization until now has been neglected in the work of sociologists and historians on American art. My analysis shows that the genesis of principles of autonomy in the United States, unlike France, developed in what were considered the high and popular arts. These case studies reveal a failure in Bourdieu's model to account for the role of culture industries and popular artists in the autonomization of modern art fields. I show how the American art field generated a subfield of autonomous art that included both avant-garde high art and independent popular art. This permanent subfield of avant-garde and independent art became central to future struggles over autonomy and innovation in American art.
This book presents a unique sociological vision of the evolution of jazz in the twentieth century... more This book presents a unique sociological vision of the evolution of jazz in the twentieth century. Analyzing organizational structures and competing discourses in American music, Paul Lopes shows how musicians and others transformed the meaning and practice of jazz. Set against the distinct worlds of high art and popular art in America, the rise of a jazz art world is shown to be a unique movement-a socially diverse community struggling in various ways against cultural orthodoxy. Cultural politics in America is shown to be a dynamic, open, and often contradictory process of constant re-interpretation. This work is a compelling social history of American culture that incorporates various voices in jazz, including musicians, critics, collectors, producers, and enthusiasts. Accessibly written and interdisciplinary in approach, it will be of great interest to scholars and students of sociology, cultural studies, social history, American studies, African-American studies, and jazz studies.
ABSTRACT Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated American filmmakers of the last 50 years. ... more ABSTRACT Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated American filmmakers of the last 50 years. This essay looks at his public story in films, books, television, radio, journals, and newspapers. This story reflects the personal and artistic journey of Scorsese and the collective rendition of this journey by Scorsese, critics, journalists, and others. It shows the intersection of the personal life, public biography, creative work, and critical reception of a public intellectual negotiating his ethnic and racial-identity for six decades. Informed by work in Race and Ethnic Studies, Critical Whiteness Studies, and Critical Rhetoric Studies, this essay uses this story as a case study of the ideological power of white ethnic-identity and white racial-identity in the racial formation of post-civil rights America. I show how the public story of one of the most popular and critically acclaimed American artists over the last half-century transcribed the conversion of an ‘unmeltable’ Italian-American of the late 1960s Ethnic Revival to a White-Ethnic American of an end-of-the-century Hyphen-Nationalism. I demonstrate the power embedded in the institutional and cultural regime of Hyphen-Nationalism in the United States that acts to erase in personal memory, creative imagination, and art the power and legacy of white privilege.
The International Journal of the Arts in Society: Annual Review, 2007
This article addresses Pierre Bourdieu's idea of heroic ages in art and the American comic book. ... more This article addresses Pierre Bourdieu's idea of heroic ages in art and the American comic book. Bourdieu characterized the French literary field in the mid nineteenth century as a heroic age. During this age writers and critics generated criteria of judgment that were autonomous from market forces and elite patronage. I argue that in the 1970s a similar heroic age began in American comic books where principles of autonomy and independent criteria of judgment appeared. I present a number of basic strategies during the heroic age of comic books that articulated these emerging principles of autonomy; yet show how several of these strategies were distinctly different than those found during the heroic age of French literature. I show how this difference reflected a structure in the comic book field markedly different from the structure in the field of French literature in the nineteenth century. I conclude by arguing that the case of American comic books shows how popular art fields can express the same heroic rebellion attributed to only high art fields in the work of Bourdieu.
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1999
This article presents an analysis of the musical syncretism involved in the development of a mode... more This article presents an analysis of the musical syncretism involved in the development of a modern jazz tradition in the United States in the first half of the twentieth century. It shows how a professional ethos among popular musicians during this period guided their reinterpretation and reinvention of folk, popular, and classical music practices in the creation of this music tradition. It further argues that this ethos led them, in their low-status positions as popular musicians, to affirm their legitimacy through the creation of a high-art aesthetic. In general, this study shows how the social context in the diffusion of jazz practices affected the transformation of these practices in value and form in this century.
A major contribution of Pierre Bourdieu to the study of art was his analysis of the autonomizatio... more A major contribution of Pierre Bourdieu to the study of art was his analysis of the autonomization of modern art fields. His model of autonomy and legitimacy in modern art was based on a study of the genesis of an avant-garde in French art in the late nineteenth century. I argue that a similar autonomization of art occurred in the midtwentieth century in the United States. I present studies in music and film to demonstrate the genesis of an American avant-garde during this period. This general process of autonomization until now has been neglected in the work of sociologists and historians on American art. My analysis shows that the genesis of principles of autonomy in the United States, unlike France, developed in what were considered the high and popular arts. These case studies reveal a failure in Bourdieu's model to account for the role of culture industries and popular artists in the autonomization of modern art fields. I show how the American art field generated a subfield of autonomous art that included both avant-garde high art and independent popular art. This permanent subfield of avant-garde and independent art became central to future struggles over autonomy and innovation in American art.
This book presents a unique sociological vision of the evolution of jazz in the twentieth century... more This book presents a unique sociological vision of the evolution of jazz in the twentieth century. Analyzing organizational structures and competing discourses in American music, Paul Lopes shows how musicians and others transformed the meaning and practice of jazz. Set against the distinct worlds of high art and popular art in America, the rise of a jazz art world is shown to be a unique movement-a socially diverse community struggling in various ways against cultural orthodoxy. Cultural politics in America is shown to be a dynamic, open, and often contradictory process of constant re-interpretation. This work is a compelling social history of American culture that incorporates various voices in jazz, including musicians, critics, collectors, producers, and enthusiasts. Accessibly written and interdisciplinary in approach, it will be of great interest to scholars and students of sociology, cultural studies, social history, American studies, African-American studies, and jazz studies.
ABSTRACT Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated American filmmakers of the last 50 years. ... more ABSTRACT Martin Scorsese is one of the most celebrated American filmmakers of the last 50 years. This essay looks at his public story in films, books, television, radio, journals, and newspapers. This story reflects the personal and artistic journey of Scorsese and the collective rendition of this journey by Scorsese, critics, journalists, and others. It shows the intersection of the personal life, public biography, creative work, and critical reception of a public intellectual negotiating his ethnic and racial-identity for six decades. Informed by work in Race and Ethnic Studies, Critical Whiteness Studies, and Critical Rhetoric Studies, this essay uses this story as a case study of the ideological power of white ethnic-identity and white racial-identity in the racial formation of post-civil rights America. I show how the public story of one of the most popular and critically acclaimed American artists over the last half-century transcribed the conversion of an ‘unmeltable’ Italian-American of the late 1960s Ethnic Revival to a White-Ethnic American of an end-of-the-century Hyphen-Nationalism. I demonstrate the power embedded in the institutional and cultural regime of Hyphen-Nationalism in the United States that acts to erase in personal memory, creative imagination, and art the power and legacy of white privilege.
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