Cultural theory and the problem of modernity / Alan Swingewood.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- 1. Theorising Culture: Marxism -- Marx: Culture and Economic Production -- Marxist Critiques of the Base-Superstructure Model -- Gramsci: The Autonomy of Culture -- 2. Theorising Culture: Weber, Simmel and Social Action -- Rationality and the Sociology of Culture: Weber -- Culture and the Principle of Autonomy -- Simmel: Modernity and the Tragedy of Culture -- The Culture of Modernity -- 3. Problems of Culture Industry -- The Dialectic of Culture -- Culture Industry and the Case of Music -- Culture, Class and Critique -- The Problem of Method: Culture Industry and Cultural Memory -- 4. Cultural Analysis and Systems Theory -- The Concept of a Common Culture: From Durkheim to Parsons -- Common Culture: Parsons -- Habermas: Culture and Communicative Practice -- Culture and Interaction -- 5. Contextualising Culture -- Context and Culture -- Contextualising Music: The Problem of Mediation -- Cultural Materialism -- Culture as Ordinary: The Problem of a Common Culture -- The Structure of Feelings: Problems of Contextualisation -- 6. The Theory of Cultural Fields -- Structuralism and the Concept of System -- Cultural Theory and the Short-Circuit Effect -- Cultural Sociology and the Concept of Field -- Habitus, Practices and the Cultural Fields -- The Concept of Force Field -- Limitations of Field Theory -- 7. Dialogism and Cultural Forms -- Cultural Fields: Agency and Communication -- Bakhtin: Culture, Self and Dialogue -- Discourse, Language and Culture -- Unofficial Culture: The Concept of the Carnivalesque -- Dialogism, Enclosure and Historical Context: The Case of the Novel -- 8. Modernity and Culture -- What is Modernity? -- Modernity 1: From Baudelaire to Foucault -- Excursus: Modernity as Newness in the Present - Foucault on Baudelaire -- Simmel's Modernity -- Modernity 2: Critique of Enlightenment - From Weber to the Frankfurt School -- Theorising Modernity: The Frankfurt School -- Modernity 3: Marx -- 9. Postmodernity and Mass Culture -- Critique of Modernity 1: The Postmodern and the Grand Narrative -- Critique of Modernity 2: Postmodernism and Culture -- Postmodernism, Mass Culture and the Logic of Capitalism -- Concluding Remarks: The Problem of Modernity, History and Postmodernism -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index.