The Popular as Art?: An Investigation Into Form, Value, Concepts, and Justifications

This book will reconstruct and analyze the logic and frameworks surrounding positive evaluations of popular art in articles and books predominantly published in the United States and western Europe. It will also examine negative evaluations of the popular, especially those that have successfully prevented the popular from being perceived as (good) art and still provide partially effective counterarguments today. This book will examine both relevant judgments on individual works and groups of works as well as general judgments and assessments.

Thomas Hecken is Professor of Modern German Literature, in Pop & Popular Cultures at the University of Siegen. At the University of Siegen he is also head of the sub-project Pop Aesthetics within the the Collaborative Research Center 1472 ’Transformations of the Popular’. His research interests include conceptual history and aesthetic theory. Book publications include: Theorien der Populärkultur; Pop. Geschichte eines Konzepts 1955-2009; Handbuch Popkultur (as co-editor). He is also main editor of the journal ’Pop. Kultur und Kritik’.