Columbia Journal of American Studies, March 2007
Peter Swirski's From Lowbrow to Nobrow offers a fascinatingly original look at the subsequent fusing of the two planes [highbrow and lowbrow] into the "nobrow" territory, where the distinction of the two no longer suffices. While John Seabrook in his recent work Nobrow: the Culture of Marketing, the Marketing of Culture (2000) regards nobrow as a contemporary phenomenon, Swirski argues that the diffusion in fact happens much earlier, during the early decades of the twentieth century. By examining the underpinnings of this dichotomy, he proposes nobrow as an analytic, pragmatic, and cultural category which describes a new type of literary work named artertainment. In a series of enthralling and provocative arguments, Swirski begins with an insightful chronicle explaining the long held prejudice in the treatment and reception of popular literature. Scouring the publishing statistical data from UNESCO, Escarpit, Curwen, and the American Book Industry Study Group, the author traces the socio-historical development of the book publishing industry and accounts for beliefs that undermine many institutional curricula. He holds that under various extenuating socio-economic forces, such as market pressures and tight publishing schedules, many writers turn to satisfying the mainstream appetite in order to obtain a larger readership. Whereas mass literature is often accused of producing inferior writing, Swirski argues against such a claim by positioning it between popular and canonical art in relative terms... In the world of modern fiction, where the extent of one's artistic territory is often obscured by interweaving influences, borrowings, imitations, and appropriations, Swirski concludes that popular literature "requires to be scrutinized most closely." He believes that this type of art is "by now the master currency for cultural transactions as well as a new constellation of myths and metaphors capable of helping us negotiate the experience of the (post)industrial age." Calling for a curriculum which honors popular fictions as works of art with "analyses of aesthetic nuance, art-historical context, and symbolic and socio-ethical content," From Lowbrow to Nobrow breaks from traditional academic discussion of popular art and the literary canon.
About the author
Peter Swirski is Associate Professor of American literature and director of American Studies at the University of Hong Kong. He is the author of A Stanislaw Lem Reader, Between Literature and Science: Poe and Lem, The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, All Roads Lead to the American City, Of Literature and Knowledge, and forthcoming Ars Americana, Ars Politica.
