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Culture: High Culture
Introduction
The term culture has several meanings that are attached to it. There are however, three basic usages of this term: first is the high culture, which involves the a societies taste in humanities, social etiquette and fine arts; secondly, culture could be considered to be a pattern that is integrated in the knowledge of human beings, their beliefs and behavior that mostly depends on the thoughts, practices and the lessons the society provides; and finally, culture could be considered to entail the values, attitudes, practices and goals that characterize a given, community, society or organizational group (Muller, A. (2005).
The focus therefore is on how distinctly several people around the world are represented. Culture is therefore the way people live. It is manifested in numerous concepts such as literature, music, sculpture and paintings, film and theater and the lifestyles of the people. The aspect of culture that this paper deals with is the one that evolved in the nineteenth century, that is the refinement or betterment of an individual mostly through education and eventually the satisfaction of his ideals and aspirations as an individual and wholesomely as a nation, what is commonly known as the High Culture. It should be understood from the onset that high culture is not necessarily elitist. Over the years it has found its way into the general populace and other classes of people to whom it was impossible to be accessed.
Just like so many cultural concepts cross the societal demarcations and blend or enter into different classes, so has this concept done. As a consequence, this paper discusses not only the development of this aspect of our lives and cultures but also the influence other aspects of the society and the nation have had on it and thereby changed, developed or improved it.
High Culture
This is a term that is used in several academic ways and discourses most commonly to describe a set of products that are an aspect of a given culture, especially the arts, that are considered with high regard by a given cultural group. It is what would be referred to as the elitist culture of the intelligentsia or the aristocracy and is the complete opposite of popular or low culture, the one for the masses. It should however be noted that this does not mean that these two categories are always in conflict.
This concept was introduced by Mathew Arnold in his book Culture and Anarchy (1869) where he stated that to understand culture is to know what is best that has been thought and said in the world. He thus saw it as a pointer for political and moral good, a view that has remained widely uncontested by several other views over time. This concept is considered as a necessary and fundamental aspect of any complete culture while in America it is mostly associated with literature.
Much of this concept is usually associated with what is sometimes referred to as High Art. Other than literature, high art includes visual arts, music, performing arts which have now evolved to include cinema and other forms of art that derive from these ones. Most of these products are associated with the wealthy urban based societies whose sophistication marked the civilizations of the years passed. The Western understanding of what is high culture may be tied to the Renaissance and the years that followed, however, this is not entirely the case as there are several other places where the conditions that contributed to this aspect existed in other times and places such as ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, China, India, Persia and several other Middle Eastern regions at different times and eras.
In order to understand this cultural concept, it would be good to divorce it from the ideas and ideologies of elitism. This is because there are times it is more pronounced in the wider and general public than it is in the very much educated bourgeoisie to whom the culture is highly connected. Take for example the move by most countries to establish concert halls and museums that would be accessible to the public in general. Moreover, personalities such as Leon Trotsky of Russia, Lord Reith of Britain, and several others from America and the western world as a whole have really opened up the several elements of what was previously a characteristic of the elite such as classical music, fine art and literary classics.
High Culture and Modernism
Access to higher education has spread this culture to several other groups and made high art and ultimately high culture an aspect and an objective of academia. Liberal arts in institutions of higher learning have promoted this cultural concept of the elite and made it accessible to the general populace even though there are times there have been attempts to divorce this concept of art from the cultural concept with which it has always been associated with over the years. For example in Europe, governments have tried to reduce the costs of accessing and experiencing this concept by funding operas and museums; establishing ballet companies, public broadcasters and orchestras or giving them subsidies. This is regardless of the fact that sometimes it is not the mass market that is intended for the benefits that arise.
This cultural concept has provided political platforms for nationalists like Ernest Renan, a political theorist who perceived it as a fundamental component of establishing a national identity. Gellner in his book Nations and Nationalism (1983) describe this concept as “…a literate codified culture that permits context free communication.”
All in all, this concept of high culture has managed to maintain its distinct characteristics from the broader influences of the society by separating “taste” which is associated with appreciation of fine food, etiquette and military service and honor. It still maintains the codes that the society and cultures that are dominantly practicing it and have over the years that are not always accessible to the masses or people considered to belong to a class that is lower.
Reference
Muller, A. (2005). Concepts of Culture: Art, Politics, and Society. Calgary: University of Calgary Press
Arnold, M. (1869). Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Gellner, E. (2006). Nations and Nationalism. 2nd Ed., Malden: Wiley-Blackwell
