非文化与反大众:法兰克福学派对大众文化的批判

Contra-Culture and Anti-mass:Frankfurt School's Critique of Mass Culture

法兰克福学派的大众文化批判理论可以概括为两大核心观念:大众文化非文化,大众文化反大众。该学派认为,发达资本主义社会的大众文化以追求市场价值为最终目标,突出的商品性使其丧失了文化艺术应有的超越性与精神价值;利益驱动下的竞相模仿和复制技术的运用也使其丧失了文艺应有的独创与个性。不仅如此,大众文化还成为欺骗大众、固化社会的工具;它不仅控制大众的精神意识,而且还操纵大众的深层心理。可见,大众文化既不具有文化性,也不具有大众性。

Frankfurt School＇s critical theory on mass culture can be reduced to two core ideas： mass culture is contra culture, and against the masses. It assumes that mass culture in developed capitalist society has lost its transcendent and spiritual value because of the fact that it has as its ultimate goal, the pursuit of profit, and it has also lost the original creativity and individuality a work of art should have, as a result of its imitational production and technological reproduction. In addition, mass culture has become an ideological instrument to deceive the mass, and to dominate the mass＇consciousness and unconsciousness, so as to defend and solidify society. So, it can be concluded that mass culture is pseudo-culture, and is against the mass.