Page 188 - CULTURE IN THE COMMUNICATION AGE

CULTURAL THEORY IN POPULAR CULTURE

Notes
1 Ernst Cassirer has critiqued the early developments of anthropological theories of
myth and ritual to argue for their ‘symbolic’ power. Myth is one of his six basic
symbolic systems alongside language, science, religion, art, and history; such theor-
etic power for myth as a symbol system provides a basis for accenting the importance
of popular culture and its theoretical constructions. See Cassirer (1944, 1946, 1965).
2 The definition of elite is especially drawn from Russell Nye (1970), that of folk from
Oscar Handlin (1961) and Joseph Arpad (1975), and the definitions of mass and
popular are drawn from Harold Wilensky (1974), Raymond Williams (1974), and
Herbert Gans (1974).
3 See Dayan and Katz (1992) for the characteristics and consequences of live
international media events, of which Diana’s funeral was a classical example.
4 For theories of celebrity and stardom, see Richard Dyer (1979 and 1986) and the
readings in Drucker and Cathcart (1994).
5 Such mythic functions are explained here drawing from the works of Mircea Eliade,
Bronislaw Malinowksi, Ernst Cassirer, Victor Turner, and, in their more recent
mediated forms, by James Carey and Dayan and Katz.

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