num_pages: 307
description: In Time Passages, George Lipsitz explores the complicated relationship in postwar America between historical memory and commercial culture, between the texts of popular culture and their contexts of creation and reception. Arguing that a "crisis of memory" lies at the heart of modern culture, he demonstrates how popular culture and history are linked in a selective (and paradoxical) process of remembering and forgetting. Popular television, music, and film baffle those critics trained in traditional modes of aesthetic criticism. In Lipsitz's hands, however, the texts of popular culture prove to be sophisticated repositories of historical knowledge; in his words, the sideshow becomes the main event."This high take on 'low' culture examines the complex web of popular narratives that arise from and create the American collective memory. Studying the period from the end of World War II to the present, Lipsitz…inventively explores the popular canon, turning variously to television, rock music, film, novels, and the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans who spend all year preparing to celebrate Carnival." -- Publishers Weekly"What really separates Lipsitz from earlier critics of popular culture is that he got his rock diploma from the high-school gym, not the Frankfurt School. Lipsitz knows the color of the labels, the B-sides, and the cover versions."  -- Boston Phoenix Literary Section
language: English
title: Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture
titlecomplete: Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture (American Culture, 4)
genres: Nonfiction, Cultural, History, Music, Theory, Cultural Studies
ratings_count: 78
publisher: University of Minnesota Press