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Pop goes the canon

Consumer culture and artistic value in screen adaptations of literary classics

Massey University, j.a.grixti{at}massey.ac.nz

This essay considers how contemporary perceptions of literary classics as exponents of cultural value have been modified by the commercial demands of contemporary popular media. Rather than eliminating traditional distinctions between high and low culture, the now habitual interactions and mutual borrowings between 'high' and 'pop' have given rise to significant changes in the discourse surrounding artistic value. Even as they appear to be evaporating or merging into each other, the old distinctions between 'low' and 'high' continue to pop up in dramatically different guises, repetitively reinscribing themselves in new forms of popular as well as educated artworks, but to new ends. The main focus of analysis are film and television adaptations of canonical literary texts, with particular emphasis on the types of choices made by screenwriters and producers when they adapt canonical works of literature with the aim of making them widely appealing to contemporary audiences.

Key Words: adaptation • classics • consumerism • film • high pop • literature • postmodernism • television • value

European Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 12, No. 4, 447-467 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1367549409342512


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