ABSTRACT
First published in 1982, The Sociology of Art considers all forms of the arts, whether visual arts, literature, film, theatre or music from Bach to the Beatles. The last book to be completed by Arnold Hauser before his death in 1978, it is a total analysis of the spiritual forces of social expression, based upon comprehensive historical experience and documentation. Hauser explores art through the earliest times to the modern era, with fascinating analyses of the mass media and current manifestations of human creativity. An extension and completion of his earlier work, The Social History of Art, this volume represents a summing up of his thought and forms a fitting climax to his life’s work. Translated by Kenneth J. Northcote.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |86 pages
Fundamentals
chapter |15 pages
The Totality of Life and the Totality of Art
chapter |22 pages
Spontaneity and Convention
chapter |31 pages
Sociology and Psychology
chapter |16 pages
Art and Historicity
part |242 pages
The Interaction between Art and Society
chapter |214 pages
Art as a Product of Society
chapter |21 pages
Society as the Product of Art
part |98 pages
Dialectic: Light and Will-o'-the-Wisp
chapter |6 pages
The Concept of Dialectic
chapter |37 pages
The Principle of Contradiction
chapter |15 pages
The Dialectic of History and Nature
chapter |27 pages
The Dialectic of the Aesthetic
chapter |10 pages
Limits of Dialectic
part |117 pages
En Route from Author to Public
chapter |11 pages
Address and Discussion
chapter |7 pages
On the Experience of Art
chapter |14 pages
The Consumers of Art
chapter |10 pages
The Mediators
chapter |18 pages
Art Criticism
chapter |17 pages
Institutions of Mediation
chapter |12 pages
The Art Trade
chapter |16 pages
Understanding and Misunderstanding
chapter |5 pages
Success and Failure
chapter |5 pages
Social and Antisocial Motives
part |109 pages
The Differentiation of Art According to Cultural Strata
chapter |9 pages
Class and Culture
chapter |6 pages
The Art of the Cultural Elite
chapter |18 pages
Folk-Art
chapter |17 pages
Popular Art
chapter |14 pages
Mass Art
chapter |7 pages
An Interpretation of Mass Culture
chapter |24 pages
The Mass Media
chapter |12 pages
Pop Art
part |107 pages
The End of Art?