Historicising the Middlebrow

The term 'middlebrow' emerged in the mid-1920s to describe dismissively the extensive area of cultural production which situated itself between high modernism and popular culture. The category was particularly associated with novels, but was also used ...

The term 'middlebrow' emerged in the mid-1920s to describe dismissively the extensive area of cultural production which situated itself between high modernism and popular culture. The category was particularly associated with novels, but was also used to label certain types of broadcasting, cinema, periodical, music and interior decoration. The 'middlebrow' prompted hostility and fierce debate, both at the time and subsequently, and the underlying concept of different 'brows' has been a resilient one.

This conference seeks to historicise and contextualise 'middlebrow' by exploring the formation and consolidation of cultural hierarchies in nineteenth and twentieth-century Britain and America. How, when and why were these hierarchies established? What impact did shifts in production, dissemination and marketing have on the construction of cultural taxonomies?

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