KÜLTÜREL DEĞİŞİM SÜRECİNDE POPÜLER KÜLTÜR VE KİTSCH KAVRAMI

t can be said that discourses developed based on the concept of “culture” that has multiple definitions have been reshaped by the conditions resulting from postmodernism and globalization. In order to define the conceptual problem of culture, it is essential that we recognize/define such elements as belief, knowledge, stance and intuition that communities transfer from one generation to another in the historical process as well. Nowadays, due to globalization, no culture and human society in the world thoroughly and indifferently lives in a homogeneous integrity of a single culture. An advantage of postmodernism is that even minor cultural structures in which people are involved have gained importance. In this context, almost everything has begun to be perceived as culture. The differentiation of existent concepts of culture and cultural change in the broadest sense is a constant factor of human civilization and it occurs anywhere and at any time. The only constant rules/principles of life and cultures have been the concepts of change and continuity. The concept of Kitsch has a complex structure in terms of scope and content. It is not easy to assign only one meaning to Kitsch as a concept or to find an exact equivalent of it. When we just examine the literal meaning of this word, it can be said that it is used as an adjective meaning vain, of vulgar taste, banal and boring used for productions or it is used to classify art which is seen as an inferior copy of existent things.Other concepts that come with the concept of Kitsch are cultural degeneration, upper class tastes, lower-class tastes, the concepts of superior culture and sub-culture. In this context, “kitsch” means more than solely its artistic use, it has got other more meanings in other concepts.