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Critical Analysis There can be no doubts that all the readings which address the issues of culture have something common. However, at the same time they have some different features, which can be noticed when the texts are compared. Cultural Theory and Popular Culture (1994) by John Storey is aimed at the examination of the term culture and viewing it in various contexts, such as minority culture, mass civilization, anarchy, etc. The author explores the issues using scientific evidence and scientific style of writing. He uses theoretical data and the whole work might be considered to be rather theoretical than practical. A range of similar culture issues, such as mass culture, are covered by Fredric Jameson in his work Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture. The article is devoted to the popular culture as well. One more distinction feature is that the author examines the drawing power of mass culture in great details, while in the previous works; this aspect was not covered so widely. Jameson uses examples to illustrate his point of view and such movies as Jaws and Godfather are among them. The article also draws studies of Freud when dealing with model of the art works, which are viewed as some symbolic fulfillment of wishes, indirection complex structure. The writer explores effect of the movies, symbolism, models used, in order to demonstrate how the culture affects people. Probably, addressing the issue of popular culture, Jameson has managed to reach greater success than Storey. The reason is that the data which is provided by Jameson is more of practical character he uses real facts from everyday life and he pays a lot of attention to documentary sense of culture. Investigating the documentaries, the author reminds the readers that this field of activity is very important because it contains a lot of evidence about culture.

He mentions that it is not possible to know particular period or form of society which is seen how its art; it is also impossible to define how the theory is related to it. Moreover, we cannot even state that we know the society well. This issue is the core problem of the method which is used by the author. It is mentioned because it is frequently disregarded and a great part of history of culture was written not paying any attention to this problem (Jameson). Stuart Hall (2005) is one more writer to deal with the problem of culture, and particularly the aspect of popular culture. Similarity the first writing, Hall pays a lot of attention to the definition of culture and definition of popular culture. He believes that in order to understand the concepts better, it is necessary to trace them to the era of development of capitalism and industrial capitalism. Unlike other authors, Halls emphasizes that popular culture, as well as its study, has many angles: with the double-stake in popular culture, the double movement of containment and resistance, which is always inevitable inside it (Halls, 2005). One more distinction feature is that the author of the article provides various meanings of the term popular, helping the readers to find their own way in its understanding. In order to address the audience more effective, informal style of writing is used; the writer uses I frequently and the data presented by him is oriented on masses. Marxism is the basis for the interview answers of Fredrick Jameson. The topical excerpts presented by the Standford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts provide the readers with a wide range of topics about culture. What differs the writing from the previous three texts, is that it pays attention to the issues of cultural diversity and collective action. And again, the author looks at the culture from the perspective of history. He presents historical data in a formal style, which is present at many works which deal with the topic of culture.

Thus, it is possible to conclude that all four readings are aimed at exploration of culture. However, each text is dealing with particular elements of culture, revealing its various details. History plays a significant role in all the readings authors of the articles view culture from historical perspective in order to provide the readers with greater understanding of the concept of culture. However, at the same time each of the readings has its particular features. Thus, Cultural Theory and Popular Culture views culture in social context, while Topical Excerpts from interviews with Fredric Jameson are concentrated on historical aspects and also, unlike other articles, pay attention to the issue of racial diversity. As for the rest two papers, they are based on the data provided by documentaries and also on practical evidence which was demonstrated by various communities regarding culture and popular culture. These peculiarities depict unique style of each author and at the same time save the initial attempt to address the issues of culture and popular culture. Despite the fact that each of the articles is unique, represents various styles, and look at the issue of culture and popular culture from various perspectives, all of them emphasize its importance and demonstrate that it has a long history and it is a separate discipline which requires thorough studying.

References Raymond Williams, 1995, The Analysis of Culture,Boyd-Barrett and Newbold, Approaches to Media: A Reader, London: Arnold, pp. 332-338 Stuart Hall, 2005, Notes on Deconstructing the Popular, Guins et Cruz, Popular Culture: A Reader, London: Sage, pp. 64-71 Fredric Jameson, Reification and Utopia in Mass Culture,Social Text, viewed 7 September, 2012, <http://www.trinityhistory.org/AP/Jameson_reification%20utopia.pdf>. Selections from interviews with Jameson, from Stanford Presidential Lectures in the Humanities and Arts , viewed 7 September, 2012, <http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/jameson/interviews.html#postmod>.