INTERACTION BETWEEN POPULAR AND ELITIST CULTURE: REINTERPRETING THE CLASSICS IN THE POST-MODERN ERA
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Abstract
This article explores the reciprocal influence between contemporary high (elite) culture and popular culture understood not as mass culture, but as participatory and interpretive cultural practice. The study aims to analyse how meaning-making activities of non-professional audiences and forms of cultural co-creation contribute to the transformation of high culture in the twenty-first century. Methodologically, the research is grounded in an interpretive framework based on Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model, combined with comparative and semiotic analysis and supported by case studies of contemporary Ukrainian artistic projects (Nova Opera, Ukraine WOW). The findings demonstrate that contemporary high culture increasingly operates as an open system of meanings, shaped by audience interpretation, everyday aesthetics, and intergenre hybridisation. It is argued that engagement with popular participatory practices does not lead to the simplification of high culture but rather enhances its communicative flexibility and expands its cultural and symbolic productivity.
How to Cite
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high culture, popular culture (non-mass), meaning-making, participatory practices, cultural co-creation, encoding/decoding, open system of meanings
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