Introduction

The introduction gives an overview of the most important principles and objects of the investigation. The book’s first part deals with assessments that are often heard in discussions about popular artifacts—for instance, the claim that popular artifacts are standardized, entertaining, and useful. Such assessments will be systematically presented and analyzed alongside the various ways in which they have been justified and evaluated. The book’s second part focuses on approaches that have been made to labeling popular artifacts as good works of art—these approaches have ensured that, especially in the present day, popular artifacts are no longer dismissed out of hand as evidence that the ‘rabble,’ the ‘masses,’ the ‘mainstream,’ etc., are lacking in judgment.