Literary theory

Popular is that which attracts the attention of many. This nominal definition of the SFB 1472 detaches the hypothesis formation from normative approaches that locate the popular in the asymmetries of the traditional distinction between high and low culture. It does not distinguish the popular from the cultivated or legitimate, but from the non-popular; the guiding difference 'popular / non-popular' is quantitative and distinguishes that which is observed by many from that which receives little attention. What is essentially popular thus remains just as open as the questions of what attracts the attention of many, how this attention is registered and who exactly these many are. Whether attention successes are claimed, pretended or staged in rankings: the attention of many or few has consequences for what is noticed. The SFB empirically records what is considered popular or non-popular: it identifies emic high/low differences and asks about their transformation through the popular. Degrees of popularity change how something is judged. Whether something is noticed by many or receives little attention has consequences for follow-up and value communication. Popularity is scalable and therefore comparable. Rankings show what gets more attention than others. Displays and counters put followers, likes and ratings into a ratio: this is more popular than that; something ranks at the top, something else is not listed. The effects of the comparison include upgrades and downgrades. The transformations of the popular change the social distribution of attention. They generate or intensify socio-political conflicts: controversial people, programs and positions become popular because they are noticed by many. The legitimization through attention and the delegitimization of the popular become precarious, the distribution of attention problematic. The first phase of the SFB has shown that popularity can also be experienced as a challenge or a threat. Controversial practices of depopularization (interruption, censorship, sanction) mark problematizations of the popular; they are intended to reduce popularity or delegitimize attention. What has gained attention can meet with rejection - all the more intensely the greater the number of people who pay attention to something or demand that it be ignored. Intense rejection is easier to popularize than cultivating what should be respected. This systematically and methodologically, but also culturally and socio-politically virulent problematic is central to the SFB's elaboration of its theory of the popular in the second phase. The focus is no longer on the revaluation or revaluation of popular culture, but on precarious and polemogenic forms of popularity, in which the distribution of attention also determines the chances of status and domination.