Wittgenstein and Popular Culture

A Wittgensteinian approach to the multi-disciplinary and pluralistic study of popular culture

This volume makes an incisive contribution to the field of philosophy of culture in outlining the potential of Wittgenstein’s philosophy for the study of popular culture, focusing on concrete examples: from detective fiction and comics, to TV series and football fandom.

This volume makes an incisive contribution to the field of philosophy of culture, filling a gap between the relevant scholarship in cultural studies and philosophy. In outlining the potential of Wittgenstein’s philosophy for the study and criticism of popular culture, it aims to establish his work as an alternative or addition to existing approaches (Marxist, post-structuralist, etc.) in the field of popular culture theory. The essays outline the methodological framework of Wittgensteinian approaches to philosophy and conceptual analysis. Each essay demonstrates their merits by looking at particular examples such as analyses of popular films and TV series, detective fiction, comics, or shared practices of fandom. Thus, we encounter varieties of what it means to engage with approaches to criticism of pop in a Wittgensteinian way.