Cultural Rights: Technology, Legality and Personality

Cultural Rightscombines the critical approaches of both sociology and cultural studies to provide an innovative interpretation of contemporary culture. While the book's theoretical origins lie in Walter Benjamin's groundbreaking thesis about the effects of mechanical reproduction, Celia Lury takes his analysis one step further in her examination of the near obsolete concepts of "originality" and "authenticity" in postmodern culture, where reproduction and simulation blur the border between what is real and what is fabricated. Celia Lury establishes a clear framework of analysis by comparing a range of cultural rights through copyright, authorship and originality with those defined by trademark, branding and simulation. She provides concise and accessible histories of three major cultural technologies--print, broadcasting and information technology--and the presentation of research into the contemporary culture industry. She also explores the gendered dimensions of thistransformation by looking at the significance of the category of "women" in the process of cultural reproduction.