Counterculture
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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A counterculture (also written counter-culture) is a subculture whose values and norms of behavior deviate from those of mainstream society, often in opposition to mainstream cultural mores.
A countercultural movement expresses the ethos, aspirations, and dreams of a specific population during a well-defined era. When oppositional forces reach critical mass, countercultures can trigger dramatic cultural changes.
Prominent examples of countercultures in Europe and North America include Romanticism (1790-1840), Bohemianism (1850-1910), the more fragmentary counterculture of the Beat Generation (1944-1964), the Hippie counterculture (1964-1974)
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Etymology
The term counterculture was first attested in the English language in 1968[1]. Earlier countercultural milieux in 19th century Europe included the traditions of Romanticism, Bohemianism and of the Dandy.
Chronology of counterculture
Avant la lettre
Aristotle - Galileo Galilei - medieval heretics - libertine - enlightenment thinkers - French Revolution - anarchism - Bohemianism - Dandy - Marxism - modern art - avant-garde - Beat generation - Situationism (Europe) - Provo (Netherlands) - May 1968 (Paris)
Apres la lettre
Counterculture Through the Ages
- As long as there has been culture, there has been counterculture. At times it moves deep below the surface of things, a stealth mode of being all but invisible to the dominant paradigm; at other times it’s in plain sight, challenging the status quo; and at still other times it erupts in a fiery burst of creative–or destructive–energy to change the world forever. --Counterculture Through the Ages (2004)
See also
- Subversive
- Anti-establishment
- Subculture
- list of counterculture films
- Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century
- Counterculture of the 1960s
- History of subcultures in the 20th century
- Counterculture by region
- Co-optation