First published in 1993, Fictions of Collective Life argues that the distinctive forms of modern popular culture can only be understood through the ways we dramatize public life, and that in the dramatic ‘fiction’ of collective experience we represent the terms of social order. The argument is richly illustrated with chapters on the theoretical character of performance in modernity; photography as the first means of mass representation; the nature of public discourse in mass democracy; and the elaboration of space for theatrical performance; and the marketing of culture and communication through mass systems of distribution.

The book aims to provide a framework within which any of the popular cultural forms of modernity can be understood. Drawing upon and adapting the extensive literature of cultural studies, the author offers a distinctive and original sociological perspective on the relationship between individual and community in popular culture. The author also sets out the distinctive features of change in late-modern and postmodern culture. This book will be of interest to students of sociology, cultural studies, and related fields.

Lori Jo Marso is Doris Zemurray Stone Professor of Literary and Historical Studies and Professor of Political Science at Union College, NY. Her books include Feminism and the Cinema of Experience (2024), Politics with Beauvoir: Freedom in the Encounter (2017), Politics, Theory, and Film: Critical Encounters with Lars von Trier (2016) and Fifty-One Key Feminist Thinkers (2016).