Art as Propaganda: Bringing Du Bois into the Sociology of Art

Abstract

We examine WEB Du Bois's writings about the arts in the NAACP journal The Crisis from 1910–1934 in order to construct a Du Boisian social theory of the arts. The key elements of this theoretical framework are: artists, money, freedom, organization, truth, beauty, and propaganda. The most surprising element is propaganda, which for Du Bois meant that art needs to address racial politics. There is a strong sense in Du Bois's writings that art can and should have socially transformative effects. Comparing Du Bois's work to current theories from the sociology of art, we find that Du Bois emphasizes the role of art in social change, while current work treats art primarily as a tool for social reproduction. We argue for expanding the theoretical toolbox of the sociology of the arts through greater consideration of Du Bois's propaganda concept.

How lasting is the impact of art?: An exploratory study of the incidence and duration of art exhibition-induced prosocial attitude change using a 2-week daily diary method.

“…Increasingly, art has also been targeted at changing behaviors and thoughts. Although certainly not new (see, e.g., Kidd & Jackson, 2010; Moriuchi, 2014), the use of artworks and art exhibitions has recently been championed as a solution for effecting change with a broad range of topics—such as shaping attitudes about nature or climate change (Galafassi et al, 2018; Lee, 2021; Marinaro & Flores, 2016; Marković & Petrović, 2021; Merrick, 2011; Pinsky & Sommer, 2020; Sommer & Klöckner, 2021; Speidel, 2020), refugees (Briciu, 2020; Mendelssohn, 2018; Papouli, 2017), homelessness (Peters, 2019), domestic violence (Walker, 2021)—or for generally making individuals more reflective and empathic citizens (Briciu, 2020; Gerger et al, 2018; Pelowski et al, 2020). Blockbuster examples include the installation of pieces of icebergs in front of European government offices by Olafur Eliasson ( Ice watch , 2015), an inflatable sculpture resembling a boat of refugees ( Law of the journey , 2017) by Ai Weiwei, as well as main themes of museums and recent major art events (Venice Biennale; B.…”

Toward a DuBoisian theorization of school curricula

“…Although “propaganda” has historically held a neutral meaning akin to “persuasion” (Kidd & Jackson, 2010, p. 560), here Du Bois uses propaganda to sharply criticize how white people used schools, amongst other institutions, to construct and disseminate racist ideologies. According to Du Bois (1998), historiography and their resulting K‐12 textbooks present distorted information that leads to “pleasure and amusement, inflating our national ego, and giving a false but pleasurable sense of accomplishment” (p. 714) with the result of white people “embrac(ing) and worship(ping) the color bar as social salvation” (p. 723).…”

“…Within this framework, often referred to as “double‐consciousness” and “law and chance,” scholars theorize how individual‐level human subjectivities and consciousnesses emerge as elements of agency and structure (England & Warner, 2013; Itzigsohn & Brown, 2015; Yazdiha, 2021). Thus, emphasizing material and ideological processes, this literature highlights the contention that “Du Bois recognized that systems of domination produce and are sustained by cultures of subordination” (Morris, 2015, p. 39) but that agentic action could transform systems (Kidd & Jackson, 2010).…”

How Lasting is the Impact of Art?: An Exploratory Study of the Incidence and Duration of Art Exhibition-Induced Prosocial Attitude Change Using a 2-Week Daily Diary Method

“…Increasingly, art has also been targeted at changing behaviors and thoughts. Although certainly not new (see e.g., Kidd & Jackson, 2010;Moriuchi, 2014), the use of art has recently 1 Perhaps best known is the idea of 'Art for art's sake' (L'art pour l'art), suggesting that 'true art' and artists should be divorced from utility (Goins, 2015;Zangwill, 1999). Summarized nicely by novelist Jonathan Safran Foer (2003, p. 202), "Art… is that thing having only to do with itselfthe product of a successful attempt to make a work of art."…”