Punjab’s Male Public Culture: a Study of Popular Visuals of Delight
Punjab’s Male Public Culture: a Study of Popular Visuals of Delight

Summary/Abstract: This paper looks into the particular leisure time activities and popular sports of pleasure in secular life of rural Pakistani Punjab which is the main reason for the production of popular posters. The methodological foundation for this research study is based on ethnographic surveys. This research study takes an interdisciplinary approach with close observation of public spheres where visual data was found. The popular posters discussed in this study provide a delightful sight for the viewer with a basic sense of the narrative through frozen images whose form is derived from different sources of popular, traditional and modern art cultures. Though naïve, such posters are actually a complex maze of cultural, aesthetic and social values that have shaped the way the poster functions as an object of art, as an icon and a commodity. This study argues that on one hand, the popular posters and advertisements are not only the frozen images of our lived culture but they also evoke a sense of nostalgia and on the other hand they develop an understanding of how economic, political and ideological systems utilizing a similar field of cultural production ultimately create a rich heritage of “cultural capital”.

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