Abstract
The chapter is a case study on Danish journalist and wine critic Poul Pilgaard Johnsen. The study demonstrates how new practices are seen in cultural criticism. It is argued that Johnsen’s wine criticism is an example of persona-driven cultural criticism defined as a practice where the performance of the journalist’s or critic’s personality is a fundamental part of the media text. By applying a cross-disciplinary qualitative approach combining persona studies and performance studies, an analytical model is presented and used in the case study. The analytical model is composed of the five concepts; theatricality, body, voice, spatiality and personal narrative performance. The analysis of a number of radio shows and print articles demonstrates how Johnsen’s wine criticism is situated in the display of a persona engaged in an aesthetic style of being. The practice of Johnsen is read into the expansion of the notion of criticism and supports the need for new conceptualizations and methods when it comes to the study of contemporary cultural criticism.
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Notes
- 1.
The show—which in Danish is called “Flaskens Ånd”—first aired in 2011, and the last episode aired on Radio24syv in October 2019. In December 2019, the radio show relaunched as a podcast hosted on the digital platform of Weekendavisen, the national weekly newspaper where Johnsen has his fulltime employment.
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Moestrup, S. (2021). The Use of Wine as a Performance of a Style of Being: A Methodological Proposal to the Study of Persona-Driven Cultural Criticism. In: Kristensen, N.N., From, U., Haastrup, H.K. (eds) Rethinking Cultural Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7474-0_3
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