Vulgarity

Vulgarity is the quality of being common, coarse, or unrefined. This judgement may refer to language, visual art, social class, or social climbers.[1] John Bayley claims the term can never be self-referential, because to be aware of vulgarity is to display a degree of sophistication which thereby elevates the subject above the vulgar.[2]

  1. ^ Susan David Bernstein, Elsie Browning Michie (2009). Victorian vulgarity: taste in verbal and visual culture. Ashgate publishing. ISBN 978-0-7546-6405-5.
  2. ^ John Bayley (1964). "Vulgarity". The British Journal of Aesthetics. 4 (4): 298–304. doi:10.1093/bjaesthetics/4.4.298.