A Primer For Daily Life (PDF)

What happens when a Marxist feminist goes to the supermarket? Why is Michael Jackson the quintessential expression of commodity culture?
In "A Primer For Daily Life," Susan Willis puts everyday life and its artifacts at the center of her analysis of capitalist culture. Interrogating the meaning of such everyday items as children's toys, plastic packaging, banana sticker logos, backyard camping, and aerobics classes, Willis investigates the phenomena of modern culture and explores the nature of commodities and commodity fetishism.
Grounded in Marxism and guided by feminism, "A Primer For Daily Life" aims to broaden the field of cultural criticism to embrace forms and practices not addressed by the media or media criticism. Willis demonstrates that the trivial is critical for an understanding of capitalist culture and encourages the development of a critical perspective on daily life.
Informed by the pioneering work of Henri Lefebvre and Michel de Certeau, who first theorized "everyday life," "A Primer For Daily Life" extends their focus on mundane social life and practice to situate it in a more properly American and suburban context. The book explores the influence of commodities and commodity fetishism on daily life, social practice, and relationships. Offering interpretations of various commodities and commodified practices, it provokes questions about culture and everyday life and generates a desire for alternatives.
Although the book does not celebrate popular culture, it does suggest utopian possibilities and instances of transformation where fetishized relationships give way to communal social formations.
Written in a direct and personal feminist styleand treating subjects which are both familiar and of interest to every American, "A Primer For Daily Life" offers a provocative look at the way we live now.