History of art Books

Book SynopsisAnalyzing the way that recent works of graphic narrative use the comics form to engage with the “problem” of reproduction, Shiamin Kwa’s Perfect Copies reminds us that the mode of production and the manner in which we perceive comics are often quite similar to the stories they tell. Perfect Copies considers the dual notions of reproduction, mechanical as well as biological, and explores how comics are works of reproduction that embed questions about the nature of reproduction itself. Through close readings of the comics My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris, The Black Project by Gareth Brookes, The Generous Bosom series by Conor Stechschulte, Sabrina by Nick Drnaso, and Panther by Brecht Evens, Perfect Copies shows how these comics makers push the limits of different ideas of “reproduction” in strikingly different ways. Kwa suggests that reading and thinking about books like these, that push us to engage with these complicated questions, teaches us how to become better readers.Trade Review“Perfect Copies is about the creation and impact of comics that skirt the line of what readers might imagine would be considered typical within the medium. This book pushes readers to think about the ways that comics creators nudge the boundaries of how comics might look, "read" and visually "feel.” It is a must read for everyone who loves the ways that comics have revolutionized art and aesthetics and that art has revolutionized comics and notions of reproduction.”— Rachel Marie-Crane Williams, Dean of Liberal Arts, UNC School of The ArtsTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 The People Upstairs: Space, Memory, and the Queered Family in My Favorite Thing Is Monsters 2 Reach Out and Touch Someone: The Haptic Dreams of Gareth Brookes 3 Phantom Threads: Seeing in the Dark and Conor Stechschulte 4 If You See Something Say Something: Nick Drnaso’s Sabrina 5 There is a Monster in My Closet: Brecht Evens’s Panther Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisGiven the current moment—polarized populations, increasing climate fears, and decline of supranational institutions in favor of a rising tide of nationalisms—it is easy to understand the proliferation of apocalyptic and dystopian elements in popular culture. Infected Empires examines one of the most popular figures in contemporary apocalyptic film: the zombie. This harbinger of apocalypse reveals bloody truths about the human condition, the wounds of history, and methods of contending with them. Infected Empires considers parallels in the zombie genre to historical and current events on different political, theological and philosophical levels, and proposes that the zombie can be read as a figure of decolonization and an allegory of resistance to oppressive structures that racialize, marginalize, disable, and dispose of bodies. Studying films from around the world, including Latin America, Asia, Africa, the US, and Europe, Infected Empires presents a vision of a global zombie that points toward a posthuman and feminist future. Trade Review"A brilliant cartography of the zombie film, elegantly crafted, theoretically informed and ambitious in its transnational sweep and decolonial focus." -- Cynthia Steele * author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988 *"A fascinating and rigorous study that invites us to analyze our dreams and fears, the contemporary effects of global power and coloniality, necropolitics, today’s structures of oppression, and certainly the very essence of our own humanity. Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini have written a book on zombies that will stand the test of time; their reading decolonizes and queers identity, the present, the future, horror fiction, and most definitely: our understanding of history." -- Oswaldo Estrada * author of Troubled Memories: Iconic Mexican Women and the Traps of Representation *The Page 99 Test: ?Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini's "Infected Empires" * The Page 99 Test *"A brilliant cartography of the zombie film, elegantly crafted, theoretically informed and ambitious in its transnational sweep and decolonial focus." -- Cynthia Steele * author of Politics, Gender, and the Mexican Novel, 1968-1988 *"A fascinating and rigorous study that invites us to analyze our dreams and fears, the contemporary effects of global power and coloniality, necropolitics, today’s structures of oppression, and certainly the very essence of our own humanity. Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini have written a book on zombies that will stand the test of time; their reading decolonizes and queers identity, the present, the future, horror fiction, and most definitely: our understanding of history." -- Oswaldo Estrada * author of Troubled Memories: Iconic Mexican Women and the Traps of Representation *The Page 99 Test: Patricia Saldarriaga and Emy Manini's "Infected Empires" * The Page 99 Test *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: What is a Zombie? Chapter 2: Mutilate the State! Nation Race, Power Chapter 3: Devouring Capitalism Chapter 4: Bodies that Splatter. Queering and Cripping Zombies Chapter 5: Of Matter, Dust, and Earth: Zombies and the Environment Conclusions

Read more less

Book SynopsisHorror films strive to make audiences scream, but they also garner plenty of laughs. In fact, there is a long tradition of horror directors who are fluent in humor, from James Whale to John Landis to Jordan Peele. So how might horror and humor overlap more than we would expect? Dead Funny locates humor as a key element in the American horror film, one that is not merely used for extraneous “comic relief” moments but often serves to underscore major themes, intensify suspense, and disorient viewers. Each chapter focuses on a different comic style or device, from the use of funny monsters and scary clowns in movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street to the physical humor and slapstick in movies ranging from The Evil Dead to Final Destination. Along the way, humor scholar David Gillota explores how horror films employ parody, satire, and camp to comment on gender, sexuality, and racial politics. Covering everything from the grotesque body in Freaks to the comedy of awkwardness in Midsommar, this book shows how integral humor has been to the development of the American horror film over the past century. Trade Review"Dead Funny offers a brilliant rethinking of the horror genre as profoundly comic. Exploring parody, the comic monster, body humor, queer camp, cringe comedy, and satire, Dead Funny serves up a comprehensive look at humor’s centrality to the structure and tone of U.S. horror film since the 1930s. You’ll be surprised at some of the films that come up in David Gillota’s provocative book—but I guarantee you’ll also be convinced."— Dawn Keetley, author of Making a Monster: Jesse Pomeroy, the Boy Murderer of 1870s Boston “Historically, horror scholarship has often displayed an almost phobic disregard for horror-comedies and the comedy in horror. You almost would not know that horror is often intricately enmeshed with comedy. David Gillota's Dead Funny corrects this omission, taking on comedic horror from the silent era to Jordan Peele with care and rigor. And the best part: it is even funny.”— Murray Leeder, author of Horror Film: A Critical IntroductionTable of ContentsIntroduction: Approaching Horror through Humor 1. Parodying Horror, Horror as Parody 2. Clowns, Fools, and Dummies: Horror’s Comic Monsters 3. Painfully Funny: The Humor of Body Horror 4. Camping Out: Horror’s Queer Humor and Gender Play 5. Cringes and Creeps: Exploring Awkward Horror 6. Horror, Humor, and Critique: Satire in Horror Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisHorror films strive to make audiences scream, but they also garner plenty of laughs. In fact, there is a long tradition of horror directors who are fluent in humor, from James Whale to John Landis to Jordan Peele. So how might horror and humor overlap more than we would expect? Dead Funny locates humor as a key element in the American horror film, one that is not merely used for extraneous “comic relief” moments but often serves to underscore major themes, intensify suspense, and disorient viewers. Each chapter focuses on a different comic style or device, from the use of funny monsters and scary clowns in movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street to the physical humor and slapstick in movies ranging from The Evil Dead to Final Destination. Along the way, humor scholar David Gillota explores how horror films employ parody, satire, and camp to comment on gender, sexuality, and racial politics. Covering everything from the grotesque body in Freaks to the comedy of awkwardness in Midsommar, this book shows how integral humor has been to the development of the American horror film over the past century. Trade Review"Dead Funny offers a brilliant rethinking of the horror genre as profoundly comic. Exploring parody, the comic monster, body humor, queer camp, cringe comedy, and satire, Dead Funny serves up a comprehensive look at humor’s centrality to the structure and tone of U.S. horror film since the 1930s. You’ll be surprised at some of the films that come up in David Gillota’s provocative book—but I guarantee you’ll also be convinced."— Dawn Keetley, author of Making a Monster: Jesse Pomeroy, the Boy Murderer of 1870s Boston “Historically, horror scholarship has often displayed an almost phobic disregard for horror-comedies and the comedy in horror. You almost would not know that horror is often intricately enmeshed with comedy. David Gillota's Dead Funny corrects this omission, taking on comedic horror from the silent era to Jordan Peele with care and rigor. And the best part: it is even funny.”— Murray Leeder, author of Horror Film: A Critical IntroductionTable of ContentsIntroduction: Approaching Horror through Humor 1. Parodying Horror, Horror as Parody 2. Clowns, Fools, and Dummies: Horror’s Comic Monsters 3. Painfully Funny: The Humor of Body Horror 4. Camping Out: Horror’s Queer Humor and Gender Play 5. Cringes and Creeps: Exploring Awkward Horror 6. Horror, Humor, and Critique: Satire in Horror Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPolish Jewish Culture beyond the Capital: Centering the Periphery is a path-breaking exploration of the diversity and vitality of urban Jewish identity and culture in Polish lands from the second half of the nineteenth century to the outbreak of the Second World War (1899–1939). In this multidisciplinary essay collection, a cohort of international scholars provides an integrated history of the arts and humanities in Poland by illuminating the complex roles Jews in urban centers other than Warsaw played in the creation of Polish and Polish Jewish culture. Each essay presents readers with the extraordinary production and consumption of culture by Polish Jews in literature, film, cabaret, theater, the visual arts, architecture, and music. They show how this process was defined by a reciprocal cultural exchange that flourished between cities at the periphery—from Lwów and Wilno to Kraków and Łódź—and international centers like Warsaw, thereby illuminating the place of Polish Jews within urban European cultures. Companion website (https://polishjewishmusic.iu.edu)Trade Review“This splendid collection of essays breaks new ground in the study of Polish Jews and their cultural engagements. They redraw the map, bring centers and peripheries into unexpected relations, delineate cultural spaces in novel ways, and treat topics never before considered with a bracing freshness.”— Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Ronald S. Lauder Chief Curator, Core Exhibition, POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews "Polish Jewish life and culture has always been regional, diversely reflected in a multitude of centers from shtetlekh to urban working-class districts to provincial capitals. In this fascinating volume, leading scholars of Polish Jewry present original essays on the varieties of Jewish culture that once flourished in and around Poland."— Jeffrey Veidlinger, author of In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The 1918–1921 Pogroms in Ukraine and the Onset of the HoTable of ContentsContents A Note on Place Names, Personal Names, and Transliterations Introduction, Halina Goldberg and Nancy Sinkoff Part I: Tradition and Rebellion Chapter 1: "'A Holiday that Applies to Everyone': Ararat Kleynkunst Theater and the Challenge of Populist Modernism," Zehavit Stern Chapter 2: "Elkhonen Vogler, Forgotten Poet of Yung-Vilne, in Vilna and the Litvak Borderlands," Justin Cammy Chapter 3: "Scandalous Glass House: On Modernist Transparency in Architecture and Life," Bożena Shallcross Chapter 4: "Jewish Expressionism between Discourses of Revival and Degeneration: The Yung-yidish Group," Małgorzata Stolarska-Fronia Part II: Performers and Audiences Chapter 5: "The Theatrics of Bais Yaakov," Naomi Seidman Chapter 6: "A Spectacle of Differences: Bracha Zefira's Tour of Poland in 1929," Magdalena Kozłowska Chapter 7: "Music of 'the Foreign Nations' or 'Native Culture': Concert Programming in Interwar Lwów as a Discourse about Jewish Musical Identities," Sylwia Jakubczyk-Śleczka Chapter 8: "From Lodzermensz to Szmonces and Back: On the Multidirectional Flow of Culture," Marcos Silber Part III: Maps and Spaces Chapter 9: "The Layered Meanings of an Unbuilt Monument: Kraków Jews Commemorate the Polish King Casimir the Great," Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska Chapter 10: "Mapping Modern Jewish Kraków: Women—Cultural Production—Space," Eugenia Prokop-Janiec Chapter 11: "Movie Theaters and the Development of Jewish Public Space in Interwar Poland," Ela Bauer Chapter 12: "The Politics of Jewish Youth Movement Culture in Interwar Poland's Eastern Borderlands," Daniel Heller Appendix Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisJohn, Paul, George, and Ringo were more than great musicians: they were the quintessential fashion icons of one of the most exciting and memorable fashion eras of all time. From their starts in black leather through Sgt. Pepper to Nehru collars and psychedelia, the Beatles used clothing to express their individual and group identities and, especially, to grow their following. They did it without benefit of stylists or consultants, making their own rules and changing their looks as many as five times a year to keep a few steps ahead of the crowd in the tumultuous, fashion-obsessed sixties. More than fifty years after their break-up, their style continues to animate the collections of some of the world’s leading designers, including Thom Browne, John Varvatos, Anna Sui, Tom Ford, Gucci’s Alessandro Michele and, yes, Stella McCartney. Fashioning the Beatles, the first in-depth look at their sartorial legacy, demonstrates that their inimitable style was not an incidental by-product of their fame but an integral part of their act and a key to their globe-spanning success.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less