Popular culture Books

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisReligion and Film introduces readers to both religious studies and film studies by focusing on the formal similarities between cinema and religious practices and on the ways they each re-create the world. S. Brent Plate shows that by paying attention to the ways films are constructed, we can shed new light on myths and rituals and vice versa.Trade ReviewContributes crucially to film theory as much as religious studies, marking a pivotal moment in the humanities in which religiosity, mythology, media, and narratology are once again being revisited in the continued critique of the Enlightenment, Western society, and secular humanism. * Reading Religion *This new standalone version is erudite yet accessible, with a truly inclusive and knowledgeable appreciation of both cinema and religion. -- Joel Mayward * Journal of Film and Religion *[This] volume is a stimulating contribution to the field of film and religion that will be read with profit by scholars in the field, graduate students and others with an interest in this conversation. -- Stefanie Knauss * Journal of Religion, Film, and Media *Plate gives us the best introduction into the exploration of religion and film by brilliantly interweaving the worldmaking of religious myths and rituals, sacred times, and spaces, with the worldmaking of cinema. Insightful and illuminating, Religion and Film helps us to understand the stagings, structures, and embodiments of film in the light of religion and to rethink the dynamics of religion in the light of film. -- David Chidester, author of Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular CultureA truly compelling comparative study. The analogues between filmic and religious worldmaking are richly illuminating, bringing the reader to fresh insights about the structure and dynamics of both mediums. Setting aside the customary approach of simply analyzing religious themes in movies, this volume compares mythic and ritual ways of constructing a world with cinematic processes such as framing, focus, editorial selection, lighting, camera angle, voice, use of time and space, and iconicity—doing so with lucidity, ingenuity, and masterful use of a repertoire of interpretive frameworks. -- William Paden, University of VermontSpiritual questions are still anathema to most film theorists. On the other hand, many religious scholars who dabble in cinema have treated it illustratively and shown a blunt insensitivity to the specifics of film form. This book is exemplary in the cogent and creative way it builds a bridge between these two alienated intellectual worlds. Plate’s unfailingly perceptive mise-en-scène analysis discovers the visual mythologizing at work in an eclectic filmography ranging from George Lucas to Dziga Vertov and Stan Brakhage. At the same time, he remains critically aware of politics and ideology, attempting a more inclusive definition of religion that goes beyond the dogmatic and the doctrinal. A wonderfully syncretic study that offers an amazing bricolage of ideas. -- Peter Matthews, University of the Arts LondonTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsPreface to the Second EditionPreface to the First EditionAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Worldmaking On-Screen and at the AltarPart I. Before the Show: Pulling the Curtain on the Wizard1. Audio-Visual Mythologizing2. Ritualizing Film in Space and Time3. Sacred and Cinematic Spaces: Cities and PilgrimagesPart II. During the Show: Attractions and Distractions4. Religious Cinematics: Body, Screen, and Death5. The Face, the Close-Up, and EthicsPart III. After the Show: Re-Created Realities6. The Footprints of Film: Cinematic After-Images in Sacred Time and SpaceNotesReferencesFilmographyIndex

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Survive and Resist, Amy Atchison and Shauna Shames explore the ways in which dystopian narratives help explain how real-world politics work. They draw on classic and contemporary fiction, films, and TV shows—as well as their real-life counterparts—to offer funny and accessible explanations of key political concepts.Trade ReviewIt is truly rare to find a text that so deftly serves as an introduction to core political concepts and political resistance in a way that will resonate with activists and students alike. Survive and Resist shows us how to be intellectually engaged with but not discouraged by ideas that often seem too overwhelming to examine in moments of political despair. It does so in a way that is rigorous and disarming, morally serious and fun. A must-read. -- Alex Zamalin, author of Struggle on Their Minds: The Political Thought of African American ResistanceIn this original tour of modern political history, Atchison and Shames argue that dystopian novels (of all things!) offer pretty good guidance to democratic citizens who would prefer truth that is less strange than fiction. Engagingly written, the book is an urgent reminder that decency prevails when people of goodwill join in the frustrating and uncertain practice of self-governance. -- Kristin Goss, author of The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public VoiceAtchison and Shames’ examination of political machinations, tyrannies present and past, and the human desire for “collective resistance” to brutal regimes makes for a sizzling, unsettling, but ultimately reassuring read. Survive and Resist could also serve as an exhilarating and darkly droll primer for authors of dystopian fiction. Shining a light on thuggish, all-too-recognizable totalitarian states, the work takes readers from Atwood to Solzhenitsyn, from Wall-E to Fritz Lang, from The Hunger Games to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, demonstrating how works of political fiction expose evil and corruption, and inspire and encourage communal revolt. I wanted to cheer at the end. I wanted to give copies of Survive and Resist to my students and friends, and then take to the streets. And, I wanted to rediscover every work cited to give me courage for the fight. To quote Atchison and Shames, “Can You (Re)build it? Yes You Can!” -- Cordelia Frances Biddle, author of Saint Katharine: The Life of Katharine DrexelAtchison and Shames have somehow gifted us with a concise guide to dystopia that is full of hope and humor. Survive and Resist offers crisp comparisons between fictional dystopias, real totalitarian regimes, and the political science of nondemocratic regimes—their economics, their tactics of control, and, crucially—their weak points and blind spots. It does this with a brisk voice, a quick pace, and a dose of dark humor that should make it a favorite of political science students and speculative fiction diehards. I can’t wait to use it in my teaching. -- Amelia Hoover Green, author of The Commander’s Dilemma: Violence and Restraint in WartimeThis lucid, intelligent, frequently amusing yet profoundly committed book speaks directly to you and me, the readers, addressing our present urgent political condition with practical lessons drawn from dystopian fiction like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale along with important classic and contemporary political theories. Atchison and Shames present political science with clarity, dystopian literature with wit, no easy feats! They show that dystopian literature is something beyond entertainment, beyond thought experiment, beyond exploration of our fear and trembling under the weight of an oppressive body politic. They reveal these works as offering an anatomy of authoritarian societies and thereby a blueprint for understanding, resisting and opposing such societies. It is more than a manifesto of nonviolent action: it is an action plan for resistance in a time of need. -- Andrew Vogel Ettin, author of Speaking Silences: Stillness and Voice in Modern Thought and Jewish TraditionPolitics meets popular culture in this lively, often lighthearted study. . . . [Survive and Resist] will have broad appeal to readers who appreciate the intersections of pop culture and politics. * Library Journal *An interesting read. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Malice in Wonderland2. Defining Dystopia3. The Invisible Hand Strikes Again4. Strategies and Tactics of Dystopian Governments5. Individual Survival and Resistance6. The Resistance Will Not Be Intimidated7. Disintegrating the Oppressor8. Can You (Re)build It? Yes You Can!EpilogueNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Survive and Resist, Amy Atchison and Shauna Shames explore the ways in which dystopian narratives help explain how real-world politics work. They draw on classic and contemporary fiction, films, and TV shows—as well as their real-life counterparts—to offer funny and accessible explanations of key political concepts.Trade ReviewIt is truly rare to find a text that so deftly serves as an introduction to core political concepts and political resistance in a way that will resonate with activists and students alike. Survive and Resist shows us how to be intellectually engaged with but not discouraged by ideas that often seem too overwhelming to examine in moments of political despair. It does so in a way that is rigorous and disarming, morally serious and fun. A must-read. -- Alex Zamalin, author of Struggle on Their Minds: The Political Thought of African American ResistanceIn this original tour of modern political history, Atchison and Shames argue that dystopian novels (of all things!) offer pretty good guidance to democratic citizens who would prefer truth that is less strange than fiction. Engagingly written, the book is an urgent reminder that decency prevails when people of goodwill join in the frustrating and uncertain practice of self-governance. -- Kristin Goss, author of The Paradox of Gender Equality: How American Women's Groups Gained and Lost Their Public VoiceAtchison and Shames’ examination of political machinations, tyrannies present and past, and the human desire for “collective resistance” to brutal regimes makes for a sizzling, unsettling, but ultimately reassuring read. Survive and Resist could also serve as an exhilarating and darkly droll primer for authors of dystopian fiction. Shining a light on thuggish, all-too-recognizable totalitarian states, the work takes readers from Atwood to Solzhenitsyn, from Wall-E to Fritz Lang, from The Hunger Games to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, demonstrating how works of political fiction expose evil and corruption, and inspire and encourage communal revolt. I wanted to cheer at the end. I wanted to give copies of Survive and Resist to my students and friends, and then take to the streets. And, I wanted to rediscover every work cited to give me courage for the fight. To quote Atchison and Shames, “Can You (Re)build it? Yes You Can!” -- Cordelia Frances Biddle, author of Saint Katharine: The Life of Katharine DrexelAtchison and Shames have somehow gifted us with a concise guide to dystopia that is full of hope and humor. Survive and Resist offers crisp comparisons between fictional dystopias, real totalitarian regimes, and the political science of nondemocratic regimes—their economics, their tactics of control, and, crucially—their weak points and blind spots. It does this with a brisk voice, a quick pace, and a dose of dark humor that should make it a favorite of political science students and speculative fiction diehards. I can’t wait to use it in my teaching. -- Amelia Hoover Green, author of The Commander’s Dilemma: Violence and Restraint in WartimeThis lucid, intelligent, frequently amusing yet profoundly committed book speaks directly to you and me, the readers, addressing our present urgent political condition with practical lessons drawn from dystopian fiction like 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale along with important classic and contemporary political theories. Atchison and Shames present political science with clarity, dystopian literature with wit, no easy feats! They show that dystopian literature is something beyond entertainment, beyond thought experiment, beyond exploration of our fear and trembling under the weight of an oppressive body politic. They reveal these works as offering an anatomy of authoritarian societies and thereby a blueprint for understanding, resisting and opposing such societies. It is more than a manifesto of nonviolent action: it is an action plan for resistance in a time of need. -- Andrew Vogel Ettin, author of Speaking Silences: Stillness and Voice in Modern Thought and Jewish TraditionPolitics meets popular culture in this lively, often lighthearted study. . . . [Survive and Resist] will have broad appeal to readers who appreciate the intersections of pop culture and politics. * Library Journal *An interesting read. * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPrefaceIntroduction1. Malice in Wonderland2. Defining Dystopia3. The Invisible Hand Strikes Again4. Strategies and Tactics of Dystopian Governments5. Individual Survival and Resistance6. The Resistance Will Not Be Intimidated7. Disintegrating the Oppressor8. Can You (Re)build It? Yes You Can!EpilogueNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisL. Benjamin Rolsky examines the ways in which American liberalism has helped shape cultural conflict since the 1970s through the story of how television writer and producer Norman Lear galvanized the religious left. He foregrounds the roles played by popular culture, television, and media in America’s religious history.Trade ReviewAn invaluable genealogy of some of the major culture forces that gave rise to contemporary 'spiritual politics' in the U.S. * Reading Religion *Rolsky’s work is a useful guide to where we’ve been as well as where we might be going; it encourages us to think about what kind of consensus we may be building, and who we might be including and excluding, along the way. * Society for US Intellectual History Blog *Rise and Fall should garner a wide and varied audience, and it appears intentionally so. It is self-consciously and transparently situated, adeptly self-described in relation to a number of subfields, scholars, and paradigmatic shifts. -- CARA BURNIDGE * Society for U.S. Intellectual History *Rolsky's study contributes immensely to our understanding of his work at the intersection of religion, culture, and politics in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. -- David Mislin * Church History *For some who have taken a hiatus from politics and religion, The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond by L. Benjamin Rolsky is a must read; a companion to the inevitable upheaval that is on the horizon. If there is one political book that you should read in 2020...it’s this one. -- Eraina Davis * Chicago Now *Although the religious right looms large in histories of the 1970s, the struggle over religion, politics and culture didn’t unfold only on the right. In this lively and engaging study, Rolsky shows how Norman Lear and People for the American Way advanced a strong spiritual vision of civic life from the left. -- Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian AmericaRolsky demonstrates how Norman Lear, the renowned television producer of classic shows like All in the Family, offers a window into the evolution of the religious left in the 1970s and its complex relationship with the moral majority. A fascinating and intriguing history of the intersection between popular culture, religion, and American politics. -- Julian E. Zelizer, coauthor of Fault Lines: A History of the United States Since 1974L. Benjamin Rolsky intends to prod and provoke, and he does so through his sophisticated analysis of the effect of Lear’s work. This is a strong, important, and innovative work. The framing of Lear within the 'politics of religious liberalism,' the explanation of the creation and workings of a mainstream Protestantism that saw itself as a sort of caretaker of the nation, and the challenging and intellectually complex thesis pursued here all highly recommend this as an important work that should draw attention, discussion, and debate. -- Paul Harvey, author of Christianity and Race in the American South: A HistoryThis exceptional, vividly argued book revises the history of religion and politics in the U.S. Rolsky pushes us to see politics as mediated spiritual warfare in which the winner is the one who makes the most accessible entertainment from social outrage. Highly recommended. -- Kathryn Lofton, author of Consuming ReligionA highly original examination of the role of television in the so-called culture wars of the 1970s . . . Rolsky’s great contribution is to turn our attention to media, especially television, as a site of religious and political contestation. * American Historical Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Religious Liberalism, American Politics, and Public Life1. Norman Lear, the Christian Right, and the Spiritual Politics of the Religious Left2. All in the Family and the Spiritual Politicization of the American Sitcom3. Norman Lear, the FCC, and the Holy War Over American Television4. People for the American Way and Spiritual Politics in Late Twentieth-Century America5. Liberalism as Variety Show: I Love Liberty and the Decline of the Religious LeftConclusion: Religion, Politics, and the Public Square—2019NotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisJessica Pressman explores the rise of “bookishness” as an identity and an aesthetic strategy that proliferates from store-window décor to experimental writing. Ranging from literature to kitsch objects, stop-motion animation films to book design, she considers the multivalent meanings of books in contemporary culture.Trade ReviewFizzing with ideas and sparkling with finds, this analysis of the digital age’s love affair with print shows Pressman’s keen eye for the paradoxes of contemporary cultural practices. -- Leah Price, author of What We Talk About When We Talk About Books: The History and Future of ReadingJessica Pressman’s great strength lies in her wonderful touch for the material. Her expansive command of exemplars runs the gamut from the high literary to cultural kitsch. Bookishness offers that rare and enviable combination of fascinating source material and an easily transportable take-away—the title term itself, which is sure to become widely adopted and relied upon. -- Matthew Kirschenbaum, author of Track Changes: A Literary History of Word ProcessingJessica Pressman has written an eloquent book on our attempts, at once kitschy and inspired, to maintain a sense of attachment to reading during the book's twilight. A profound reminder of the continued hold books have on our imaginations. -- Andrew Piper, author of Book Was There: Reading in Electronic TimesUltimately, both hobbyist and scholar will take bookishness seriously after reading Bookishness by Jessica Pressman. * Society for U.S. Intellectual History blog *A brainy exploration of what it means to be a book lover in the 21st century. * Everything Zoomer *Understanding how our relationship with words has changed, and recognising bookishness as a way of navigating this shift, is what Pressman’s clear-sighted study brings to light. * Money Control *Pressman absorbs academic debate into her sometimes heartfelt prose, and treads the line between readability and rigour with ease. If Bookishness articulates a democratic world where ‘books’ are enjoyed by a demographic of ‘readers’ more broadly conceived, then this book performs that aspirational inclusivity. * The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory *A delight to read. * Choice Reviews *Bookishness is a trenchant, original exploration of a widespread contemporary phenomenon. Situated at the intersection of literary studies, media studies and book history, it innovatively combines analyses of literary fiction and material culture. * Publishing Research Quarterly *A quick, timely, provocative read that—as with the command "Don’t think of pink elephants"—readers won’t be able to walk away from seeing the world the way they did going in. It opens a field of inquiry that stretches to the far corners of culture. “Look there,” one wants to say, pointing at another example of bookishness. And there. And there! Bookishness makes one want to make such lists and then shout—er, write down on paper—The book is dead, long live the book! * The Rumpus *Bookishness will likely be of interest to technical communicators interested in literature and books broadly, and those concerned with how physical and digital mediums interact in our contemporary world. * Technical Communication *Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. How and Now Bookishness2. Shelter3. Thing4. Fake5. Weapon6. MemorialCodaNotesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe transnational history and cultural politics of the Shaw Brothers' movie empireTrade Review“Something for everyone . . . effectively lays down a solid foundation for further research.”--China Quarterly"An impressive, in-depth inquiry into the historical mutations, cultural innovations, and political implications of the rise and development of the Shaw Brothers’ movie empire. Of the many volumes on Hong Kong movie industries, this is the first to focus solely on the history of the Shaw Brothers."--David Der-wei Wang, author of The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China"This instructive book will be a pleasure for seasoned scholars and amateurs of Hong King cinema alike. Extremely useful for Asian cinema courses, this first book-length study of the Shaw Brothers--who were pioneers in the Chinese language and trans-Asian commercial film industry--provides valuable cultural history and global context."--Tonglin Lu, author of Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas in Taiwan and Mainland China"Reopens the gates to the Shaw Brothers' legend."--Electronic Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Shaw Brothers Diasporic Cinema 1Poshek Fu 1. Shaw Cinema Enterprise and Understanding Cultural Industries 27Lily Kong 2. Shaw's Cantonese Productions and Their Interactions with Contemporary Local and Hollywood Cinema 57Law Kar 3. Embracing Glocalization and Hong Kong-Made Musical FIlm 74Siu Leung Li 4. Three Readings of Hong Kong Nocturne 95Paul G. Pickowicz 5. The Black-and-White Wenyi Films of Shaws 115Wong Ain-ling 6. Territorialization and the Entertainment Industry of the Shaw Brothers in Southeast Asia 133Sai-shing Yung 7. The Shaw Brothers' Malay FIlms 154Timothy P. Barnard 8. Bridging the Pacific with Love Eterne 174Ramona Curry 9. Black Audiences, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity 199Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua 10. Shaw Brothers Cinema and the Hip-Hop Imagination 224Fanon Che Wilkins 11. Reminiscences of the Life of an Actress in Shaw Brothers' Movietown 246Cheng Pei-pei (translated by Jing Jing Chang and Jeff McClain) Select Filmography 255Lane J. Harris Contributors 257 Index 261

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow Disney used the latest technology to become an entertainment powerhouseTrade Review"A fascinating tour through the creation, growth, and development of Walt Disney's company to show how the magic is made and the impact it can have on audiences."--AEJMC: Hot Topics"A wonderful read. Telotte demonstrates a superb grasp of Disney-related literature."--Technology and Culture "The volume is easily approachable for those not familiar with its conceptual sources, while at the same time providing increasing layers of depth to those who are. . . . Highly recommended."--Choice"Telotte really shines! His passion for analyzing Disney artifacts animates each page. Descriptions are vivid and detailed; analyses are rigorous and insightful, while his engagement with case studies is exemplary. The Mouse Machine is an engaging and intelligent book for those interested in cultural studies, popular culture, media studies, film studies, mass communication, technology and society, American studies, and related fields."--Eileen R. Meehan, author of Why TV Is Not Our Fault: Television Programming, Viewers, and Who's Really in Control"The Mouse Machine is a copious history of Disney's innovations and preoccupations; it makes clear just how consistently and significantly Uncle Walt used technology to gain an edge on the competition."--Jon Lewis, editor of Cinema Journal and author of Hollywood vs. Hardcore: How the Struggle over Censorship Created the Modern Film Industry

Read more less

Book SynopsisA denser, richer view of the history that hundreds of poets made.Trade ReviewA Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2013. "An important study . . . of how poetry finds itself in the world and becomes an integral part of it. Highly recommended."--Choice "A pathbreaking study. No other book treats the 'new verse' of the 1910s and early 1920s with such care and with such a sense of contextual detail. Our sense of what modern poetry can achieve--and how poetry helped shape a modernist sensibility--will be subtly but surely changed by what Newcomb offers here."--Edward Brunner, author of Cold War Poetry"A bold and meticulously researched revision of the history of modern American poetry. Newcomb's brilliant close readings illuminate the social and political dimensions of modern poetry and poetics."--Suzanne W. Churchill, coeditor of Little Magazines & Modernism: New Approaches

Read more less

Book SynopsisOffers nuanced interpretations that open the door to a new and productive understanding of race in America.Trade Review"In the case of Undercover Asian, Nishime's critical intervention cannot be overstated. Her book compels readers to see multiracial Asian Americans, to understand their function in discourses of popular culture, to contextualize the place of multiracial Asian Americans in contemporary society, and to challenge our ideas of race and racialization."--Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas "Nishime makes a compelling argument for productive possibilities in the way that we understand multiracial bodies and narratives. This fascinating, elegant book provides a model for doing this kind of analysis and creating new narratives so that these possibilities may one day be realized."--Feminist Media Studies "Nishime's persuasive, well-grounded analysis yields genuinely brilliant insights regarding the pitfalls and possibilities of multiracial visibility in contemporary media culture. Lucidly written with appealing attention to popular texts, this is the sort of book that moves multiracial and Asian American studies in interesting and engaging new directions."--Glen Mimura, author of Ghostlife of Third Cinema: Asian American Film and Video

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A perceptive study of an enduring and tantalizing question: What do they think of us? Ehrlich and Saltzman craft a persuasive, sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious montage of the omnipresence of journalists in popular culture. But the book does more than that. The authors work also tells us a great deal about the powerful and defining role of popular culture itself." --Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power"Authors Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman have done a painstakingly thorough job of marshaling, assembling, organizing, and setting down in print the vast amount of material that makes up our popular culture's representation of journalism and the men and women who commit it. . . . The subject matter holds plenty of interest for readers drawn to the popular media, and that's a lot of us; that's why it's cold the popular media."--The Santa Fe New Mexican "Authors Matthew Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman make a convincing case that fictional journalists are both ubiquitous and significant in pop culture-- in plays, movies, television, novels, short stories, comic strips, graphic novels, video games, and so on… With scores of examples and an extensive appendix of media sources, Heroes and Scoundrels is a terrific resource for courses in mass communication and society, contemporary issues in journalism, journalism ethics, media history, and related courses."--Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly "Ultimately, anyone who studies media portrayals or public perceptions of journalists would benefit greatly from reading this book and incorporating it into their teaching and research."--Journalism and Mass Communication Educator"Stimulating and thought-provoking. . . . No other work comes close to covering the subject as broadly."--Maurine H. Beasley, author of Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice, and Persistence"The assumption behind Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture is that the audience's perception of the messenger shapes the message. That's hardly a new idea but, applied to journalism in a democracy, it's vastly significant. For example, it turns out that, while the media have been transformed by technology, archetypal images of journalists have persisted. Maybe everything hasn't changed all that much after all. That, along with other important insights gained from formidable research, will help both journalists and their audiences better understand the news of the future. Besides, it’s fun to read all those stories."--Warren Olney, Host and Executive Producer, "To the Point" and "Which Way, LA?", KCRW-FM"A great read that showcases depictions of journalists over the past century in popular culture. Its thoughtful analysis integrates cultural theory with media concepts and provides important historical context that will interest professionals and academics alike."--Bonnie Brennen, author of Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies"Using a multidisciplinary approach that draws on everything from language studies to cultural studies, Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman creatively and entertainingly address the history of the journalist’s image, 1890 to the present. Fascinating chapters focus on the images of photographers, war correspondents, gay and lesbian journalists, journalists of color, women journalists, and journalists of the sci fi future. The dueling myths of the journalist as hero and scoundrel, the book persuasively argues, raise questions about the enduring tension in society between the press as a force for freedom and a tool of oppression."--Loren Ghiglione, author of CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"An enlightening consideration of the ways women consume media."--Bust "Taken as a whole, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn reads as a roundtable discussion on new roads ahead for feminist media and cultural studies more deeply concerned with issues of gender, race, and sexuality than ever."--The Velvet Light Trap"Cupcakes shows that the seemingly most traditional forms of popular culture, the sites that appear to simply reify normative femininity, are actually locations for complex and agentic negotiations of gendered, raced, and classed expectations in the often contradictory field of popular culture."--Signs "Through its manifold critiques of digital media, cultural products, and gendered spaces, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn has the potential to reinvigorate contemporary scholarship in feminist media studies and bring "feminized cultures" back into focus."--Feminist Media Studies"A fascinating time capsule of the activities and perceptions of women in the early 21st century in an environment that nurtures and celebrates phenomena such as E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey, celebrity gossip blogs, and the Kardashians. Recommended."--Choice"By foregrounding the complexity of gender in a postfeminist culture increasingly opposed to gender-specific analysis, Levine reminds us that these projects of feminist media analysis are as important in the 21st century as they were during the early days of feminist studies. . . . Levine's collection provides a fresh, updated look at feminized pop culture."--Feminist Collections"Levine has assembled a comprehensive set of smart, accessible, and interesting essays that truly capture 'feminized' popular culture in the early twenty-first century United States. This will be the definitive volume on 'post-feminist' popular cultural productions for some time to come."--Rebecca Wanzo, author of The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling"Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn offers a concise, engaged, and fascinating set of analyses on things feminine, female, and feminist in the context of popular media culture. The book is headed by a truly insightful introductory essay from Elana Levine and filled with consistently provocative and unique essays that artfully make the case for the many ways in which gender is central to the production, reception, and content of media. If you've ever wondered how new media forms like Twitter and Facebook have bigger implications for gender relations, this book is for you."--Brenda R. Weber, author of Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity "In a provocative return to a topic dominant in early feminist media and cultural studies, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn helps us to understand better the pleasures and politics of feminine popular culture at a time when its creators and consumers are negotiating both feminist and postfeminist sensibilities.--Mary Celeste Kearney, editor of The Gender and Media Reader

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"New Korean Wave is an invaluable resources for students and faculty studying international media, culture, and communication." --Journal of Film and Video"In recent years, the Korean wave, Hallyu, has emerged as a major Asian presence on the media globe but its political economy has largely been ignored. Dal Yong Jin's excellent study fills this gap in international scholarship: highly recommended."--Daya Thussu, University of Westminster, London"In a concise and illuminating book that unpacks the evolution of the Korean Wave, Jin deftly highlights the key factors that have fueled the rise of South Korea as a major player in the global market place for popular culture."--Hyung-Gu Lynn, University of British Columbia"Highly recommended overview of the present Korean culture industry, especially regarding the influence of government support on home-grown entertainment industries."--The Learned Fangirl"A fascinating story of how Korean cultural industry grew from being a relatively overlooked sector to becoming a global success story, analyzing the social and technological mechanism that enabled this sector's growth and its relations with the state. This book is an outstanding contribution to the scholarship on the New Korean Wave."--Nissim Otmazgin, author of Regionalizing Culture: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia"Much has been written in recent years about the Korean Wave, or Hallyu. But what has often been missing is the capacity to situate this wave in the wider context of political economy, cultural policy, and global media flows. Dal Yong Jin's book marks an admirable survey of the phenomenon from this critical institutional perspective, and will become the defining text for understanding the political economy of the New Korean Wave."--Terry Flew, author of Global Creative Industries

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Fojas has done it again. With her trademark elegance of prose and sharp cutting cultural critique she slices through those thick layers of capitalist ideology that wrap all variety of popular cultural entertainment. From blue-ice meth to the zombie invasions, Fojas scrapes to the bone just how pop culture speaks to and against very real, everyday material concerns of twenty-first century trans-Pacific borderland denizens. Extraordinary! Exquisite! Edifying!"--Frederick Luis Aldama, author of The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez"The range of this book is astonishing and Fojas does justice to complex theoretical concepts by showing how they help us understand the primary texts while not dumbing down the theory."--David Schmid, author of Natural Born Celebrities: Serial Killers in American Culture"Powerful and inventive, offering a new way to think about zombie media as critiques of debt that are themselves too often unable to think their way of the global orders of racial capitalism against which they so anxiously rage." --American Quarterly"Essential."--PopMatters"Camilla Fojas's Zombies, Migrants, and Queers: Race and Crisis Capitalism in Pop Culture is a detailed and timely investigation of some of the most popular media of the past decade in the context of the global economic downturn."--Journal of Asian American Studies"Zombies, Migrants and Queers: Race and Crisis Capitalism in Pop Culture by Camilla Fojas is such as an academic work, bringing together theories and topics from many different disciplines (sociology, economics, cultural studies, philosophy) in a very casual--yet impressively coherent--way." --Ethnic and Racial Studies"An exciting book, quite probably Fojas's most important work to date. It is timely, edgy, well-researched, impassioned. In it, Fojas analyzes journalism, memoirs, literature, photography, art, film, TV, music, economics, history, all in relation to 'popular culture.' . . . She adroitly draws on Greek myths, Freud, Lacan, Marx, Deleuze and Guattari, Lyotard, Barthes, Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, Foucault, and others in her contemplation of specific artistic and mass media exemplars."--Christine Holmlund, editor of The Ultimate Stallone Reader: Sylvester Stallone as Star, Icon, Auteur

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating collection of 23 essays. . . Recommended."--Choice "Remarkably fun to read. A great book for a general sports fan."--Sarah K. Fields, author of Game Faces: Sport Celebrity and the Law of Reputation"Steven Gietscher has recruited an all-star roster of sport historians whose efforts have resulted in an anthology of events in America’s sporting past that provides all fans an opportunity to both learn and re-imagine."--Stephen Wenn, coauthor of Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal"An exhaustively researched, no-jargon-allowed-in-the-writing set of essays that examines some of the iconic moments in sports to show how our memories of those events and their importance are a combination of myth, legend, and reality."--Charles Korr, author of The End of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 1960–1981"Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles brings alive memorable sporting moments and lets us imagine how and when and why they happened." --Journal of Sport History"The twenty-three scholarly articles compiled by Steve Gietschier in Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles are nothing short of thorough and impressive. The book is accessible and informative and a wonderful window into the curious, fluid nature of American sports history." --AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf size counts for anything, Michael Bay towers over his contemporaries. His summer-defining event films involve extraordinary production costs and churn enormous box office returns. His ability to mastermind breathtaking spectacles of action, mayhem, and special effects continually push the movie industry as much as the medium of film toward new frontiers. Lutz Koepnick engages the bigness of works like Armageddon and the Transformers movies to explore essential questions of contemporary filmmaking and culture. Combining close analysis and theoretical reflection, Koepnick shows how Bay''s films, knowingly or not, address profound issues about what it means to live in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries. According to Koepnick''s astute readings, no one eager to understand the state of cinema today can ignore Bay''s work. Bay''s cinema of world-making and transnational reach not only exemplifies interlocking processes of cultural and economic globalization. It urgeTrade Review"Compelling. The brilliance of this new book lies in the way that it grasps Bay's cinema not as the diametrical opposite, but rather as the dialectical counterpart, of 'slow cinema.' Exemplary in the way that it takes full measure of its subject without naive enthusiasm, but also without critical condescension."--Steven Shaviro, author of Post Cinematic Affect"This book is for everyone who loved the film classes they took in college, then watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and thought 'I give up.' Lutz Koepnick’s study of Michael Bay is a clear-eyed assessment of the oeuvre of Hollywood's hyperkinetic trash-virtuoso, but it is also a joyful demonstration of what film criticism and film theory can accomplish when they don't capitulate before the new cinema of confetti-cuts and incessant franchise service. The thinking person's guide to Bayhem."--Adrian Daub, coauthor of The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Black Sexual Economies provides a compelling collection of writing that analyzes the experiences of black gender and sexual minorities and investigates collaborations made by an interdisciplinary team of scholars examining black sexuality in a variety of historical, political, and social contexts." --Ethnic and Racial Studies"Black Sexual Economies is the first anthology of its kind to mine the deeply rooted vestiges of late capitalism as they relate to black sexuality. Through analyses of slavery, pornography, popular culture, and music, among other topics, each essay in this carefully curated volume enlivens anew our attention to the stakes of theorizing black sexuality—the fact that we can never think about black sexuality without always thinking about the political economic conditions of its making. Indeed, Black Sexual Economies is a welcomed breath of fresh air to the now well-established field of black sexuality studies."--E. Patrick Johnson, editor of No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies"To represent, to affirm, to understand, and to live black sexualities can be immeasurably difficult. The very foundations of politics, social life—and, as this volume argues, capitalist economies—in the modern world often hinge on pathologizing black people’s sexuality in order to exploit and to destroy black bodies and black lives. Black feminist innovator Adrienne Davis curates here essays that batter down and deftly navigate the thicket of lies that try to render 'black sexuality' unspeakable and unknowable, and point the way forward."--Darieck Scott, author of Extravagant Abjection: Blackness, Power, and Sexuality in the African American Literary Imagination

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs early as the eighteenth century, white Americans and Europeans believed that people of African descent could not experience nostalgia. As a result, black lives have been predominately narrated through historical scenes of slavery and oppression. This phenomenon created a missing archive of romantic historical memories. Badia Ahad-Legardy mines literature, visual culture, performance, and culinary arts to form an archive of black historical joy for use by the African-descended. Her analysis reveals how contemporary black artists find more than trauma and subjugation within the historical past. Drawing on contemporary African American culture and recent psychological studies, she reveals nostalgia’s capacity to produce positive emotions. Afro-nostalgia emerges as an expression of black romantic recollection that creates and inspires good feelings even within our darkest moments. Original and provocative, Afro-Nostalgia offers black historical pleasure as a remTrade Review"Part Afrofuturistic, part academic, this book will make you rethink how you understand Black history and storytelling." --BookRiot"Essential." --Ms. Magazine"Author Badia Ahad-Legardy finds unique ways to explore the beauty, positivity, and triumph of people descended from Africa, creating an archival collection of visual art and culture, literature and performance to demonstrate how the Black experience is not just a depressing string of incidents that drives us through our lives. " --New York Amsterdam News"If you’ve been waiting for a book that steps out of trauma-time and the perpetual present of slavery clear-eyed and with its critical faculties alight, you’ve found it. Badia Ahad-Legardy breathes gentle and sweet smelling fresh air into stale corners in her book on Afro-Nostalgia, which cogently analyzes and affectively affirms Black cultural producers and chefs who treat the past less as an ongoing traumatic wound and more as a surrealistic space of black historical regenerative possibility and happiness. A gem."--Avery Gordon, author of Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination"An important dissection of looking beyond the traumas of the past to find the happiness that existed (and exists) within the Black community. " --Library Journal"This thoroughly researched book seeks and sheds light on the spaces where Black joy can live and flourish. Though its tone is academic, its insights reach far beyond the classroom.... a worthy addition to any multicultural studies library and to readers interested in American culture." --Museum of Americana"Afro-Nostalgia does an excellent job of making visible the operation of Afro-nostalgia in contemporary Black culture as a counter to the negative affect produced by Black history as trauma." --American Literary HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction. Ten Thousand Recollections: Afro-Nostalgia and Contemporary Black Aesthetics 1. (Nostalgic) RETRIBUTION: The Power of the Petty in Contemporary Narratives of Slavery 2. (Nostalgic) RESTORATION: Utopian Pasts and Political Futures in the Music of Black Lives Matter 3. (Nostalgic) REGENERATION: Absent Archives and Historical Pleasures in Contemporary Black Visual Culture 4. (Nostalgic) RECLAMATION: Recipes for Radicalism and the Politics of Soul (Food) Postscript: A Future of Black Nostalgia Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Manifest Technique brilliantly demonstrates how to place Filipino American choreography, lyrics, and crew allegiances at the heart of our study of hip hop as a cultural vernacular. Villegas invites us to listen deep and to consider how these expressive forms carry forward memories, desires, and critiques."--Theodore S. Gonzalves, author of The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Jason Stacy's Spoon River America sets a new benchmark for what scholarship on Spoon River Anthology might look like and what it might do. Its approach to Spoon River is fantastically stimulating in showing how Master's most famous and popular work remains a site for telling new stories of US cultural production and myth-making." --American Literary History"Written in a clear, engaging style, Jason Stacy's Spoon River America is a deep and careful historical analysis of Masters's work, its origins, and its influence. It contributes to several areas of scholarship including Modernism and twentieth-century poetry, myths of the American small town, literary history and pedagogy, and issues of race." --Middle West"Highly recommend this extensively researched and engaging book, Spoon River America to American culture scholars and teachers and to all who love Spoon River Anthology." --Journal of American Culture"Recommended." --Choice"Cogent and persuasive. By situating Spoon River Anthology within a number of contexts--literary, biographical, historical, political, performance, reception history--Stacy shows us why the book has become an American classic and how it has maintained its staying power for more than one hundred years."--Marcia Noe, author of Susan Glaspell: Voice from the Heartland"The influence of Masters’ 1915 bestseller extended to cinema, radio, television, and music, says Jason Stacy. Ozzie and Harriet and Holden Caulfield find commonality with Jimmy Stewart’s movies and rocker Keith Richards in this 'history of a book and its impact.'"--Herbert K. Russell, author of Edgar Lee Masters: A Biography"An authoritative, captivating exploration of a literary landmark." --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Readers interested in hardcore music and its broader impact in the punk subculture (especially where it intersects with race, class, and gender) will appreciate the strong academic analysis." --Library Journal"The volumes of archival data, interviews, and narratives, researched and recorded with academic acumen, make Politics As Sound a unique addition to the American rock music canon." --Project CensoredTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 11 DC Rising: The (Musical) Life and Times of Washington, DC 15PART I: THE MUSIC OF DC HARDCORE2 The Racial Aesthetics of DC Hardcore 453 The Sounds of Stratification: Socioeconomic Class and DC Hardcore 704 Masculinity as Music: DC Hardcore and the Implications of Gender 97PART II: THE DC HARDCORE SCENE5 Do-It-Yourself Cultural Production 1336 Straightedge: A (White, Male, Middle-Classed) Music-Based Social Movement 1567 Embodying (White, Middle-Class) Masculinity 1788 The Transformation of Hardcore: DC Post-Hardcore, Post-1983 199Discography 237Notes 239Index 261

Read more less

Book SynopsisA sampling of the best of Ronell, focusing on her essays and talks. This work presents an introduction to Ronell's oeuvre. It includes at least one selection from each of her books, two classic selections from a collection of her early essays, interviews, and essays.Trade Review"Avital Ronell has put together what must be one of the most remarkable critical oeuvres of our era...Zeugmatically yoking the slang of pop culture with philosophical analysis, forcing the confrontation of high literature and technology or drug culture, Avital Ronell produces sentences that startle, irritate, illuminate. At once hilarious and refractory, her books are like no others." Jonathan Culler, Diacritics

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe transnational history and cultural politics of the Shaw Brothers' movie empireTrade Review“Something for everyone . . . effectively lays down a solid foundation for further research.”--China Quarterly"An impressive, in-depth inquiry into the historical mutations, cultural innovations, and political implications of the rise and development of the Shaw Brothers’ movie empire. Of the many volumes on Hong Kong movie industries, this is the first to focus solely on the history of the Shaw Brothers."--David Der-wei Wang, author of The Monster That Is History: History, Violence, and Fictional Writing in Twentieth-Century China"This instructive book will be a pleasure for seasoned scholars and amateurs of Hong King cinema alike. Extremely useful for Asian cinema courses, this first book-length study of the Shaw Brothers--who were pioneers in the Chinese language and trans-Asian commercial film industry--provides valuable cultural history and global context."--Tonglin Lu, author of Confronting Modernity in the Cinemas in Taiwan and Mainland China"Reopens the gates to the Shaw Brothers' legend."--Electronic Book ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction: The Shaw Brothers Diasporic Cinema 1Poshek Fu 1. Shaw Cinema Enterprise and Understanding Cultural Industries 27Lily Kong 2. Shaw's Cantonese Productions and Their Interactions with Contemporary Local and Hollywood Cinema 57Law Kar 3. Embracing Glocalization and Hong Kong-Made Musical FIlm 74Siu Leung Li 4. Three Readings of Hong Kong Nocturne 95Paul G. Pickowicz 5. The Black-and-White Wenyi Films of Shaws 115Wong Ain-ling 6. Territorialization and the Entertainment Industry of the Shaw Brothers in Southeast Asia 133Sai-shing Yung 7. The Shaw Brothers' Malay FIlms 154Timothy P. Barnard 8. Bridging the Pacific with Love Eterne 174Ramona Curry 9. Black Audiences, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity 199Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua 10. Shaw Brothers Cinema and the Hip-Hop Imagination 224Fanon Che Wilkins 11. Reminiscences of the Life of an Actress in Shaw Brothers' Movietown 246Cheng Pei-pei (translated by Jing Jing Chang and Jeff McClain) Select Filmography 255Lane J. Harris Contributors 257 Index 261

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive examination of the early blues industry and the music it producedTrade ReviewReceived a Certificate of Merit in the Best Music History category from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), 2011. "Required reading for lovers of the blues and historians of American popular music."--Notes"One of the most important and original books on blues to be published in the past decade."--The Journal of Southern History, David Evans"Muir's revealing book contributes significantly to understanding how sheet music and the pop music industry influenced the blues. An important work."--Tim Brooks, author of Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919"This fascinating work discusses the genesis and introduction of a minority music genre into mainstream culture in a way that is impossible to ignore, given the importance of blues connections to other genres. Essential reading for anyone interested in American popular music."--Dick Spottswood, host of The Dick Spottswood Show on BlueGrassCountry.org and editor of Ethnic Music on RecordsTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix A Word about the Music Examples xi Introduction 1 1. The Popular Blues Industry, 1912-1920 7 2. The Identity and Idiom of Early Popular Blues 28 3. Curing the Blues with the Blues 80 4. The Blues of W. C. Handy 104 5. The Creativity of Early Southern Published Blues 141 6. Published Proto-Blues and the Evolution of the Twelve-Bar Sequence 181 Appendix: Titular Blues, 1912-1915 217 Notes 221 Major Works Consulted 243 General Index 245 Song Index 251

Read more less

Book SynopsisFocuses on the representations and stereotypes of South Asian characters in American film and television.Trade Review"A truly innovative use of 'accents' as a methodological entry into understanding where South Asians are positioned within America and American popular culture. Persuasively argued and full of many sharp insightful moments, Indian Accents will be invaluable to scholars of American studies, Asian American studies, ethnic studies, and media studies." --Gita Rajan, coeditor of New Cosmopolitanisms: South Asians in the U.S "Davé brilliantly studies the racialized, classed, and nationalistic codes of Orientalist and model minority representations with an underwriting analysis of heteronormative masculinity… Davé does crucial critical work in diasporic visual culture."--Asian Diasporic Visual Cultures and the Americas "This book offers a much needed corrective to the portrayal of South Asian masculinity in American popular culture and is, therefore, a valuable addition to the field."--American Studies"Shilpa Davé was able to capture the multidimensional elements of representations of people of color that go beyond visual markers of identification but also include sonic components to ethnic characters in media. Her innovative application of the double meaning of the word 'accent' opens a new level of analysis of ethnic representation in film and media studies and ethnic studies." --Journal of Asian American Studies

Read more less

Book SynopsisA denser, richer view of the history that hundreds of poets made.Trade ReviewA Choice Outstanding Academic Title, 2013. "An important study . . . of how poetry finds itself in the world and becomes an integral part of it. Highly recommended."--Choice "A pathbreaking study. No other book treats the 'new verse' of the 1910s and early 1920s with such care and with such a sense of contextual detail. Our sense of what modern poetry can achieve--and how poetry helped shape a modernist sensibility--will be subtly but surely changed by what Newcomb offers here."--Edward Brunner, author of Cold War Poetry"A bold and meticulously researched revision of the history of modern American poetry. Newcomb's brilliant close readings illuminate the social and political dimensions of modern poetry and poetics."--Suzanne W. Churchill, coeditor of Little Magazines & Modernism: New Approaches

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhether it's the rule-defying lifer, the sharp-witted female newshound, or the irascible editor in chief, journalists in popular culture have shaped our views of the press and its role in a free society since mass culture arose over a century ago. Drawing on portrayals of journalists in television, film, radio, novels, comics, plays, and other media, Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman survey how popular media has depicted the profession across time. Their creative use of media artifacts provides thought-provoking forays into such fundamental issues as how pop culture mythologizes and demythologizes key events in journalism history and how it confronts issues of race, gender, and sexual orientation on the job. From Network to The Wire, from Lois Lane to Mikael Blomkvist, Heroes and Scoundrels reveals how portrayals of journalism's relationship to history, professionalism, power, image, and war influence our thinking and the very practice of democracy.Trade Review"A perceptive study of an enduring and tantalizing question: What do they think of us? Ehrlich and Saltzman craft a persuasive, sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious montage of the omnipresence of journalists in popular culture. But the book does more than that. The authors work also tells us a great deal about the powerful and defining role of popular culture itself." --Richard Reeves, author of President Kennedy: Profile of Power"Authors Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman have done a painstakingly thorough job of marshaling, assembling, organizing, and setting down in print the vast amount of material that makes up our popular culture's representation of journalism and the men and women who commit it. . . . The subject matter holds plenty of interest for readers drawn to the popular media, and that's a lot of us; that's why it's cold the popular media."--The Santa Fe New Mexican "Authors Matthew Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman make a convincing case that fictional journalists are both ubiquitous and significant in pop culture-- in plays, movies, television, novels, short stories, comic strips, graphic novels, video games, and so on… With scores of examples and an extensive appendix of media sources, Heroes and Scoundrels is a terrific resource for courses in mass communication and society, contemporary issues in journalism, journalism ethics, media history, and related courses."--Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly "Ultimately, anyone who studies media portrayals or public perceptions of journalists would benefit greatly from reading this book and incorporating it into their teaching and research."--Journalism and Mass Communication Educator"Stimulating and thought-provoking. . . . No other work comes close to covering the subject as broadly."--Maurine H. Beasley, author of Women of the Washington Press: Politics, Prejudice, and Persistence"The assumption behind Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture is that the audience's perception of the messenger shapes the message. That's hardly a new idea but, applied to journalism in a democracy, it's vastly significant. For example, it turns out that, while the media have been transformed by technology, archetypal images of journalists have persisted. Maybe everything hasn't changed all that much after all. That, along with other important insights gained from formidable research, will help both journalists and their audiences better understand the news of the future. Besides, it’s fun to read all those stories."--Warren Olney, Host and Executive Producer, "To the Point" and "Which Way, LA?", KCRW-FM"A great read that showcases depictions of journalists over the past century in popular culture. Its thoughtful analysis integrates cultural theory with media concepts and provides important historical context that will interest professionals and academics alike."--Bonnie Brennen, author of Qualitative Research Methods for Media Studies"Using a multidisciplinary approach that draws on everything from language studies to cultural studies, Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman creatively and entertainingly address the history of the journalist’s image, 1890 to the present. Fascinating chapters focus on the images of photographers, war correspondents, gay and lesbian journalists, journalists of color, women journalists, and journalists of the sci fi future. The dueling myths of the journalist as hero and scoundrel, the book persuasively argues, raise questions about the enduring tension in society between the press as a force for freedom and a tool of oppression."--Loren Ghiglione, author of CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism

Read more less

Book SynopsisBaseball is much more than the national pastime. It has become an emblem of America itself. From its initial popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, the game has reflected national values and beliefs and promoted what it means to be an American. Stories abound that illustrate baseball's significance in eradicating racial barriers, bringing neighborhoods together, building civic pride, and creating on the field of play an instructive civics lesson for immigrants on the national character.In A People's History of Baseball, Mitchell Nathanson probes the less well-known but no less meaningful other side of baseball: episodes not involving equality, patriotism, heroism, and virtuous capitalism, but power--how it is obtained, and how it perpetuates itself. Through the growth and development of baseball Nathanson shows that, if only we choose to look for it, we can see the petty power struggles as well as the large and consequential ones that have likewise defined our nation.By offering a fTrade Review"Chronicles the historic power struggles among those seeking to define and regulate pro baseball. . . . A fine book."--Library Journal"A People’s History of Baseball provides vigorous and fascinating challenges to the ways in which fans have related to a game that [Nathanson] says has been ‘virtually synonymous’ with America for well over a century.”--The Boston Globe"Nathanson's arguments are intriguing throughout."--The Journal of American History"Nathanson has researched thoroughly, writes persuasively, and does not shy away from challenging even the most revered narrative in baseball: Branch Rickey, Jackie Robinson, and the integration of Major League Baseball."--Journal of Sport History"A valuable and vibrant contribution to an expanding scholarly literature on American baseball."--The Historian"Mitchell Nathanson's A People's History of Baseball is a historical corrective. It examines Major League Baseball (MLB) through an "alternative lens" (219), one that provides a useful, critical perspective. The book's six chapters cover a lot of ground. A thoughtful, substantive exploration of some aspects of MLB's unsavory past and present, A People's History of Baseball is a welcome alternative to the far more numerous baseball romances published every spring."--Nine"An excellent social critique that tells provocative and overlooked back stories about baseball in American history and culture. A People's History of Baseball goes beyond the game itself and examines larger issues of nationalism, mass media, legal history, and race relations."--Robert Elias, author of The Empire Strikes Out: How Baseball Sold U.S. Foreign Policy and Promoted the American Way Abroad"Armed with convincing and creative arguments that challenge the many myths surrounding America's national pastime, A People's History of Baseball provides ample fodder for debate among sport history scholars as well as general readers interested in exploring the game's meaningful role in shaping the American identity."--Samuel O. Regalado, author of Viva Baseball! Latin Major Leaguers and Their Special HungerTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue xi 1 A Game of Their Own 1 2 The Sovereign Nation of Baseball 28 3 Rickey, Race, and "All Deliberate Speed" 67 4 Tearing Down the Walls 108 5 "Wait 'Til Next Year" and the Denial of History 146 6 The Storytellers 180 Notes 221 Bibliography 261 Index 271

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"An enlightening consideration of the ways women consume media."--Bust "Taken as a whole, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn reads as a roundtable discussion on new roads ahead for feminist media and cultural studies more deeply concerned with issues of gender, race, and sexuality than ever."--The Velvet Light Trap"Cupcakes shows that the seemingly most traditional forms of popular culture, the sites that appear to simply reify normative femininity, are actually locations for complex and agentic negotiations of gendered, raced, and classed expectations in the often contradictory field of popular culture."--Signs "Through its manifold critiques of digital media, cultural products, and gendered spaces, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn has the potential to reinvigorate contemporary scholarship in feminist media studies and bring "feminized cultures" back into focus."--Feminist Media Studies"A fascinating time capsule of the activities and perceptions of women in the early 21st century in an environment that nurtures and celebrates phenomena such as E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey, celebrity gossip blogs, and the Kardashians. Recommended."--Choice"By foregrounding the complexity of gender in a postfeminist culture increasingly opposed to gender-specific analysis, Levine reminds us that these projects of feminist media analysis are as important in the 21st century as they were during the early days of feminist studies. . . . Levine's collection provides a fresh, updated look at feminized pop culture."--Feminist Collections"Levine has assembled a comprehensive set of smart, accessible, and interesting essays that truly capture 'feminized' popular culture in the early twenty-first century United States. This will be the definitive volume on 'post-feminist' popular cultural productions for some time to come."--Rebecca Wanzo, author of The Suffering Will Not Be Televised: African American Women and Sentimental Political Storytelling"Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn offers a concise, engaged, and fascinating set of analyses on things feminine, female, and feminist in the context of popular media culture. The book is headed by a truly insightful introductory essay from Elana Levine and filled with consistently provocative and unique essays that artfully make the case for the many ways in which gender is central to the production, reception, and content of media. If you've ever wondered how new media forms like Twitter and Facebook have bigger implications for gender relations, this book is for you."--Brenda R. Weber, author of Makeover TV: Selfhood, Citizenship, and Celebrity "In a provocative return to a topic dominant in early feminist media and cultural studies, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn helps us to understand better the pleasures and politics of feminine popular culture at a time when its creators and consumers are negotiating both feminist and postfeminist sensibilities.--Mary Celeste Kearney, editor of The Gender and Media Reader

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewEmily Toth Award for Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Women's Studies, Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (PCA/ACA), 2016 Finalist, 28th Annual Lambda Literary Awards, LGBT Studies, 2016 Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, GL/Q Caucus of the Modern Language Association, 2016 "Funk the Erotic opens a new avenue in black thought and feeling, one dis/oriented by the sensorium rather than the cerebrum."--Feminist Wire"Funk the Erotic is a groundbreaking work in its scope, its methodological breadth, and the creativity and originality of the ideas in introduces into several discourses. In theorizing funk as a specifically erotic, bodily, and embodiable hermeneutic for understanding sexuality across mediums and genres, Stallings proposes exciting shifts in black feminist, performance studies, sexuality studies, and literary studies methodologies."--American Quarterly "Stallings reframes Black (female) sexualities for us in a fashion that moves us closer to recognizing and thinking it as a form of freedom in its practice."--Rinaldo Walcott, author of Black Like Who?: Writing Black Canada"Where Toni Morrison theorized 'eruptions of funk' in African American literature, this book funks the erotic taking up trans politics, nineteenth-century freaks, funky beats, and other queerly sexed subjects that make up 'profane sites of memory.'"--Jennifer Brody, author of Punctuation: Art, Politics, and Play"Funk the Erotic is a passionately delivered and urgently necessary analysis of black sexuality, literature, and popular culture. By reading the 'funky erotixxx' of black sexual cultures against the dominant trends in black studies, L. H. Stallings offers us an alternative archive of African American literature, one composed of forgotten novels, sex manuals, YouTube videos, adult magazines, and so much more. Funk the Erotic is a bold, brilliant, unapologetically superfreaky text."--Erica R. Edwards, author of Charisma and the Fictions of Black Leadership

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"New Korean Wave is an invaluable resources for students and faculty studying international media, culture, and communication." --Journal of Film and Video"In recent years, the Korean wave, Hallyu, has emerged as a major Asian presence on the media globe but its political economy has largely been ignored. Dal Yong Jin's excellent study fills this gap in international scholarship: highly recommended."--Daya Thussu, University of Westminster, London"In a concise and illuminating book that unpacks the evolution of the Korean Wave, Jin deftly highlights the key factors that have fueled the rise of South Korea as a major player in the global market place for popular culture."--Hyung-Gu Lynn, University of British Columbia"Highly recommended overview of the present Korean culture industry, especially regarding the influence of government support on home-grown entertainment industries."--The Learned Fangirl"A fascinating story of how Korean cultural industry grew from being a relatively overlooked sector to becoming a global success story, analyzing the social and technological mechanism that enabled this sector's growth and its relations with the state. This book is an outstanding contribution to the scholarship on the New Korean Wave."--Nissim Otmazgin, author of Regionalizing Culture: The Political Economy of Japanese Popular Culture in Asia"Much has been written in recent years about the Korean Wave, or Hallyu. But what has often been missing is the capacity to situate this wave in the wider context of political economy, cultural policy, and global media flows. Dal Yong Jin's book marks an admirable survey of the phenomenon from this critical institutional perspective, and will become the defining text for understanding the political economy of the New Korean Wave."--Terry Flew, author of Global Creative Industries

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating, timely, and provocative intervention into current debates and discussions within the field of American Studies."--Nick Selby, editor of Comparative American Studies "Lively and the format adds to the excitement and informative dialogue. The scholarship builds a depth and richness into the discussion and contributes to our understanding of a challenging set of questions."--Ida Susser, author of Norman Street: Poverty and Politics in an Urban Neighborhood"An interesting, uniquely structured work . . . Highly recommended."--Choice "Global Perspectives on the United States offers rich, interesting, innovative, and thought-provoking reflections on the process of assimilation, adaptation, and transformation of American values and cultural expressions, within different contexts. The book . . . shows the utility and complexity of constructivist approaches in international and social studies."--H-Net Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Prologue: Reading "America" Across and Against the Grain of Public Discourse xi Jane C. Desmond Introduction: The "American" Conundrum-Criticism, Attraction, and Antagonisms 1 Virginia R. Dominguez, with Sophia Balakian PART I. WHOSE "AMERICA"? WHOSE "ANTI-AMERICANISM"? 1. Internationalizing African American Studies, Too: White (West) German Responses to the Civil Rights Movement 31 Sabine Broeck 2. What We Talk About When We Talk About Anti-Americanism: An Italian Perspective 46 Giorgio Mariani Second Look-Sabine Broeck on Giorgio Mariani 61 Second Look-Giorgio Mariani on Sabine Broeck 64 Third Look-Sophia Balakian on Mariani and Broeck- "Sticks and Stones: Discourses of Anti-Americanism as Name-Calling" 68 PART II. HISTORIES OF ENGAGEMENTS: TWO CASE STUDIES LOOKING AT DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION AND THEIR CONTEXTS 3. Americanization and Anti-Americanism in Poland: A Case Study, 1945-2006 73 Kate Delaney and Andrzej Antoszek 4. Americanization and Anti-American Attitudes in South Africa and Georgia: A Historical Snapshot from 2005 92 Loes Nas Second Look-Loes Nas on Kate Delaney and Andrzej Antoszek 103 Second Look-Sophia Balakian on Loes Nas 105 Third Look-Jane C. Desmond on Delaney & Antoszek and Nas-"Reversing the Vectors of Analysis: Calibrating the 'Use Value' of Discourses of 'Americanism,' 'Americanization,' and 'Anti-Americanism'" 109 PART III. DEBATING THE TERMS OF DEBATE 5. Kefaya and the New Politics of Anti-Americanism 115 Manar Shorbagy 6. Understanding Anti-Americanism in Central Asia 131 Edward Schatz Second Look-Manar Shorbagy on Edward Schatz 152 Second Look-Edward Schatz on Manar Shorbagy 155 Third Look-Seyed Mohammad Marandi on Schatz and Shorbagy-"What Is Anti-Americanism?" 157 Third Look-Ira Dworkin on Schatz and Shorbagy- "Thinking Outside of America: The State, the Street, and Civil Society" 161 PART IV. VISUAL ENGAGEMENTS AND THEIR INTERPRETATIONS 7. Lost and Found in Translation: Problems of Cultural Translation in Hungary after 1989 169 Zsofia Ban 8. Westward Ho with Kholiwood: The Transnational Turn in the Neoliberal Marketplace 178 Richard Ellis Second Look-Richard Ellis on Zsofia Ban 201 Second Look-Zsofia Ban on Richard Ellis 205 Third Look-Ana Mauad on Ban and Ellis- An Imagined Community for the Twenty-First Century? 208 PART V. DISRUPTING BINARIES: WHOSE "COUNTRY MUSIC" AND WHOSE "HIP-HOP"? 9. Tales of the West: "Americanization" in an Era of "Europeanization" 217 Kristin Solli 10. Japanese Rappers, 9/11, and Soft Power: Anti-American Sentiments in "American" Popular Culture 239 Ian Condry Second Look-Ian Condry on Kristin Solli 251 Second Look-Kristin Solli on Ian Condry 254 Third Look-Michael Titlestad on Solli and Condry- "Dreaming America" 258 PART VI. IS IT "AMERICANIZATION" OR "PRO-AMERICANISM"? THE AMERICAS, PAN-AMERICANISM, AND IMMIGRATION 11. "Making Pals in Panama": U.S.-Latin American Relations and the Trope of the Good Neighbor in Coca-Cola Advertising during the 1940s 265 Amy Spellacy 12. Americanism and Anti-Americanism of Mexican Immigrants in Los Angeles 290 Guillermo Ibarra Second Look-Guillermo Ibarra on Amy Spellacy 298 Second Look-Amy Spellacy on Guillermo Ibarra 304 Third Look-Virginia R. Dominguez on Spellacy and Ibarra-"Not Just for Latin Americanists" 308 Contributors 313 Index 319

Read more less

Book SynopsisEleanor Ty's bold exploration of literature, plays, and film reveals how young Asian Americans and Asian Canadians have struggled with the ethos of self-sacrifice preached by their parents. This new generation's narratives focus on protagonists disenchanted with their daily lives. Many are depressed. Some are haunted by childhood memories of war, trauma, and refugee camps. Rejecting an obsession with professional status and money, they seek fulfillment by prioritizing relationships, personal growth, and cultural success. As Ty shows, these storytellers have done more than reject a narrowly defined road to happiness. They have rejected neoliberal capitalism itself. In so doing, they demand that the rest of us reconsider our outmoded ideas about the so-called model minority.Trade Review2017- 2018 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature for Adult Non-Fiction from the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association "With Asianfail, Eleanor Ty continues her important work in literary studies that invigorates ongoing debates over the meaning of Asian difference in North American culture. Her book is a welcome set of insightful essays illuminating key aspects, contexts, and stakes of contemporary Asian North American cultural politics. By focusing on failure and agency, her work here brings new and needed perspectives on such issues as trauma, depression, and aging."--Victor Bascara, UCLA "Asianfail is an engrossing and timely contribution to the study of contemporary Asian North American culture. . . . What is most illuminating is the interdisciplinary research that Ty brings to the conversation, historically and culturally contextualizing these Asian failures as a result of racial discourses, neoliberal economic policies, globalization, and the traumas of war and dislocation." --Canadian Literature"Offers sharp and insightful close readings in contemporary film and literature. It lays out the challenges that Asian North Americans, particularly those of a younger generation, are facing and the ways that cultural producers are responding."--Christine Kim, author of The Minor Intimacies of Race: Asian Publics in North America "Eleanor Ty's book Asianfail is a valuable and timely contribution to Asian American and Asian Canadian studies, providing a novel way of understanding the new generation of Asian North Americans through their narratives." --Journal of Asian American Studies

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating collection of 23 essays. . . Recommended."--Choice "Remarkably fun to read. A great book for a general sports fan."--Sarah K. Fields, author of Game Faces: Sport Celebrity and the Law of Reputation"Steven Gietscher has recruited an all-star roster of sport historians whose efforts have resulted in an anthology of events in America’s sporting past that provides all fans an opportunity to both learn and re-imagine."--Stephen Wenn, coauthor of Tarnished Rings: The International Olympic Committee and the Salt Lake City Bid Scandal"An exhaustively researched, no-jargon-allowed-in-the-writing set of essays that examines some of the iconic moments in sports to show how our memories of those events and their importance are a combination of myth, legend, and reality."--Charles Korr, author of The End of Baseball As We Knew It: The Players Union, 1960–1981"Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles brings alive memorable sporting moments and lets us imagine how and when and why they happened." --Journal of Sport History"The twenty-three scholarly articles compiled by Steve Gietschier in Replays, Rivalries, and Rumbles are nothing short of thorough and impressive. The book is accessible and informative and a wonderful window into the curious, fluid nature of American sports history." --AETHLON: The Journal of Sport Literature

Read more less

Book SynopsisIf size counts for anything, Michael Bay towers over his contemporaries. His summer-defining event films involve extraordinary production costs and churn enormous box office returns. His ability to mastermind breathtaking spectacles of action, mayhem, and special effects continually push the movie industry as much as the medium of film toward new frontiers. Lutz Koepnick engages the bigness of works like Armageddon and the Transformers movies to explore essential questions of contemporary filmmaking and culture. Combining close analysis and theoretical reflection, Koepnick shows how Bay''s films, knowingly or not, address profound issues about what it means to live in the late twentieth- and early twenty-first centuries. According to Koepnick''s astute readings, no one eager to understand the state of cinema today can ignore Bay''s work. Bay''s cinema of world-making and transnational reach not only exemplifies interlocking processes of cultural and economic globalization. It urgeTrade Review"Compelling. The brilliance of this new book lies in the way that it grasps Bay's cinema not as the diametrical opposite, but rather as the dialectical counterpart, of 'slow cinema.' Exemplary in the way that it takes full measure of its subject without naive enthusiasm, but also without critical condescension."--Steven Shaviro, author of Post Cinematic Affect"This book is for everyone who loved the film classes they took in college, then watched Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and thought 'I give up.' Lutz Koepnick’s study of Michael Bay is a clear-eyed assessment of the oeuvre of Hollywood's hyperkinetic trash-virtuoso, but it is also a joyful demonstration of what film criticism and film theory can accomplish when they don't capitulate before the new cinema of confetti-cuts and incessant franchise service. The thinking person's guide to Bayhem."--Adrian Daub, coauthor of The James Bond Songs: Pop Anthems of Late Capitalism

Read more less

Book SynopsisA daring collaboration among scholars, Black Sexual Economies challenges thinking that sees black sexualities as a threat to normative ideas about sexuality, the family, and the nation. The essays highlight alternative and deviant gender and sexual identities, performances, and communities, and spotlights the sexual labor, sexual economy, and sexual agency to black social life. Throughout, the writers reveal the lives, everyday negotiations, and cultural or aesthetic interventions of black gender and sexual minorities while analyzing the systems and beliefs that structure the possibilities that exist for all black sexualities. They also confront the mechanisms of domination and subordination attached to the political and socioeconomic forces, cultural productions, and academic work that interact with the energies at the nexus of sexuality and race. Contributors: Marlon M. Bailey, Lia T. Bascomb, Felice Blake, Darius Bost, Ariane Cruz, Adrienne D. Davis, Pierre Dominguez, David B. Trade Review"Black Sexual Economies provides a compelling collection of writing that analyzes the experiences of black gender and sexual minorities and investigates collaborations made by an interdisciplinary team of scholars examining black sexuality in a variety of historical, political, and social contexts." --Ethnic and Racial Studies"Black Sexual Economies is the first anthology of its kind to mine the deeply rooted vestiges of late capitalism as they relate to black sexuality. Through analyses of slavery, pornography, popular culture, and music, among other topics, each essay in this carefully curated volume enlivens anew our attention to the stakes of theorizing black sexuality—the fact that we can never think about black sexuality without always thinking about the political economic conditions of its making. Indeed, Black Sexual Economies is a welcomed breath of fresh air to the now well-established field of black sexuality studies."--E. Patrick Johnson, editor of No Tea, No Shade: New Writings in Black Queer Studies"To represent, to affirm, to understand, and to live black sexualities can be immeasurably difficult. The very foundations of politics, social life—and, as this volume argues, capitalist economies—in the modern world often hinge on pathologizing black people’s sexuality in order to exploit and to destroy black bodies and black lives. Black feminist innovator Adrienne Davis curates here essays that batter down and deftly navigate the thicket of lies that try to render 'black sexuality' unspeakable and unknowable, and point the way forward."--Darieck Scott, author of Extravagant Abjection: Blackness, Power, and Sexuality in the African American Literary Imagination

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Manifest Technique brilliantly demonstrates how to place Filipino American choreography, lyrics, and crew allegiances at the heart of our study of hip hop as a cultural vernacular. Villegas invites us to listen deep and to consider how these expressive forms carry forward memories, desires, and critiques."--Theodore S. Gonzalves, author of The Day the Dancers Stayed: Performing in the Filipino/American Diaspora

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Jason Stacy's Spoon River America sets a new benchmark for what scholarship on Spoon River Anthology might look like and what it might do. Its approach to Spoon River is fantastically stimulating in showing how Master's most famous and popular work remains a site for telling new stories of US cultural production and myth-making." --American Literary History"Written in a clear, engaging style, Jason Stacy's Spoon River America is a deep and careful historical analysis of Masters's work, its origins, and its influence. It contributes to several areas of scholarship including Modernism and twentieth-century poetry, myths of the American small town, literary history and pedagogy, and issues of race." --Middle West"Highly recommend this extensively researched and engaging book, Spoon River America to American culture scholars and teachers and to all who love Spoon River Anthology." --Journal of American Culture"Recommended." --Choice"Cogent and persuasive. By situating Spoon River Anthology within a number of contexts--literary, biographical, historical, political, performance, reception history--Stacy shows us why the book has become an American classic and how it has maintained its staying power for more than one hundred years."--Marcia Noe, author of Susan Glaspell: Voice from the Heartland"The influence of Masters’ 1915 bestseller extended to cinema, radio, television, and music, says Jason Stacy. Ozzie and Harriet and Holden Caulfield find commonality with Jimmy Stewart’s movies and rocker Keith Richards in this 'history of a book and its impact.'"--Herbert K. Russell, author of Edgar Lee Masters: A Biography"An authoritative, captivating exploration of a literary landmark." --Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Readers interested in hardcore music and its broader impact in the punk subculture (especially where it intersects with race, class, and gender) will appreciate the strong academic analysis." --Library Journal "The volumes of archival data, interviews, and narratives, researched and recorded with academic acumen, make Politics As Sound a unique addition to the American rock music canon." --Project CensoredTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Introduction 1 1 DC Rising: The (Musical) Life and Times of Washington, DC 15 PART I: THE MUSIC OF DC HARDCORE 2 The Racial Aesthetics of DC Hardcore 45 3 The Sounds of Stratification: Socioeconomic Class and DC Hardcore 70 4 Masculinity as Music: DC Hardcore and the Implications of Gender 97 PART II: THE DC HARDCORE SCENE 5 Do-It-Yourself Cultural Production 133 6 Straightedge: A (White, Male, Middle-Classed) Music-Based Social Movement 156 7 Embodying (White, Middle-Class) Masculinity 178 8 The Transformation of Hardcore: DC Post-Hardcore, Post-1983 199 Discography 237 Notes 239 Index 261

Read more less

Book SynopsisProvides a critical interpretation of new media avoiding the stereotype of mindless consumptionTrade ReviewThe theoretical treatments are interesting and provocative, but what gives the book an added dimenstion is its consideration of pedagogy—the question of how to integrate this new content in the classroom. * Teaching & Learning News Bulletin *Table of ContentsIntroduction Paul Budra and Clint Burnham1. Roll a D20 and the Author Dies Paul Budra2. Consider the Source: Critical Considerations of the Medium of Social Media Kirsten C. Uszkalo and Darren James Harkness3. Voice of the Gutter: Comics in the Academy Tanis MacDonald4. Television: The Extra Literary Device Daniel Keyes5. Hypertext in the Attic: The Past, Present and Future of Digital Writing Andreas Kitzmann6. The ABCs of Viewing: Material Poetics and the Literary Screen Philip A. Klobucar7. "Let the Rhythm Hit 'Em": Hip-Hop, Prosody, and Meaning Alessandro Porco8. Thinking Inside the Box: A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of Television Studies C.W. Marshall and Tiffany Potter9. Middle Brow Lit and the End of Postmodernism, Clint BurnhamContributors

Read more less

Book SynopsisUses trash as the unlikely metaphor to show how African films have depicted the globalized worldTrade ReviewKenneth W. Harrow's Trash . . . is a timely intervention in the theorization of African cinema. It is an impassioned and committed interrogation of hybridity, syncretism and cross-fertilizaiton in postcolonial cinema and one that seeks to both celebrate and renegotiate the image of the marginalized and the discarded.5.2 2014 * Transnational Cinemas *Trash brings about a fresh perspective that figures African cinema as a type of mirror of condition, a kind of cinema verité that disrupts the aesthetics of necropolitics—whether from the north or the south—and the aesthetic order of high cinema. * African Arts *Harrow's engaging book offers readers a glimpse into the trash heaps . . . squalor, and poverty that have often been depicted in African cinema since independence, but which have rarely been the object of critical study.April 2014 * African Studies Review *Trash inspires a rigorous questioning of how we think about 'Africa from below' in our scholarly research: it is a speculative, probing, provocative book filled with questions about power, exclusion, representation, and subjectivity, and about how African cinema engages social realities without necessarily serving up palatable dishes of realism or political critique. * Journal of African History *This book is a work of erudition, understanding, engagement, and enthusiastic committment to African cinema studies and literature. . . . Highly recommended. * Choice *Table of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Bataille, Stam, and Locations of Trash2. Rancière: Aesthetics, Its Mésententes and Discontents3. The Out-of-Place Scene of Trash4. Globalization's Dumping Groun:, The Case of Trafigura5. Agency and the Mosquito: Mitchell and Chakrabarty6. Trashy Women: Karmen Gei, l'Oiseau Rebelle7. Trashy Women, Fallen Men: Fanta Nacro's "Puk Nini" and La Nuit de la vérité 8. Opening the Distribution of the Sensible: Kimberly Rivers and Trouble the Water9. Abderrahmane Sissako's Bamako and the Image: Trash in Its Materiality10. The Counter-Archive for a New Postcolonial Order: O Herói and Daratt 11. Nollywood and Its Masks: Fela, Osuofia in London, and Butler's Assujetissement12. Trash's Last Leaves: Nollywood, Nollywood, NollywoodNotesBibliographyFilmographyIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisUnravels the complicated tale of children's fashionTrade ReviewThis is a fascinating piece of American social history, perhaps raising more questions than it answers. It is of potential interest to students and professionals in fields ranging from child development to gender studies to fashion to marketing, as well as to new and prospective parents. * Library Journal *Ms. Paoletti has managed to cram a wealth of information in a relatively fluid narrative that scholars will undoubtedly quote and casual readers will enjoy as an engrossing cultural history of parenthood, as well as childhood. * Worn Through *Pink and Blue is meticulously researched, with references to paper dolls, old retail catalogs and the arcane field of material culture studies. Her findings are fascinating. * PopMatters *A terrific new book...if you're getting flack from someone for dressing your boy in pink or your girl in blue...hit them with a copy of Paoletti's book. When they come to, maybe they'll read it and leave you alone. * CaféMom *In Pink and Blue, Paoletti presents an interesting portrayal of an important gendered system—a historical perspective that psychologists might otherwise underestimate and undervalue. * PsycCritiques *The author is skilled in writing to a wide audience. * Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences *Recommended for: Those interested in the history of fashion, gender studies, and gender politics. * forbookssake.net *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Understanding Children's Clothing 2. Dresses Are for Girls and Boys 3. Pants Are for Boys and Girls 4. A Boy Is Not a Girl 5. Pink Is for Boys 6. Unisex Child Rearing and Gender-Free Fashion 7. Gendered and Neutral Clothing since 1985 Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn invigorating return to classic cultural studies with its concern for social justice and challenges to economic orthodoxyTrade ReviewDeeply researched (with full footnotes and bibliography), carefully thought out, and eloquently argued, [States of Emergency] offer[s] a refreshing relief from the babble of mainstream social and political commentary, and a source of hopeful vision against the varied voices of apocalypse. * The Ryder *Table of ContentsPreface I. Class Conflicts1. Cultural Studies and Class War2. "It's the Economy, Stupid!"3. Tea Party Brewhaha4. Shooters5. What's the Matter with Mexico?6. Waste and Value: Thorstein Veblen and H. G. WellsII. Postmodern Conditions7. Shopping on Red Alert: The Rhetorical Normalization of Terror8. The State of Iraq9. On the Postmodernity of Being Aboriginal—and Australian10. McLuhan, Crash Theory, and the Invasion of the Nanobots11. Army Surplus: Notes on "Exterminism"12. World Social Forum: Multitude versus Empire?NotesWorks Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn invigorating return to classic cultural studies with its concern for social justice and challenges to economic orthodoxyTrade ReviewDeeply researched (with full footnotes and bibliography), carefully thought out, and eloquently argued, [States of Emergency] offer[s] a refreshing relief from the babble of mainstream social and political commentary, and a source of hopeful vision against the varied voices of apocalypse. * The Ryder *Table of ContentsPreface I. Class Conflicts1. Cultural Studies and Class War2. "It's the Economy, Stupid!"3. Tea Party Brewhaha4. Shooters5. What's the Matter with Mexico?6. Waste and Value: Thorstein Veblen and H. G. WellsII. Postmodern Conditions7. Shopping on Red Alert: The Rhetorical Normalization of Terror8. The State of Iraq9. On the Postmodernity of Being Aboriginal—and Australian10. McLuhan, Crash Theory, and the Invasion of the Nanobots11. Army Surplus: Notes on "Exterminism"12. World Social Forum: Multitude versus Empire?NotesWorks Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThey have stalked the horizons of our culture, wreaked havoc on moribund concepts of dead and not dead, threatened our sense of identity, and endangered our personal safety. This book deals with this topic.Trade ReviewThere are so many great things to discuss about this awesome science fiction/horror genre, and the The Year's Work team of Commentate and Jaffe tackle it admirably. There are a number of home runs in this collection. * boing boing *Variously playful and (un)deadly serious. . . * Times Literary Supplement *Provides a study of zombies in popular literature, it also becomes a kind of critique of zombie scholarship itself, and by extension, a critique of humanities scholarship more generally. * Journal of Modern Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe1. Zombie Psychology / Stephen Watt2. Zombie Demographics / Aaron Jaffe3. Zombie Spaces / Dan Hassler-Forest4. Zombie Media / Erik Bohman5. Zombie Health Care / Stephen Shapiro6. Zombie Physiology / Jack Raglin7. Zombie Performance / Atia Sattar8. Zombie Race / Edward P. Comentale9. Zombie Politics / Seth Morton10. Zombie Post-Feminism / Andrea Ruthven11. Zombie Linguistics / Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe12. Zombie Arts and Letters / Jonathan Eburne13. Zombie Philosophy / John Gibson14. Zombie Cocktails / Stephen SchneiderZombie Afterword / Jeffrey T. NealonIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisThey have stalked the horizons of our culture, wreaked havoc on moribund concepts of dead and not dead, threatened our sense of identity, and endangered our personal safety. This book deals with this topic.Trade ReviewThere are so many great things to discuss about this awesome science fiction/horror genre, and the The Year's Work team of Commentate and Jaffe tackle it admirably. There are a number of home runs in this collection. * boing boing *Variously playful and (un)deadly serious. . . * Times Literary Supplement *Provides a study of zombies in popular literature, it also becomes a kind of critique of zombie scholarship itself, and by extension, a critique of humanities scholarship more generally. * Journal of Modern Literature *Table of ContentsIntroduction / Edward P. Comentale and Aaron Jaffe1. Zombie Psychology / Stephen Watt2. Zombie Demographics / Aaron Jaffe3. Zombie Spaces / Dan Hassler-Forest4. Zombie Media / Erik Bohman5. Zombie Health Care / Stephen Shapiro6. Zombie Physiology / Jack Raglin7. Zombie Performance / Atia Sattar8. Zombie Race / Edward P. Comentale9. Zombie Politics / Seth Morton10. Zombie Post-Feminism / Andrea Ruthven11. Zombie Linguistics / Tatjana Soldat-Jaffe12. Zombie Arts and Letters / Jonathan Eburne13. Zombie Philosophy / John Gibson14. Zombie Cocktails / Stephen SchneiderZombie Afterword / Jeffrey T. NealonIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review Trickster Theatre is a tremendously valuable contribution to the growing literature on Ghanaian and African theater and to performance studies in general. * American Ethnologist *Thoroughly researched, and supplemented by Shipley's own remarkable fieldwork as both chronicler and performer within the history, this is one of the most sophisticated and thorough volumes on African performance in recent memory. With its rich discussion of millennial Ghanaian performance, this rich primary source is a model of scholarship. . . . Essential. * Choice * Trickster Theatre not only appeals to scholars of theatre, anthropology, African performance, and Ghanaian and Nigerian history and politics, it also speaks to scholars of colonialism, postcolonial studies, and the cultural politics and legacies of the Cold War. It highlights the ways in which colonial education shaped ideas about the arts in national development. * The Drama Review *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Poetics of UncertaintyPart I. History and Mediations in Making Theatre1. Making Culture: Race, History, and a Theory of Performance in the Gold Coast Colony2. The National Theatre Movement: Urban Art Infrastructures and a Contested National Culture in Independence-Era Accra3. Revolutionary Storytelling: Pan-African Theatre and Remaking Lost Futures in 1980s Ghana4. A Man of the People: Mohammed Ben Abdallah as Artist-PoliticianPart II. Stagings in Millennial Ghana5. Total African Theatre: Language, Reflexivity, and Ambiguity in The Witch of Mopti6. "The Best Tradition Goes On": Audience, Consumption, and the Structural Transformation of Concert Party Popular Theatre 7. Fake Pastors and Real Comedians: Doubling and Parody in Miraculous, Charismatic Performance 8. Copying Independence: Backstage at the Fiftieth-Anniversary Reenactment of Nkrumah's Independence SpeechConclusion: Unfreedom as Critical TheoryNotesBibliographyIndex

Read more less