Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisCulture studies try to understand how people assume identities and perceive reality. In this light narration is a fundamental cultural technique. What is considered "fictitious" or "real" no longer separates narratives from an "outside" they refer to, but rather represents different narratives. The book’s unique interdisciplinary approach shows how the implications of this fundamental insight go far beyond the sphere of literature and carry weight for both scholarly and scientific disciplines.Table of ContentsContents Editors’ Introduction: A Sociological Perspective on Science and Narration Jochen Gläser Stones, Mortar, Building: Knowledge Production and Community Building in Narratives in Science Narrated Realities Narration and Abstraction in Natural Sciences Klaus Mecke Narratives in Physics: Quantitative Metaphors and formula ∈Tropes? Michael Böhler “Render Innocuous the Abstraction We Fear”: Johann Wolfgang Goethe in the Epochal Conflict between Scientific Knowledge and Narrative Knowing Arianna Borrelli Between Logos and Mythos: Narratives of “Naturalness” in Today’s Particle Physics Community Narration, Fiction and the Entangled Human Sciences Bernd Bösel Philosophy as an “Introduction to a General Science of Revolution”? On Peter Sloterdijk’s Narrative-Evocative Philosophizing Brigitte Boothe Narrative Persuasion and Narrative Irritation in Psychotherapy: Bio- graphical Narratives, Deferred Dramaturgy and Narrative Affirmation Christoph Leitgeb Narrating the Uncanny – Uncanny Narration: Freud’s Essay and Theories of Fiction Narrated Communities Narration, Memory and Identity Elena Messner Literature and (Ethno-)Nationalist Narratives in the (Post-)Yugoslav Region Dorothee Birke Doris Lessing’s “Alfred and Emily” and the Ethics of Narrated Memory Aura Heydenreich Closed Timelike Curves: Gödel’s Solution for Einstein’s Field Equa- tions in the General Theory of Relativity and Bach’s “The Musical Offering” as Configuration Models for Narrative Identity Constructions in Richard Powers’s “The Time of Our Singing” Translating Narrations into Different Cultures and Media Michael Rössner Translatio/ns of Identity-Building Narratives: The Character of “El Cid” in Spanish and Latin American Texts from the 12th to the 20th Century Antonio Baldassarre The Politics of Images: Considerations on French Nineteenth-Century Orientalist Art (ca. 1800–ca. 1880) as a Paradigm of Narration and Translation Notes on Contributors Index of Names

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Signposts of Self-Realization, Xinmin Liu offers an ontological study of education and development of the individual self through the prisms of ethical progress and social evolution in the context of modern Chinese literature and film. Did self-realization in the Chinese modern follow the law of Social Darwinism: the biggest ego always won out? Is individualism always self-regarding, never other-regarding? How did the Greater I evolve out of the Lesser I socially and ethically? Confronting these questions, the author navigates through the terrains of paraphrastic translation, Buddhist nonself, lyrical epiphany, redemptive memory and ethnic orality to map out an alternative path for the growth of a modern Chinese self.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Part One An Introduction to Self-Realization in Modern China 1. Sociality in Early Modern China: An Ontological Appraisal 2. Historicizing Social Development and Self-Realization Part Two Ethical Imperative and Social Progress 3. Fountainheads of Change: Yan Fu’s Tussle with Evolution 4. Empathetic Vision in Yu Dafu’s Fiction 5. A Exile of Self-Disinheritance: Revisiting Qu Qiubai 6. Non-Epiphany in Ye Shaojun’s Lyrical Vision Part Three Post-Revolutionary Self-Remaking and Global Development 7. How Steel Is Tempered: The Making of a Revolutionary Hero 8. Retributive Memories: Self-Realization in the Post-Mao Era 9. Zhang Chengzhi’s Reinvention of Ethnic Identity Glossary Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPolitics and Cultures of Liberation: Media, Memory, and Projections of Democracy focuses on mapping, analyzing, and evaluating memories, rituals, and artistic responses to the theme of “liberation.” The contributors offer a wide range of diverse intercultural perspectives on media, memory, liberation, (self)Americanization, and conceptualizations of democracy.Table of ContentsNotes on Contributors Introduction: Politics and Cultures of Liberation Part 1 The Politics and Cultures of Liberation: Marketing, Memory and Mediation An Invasion of a Different Kind: The U.S. Office of War Information and “The Projection of America” Propaganda in the Netherlands, 1944–1945 Marja Roholl Educating the Nation: Jo Spier, Dutch National Identity, and the Marshall Plan in the Netherlands Mathilde Roza From Memory Repression to Memorialization: The Bombardments of Nijmegen 1944 and Mortsel 1943 Joost Rosendaal Playing in the Ruins of Arnhem: Reenacting Operation Market Garden in Theirs Is the Glory László Munteán “Can Anybody Fly This Thing?” Appropriations of History in Reenactments of Operation Market Garden Wolfgang Hochbruck On the Road to Nijmegen—Earle Birney and Alex Colville, 1944–1945 Hans Bak Part 2 The Soundtrack of Liberation Liberation Songs: Music and the Cultural Memory of the Dutch Summer of 1945 Frank Mehring The Reception and Development of Jazz in the Netherlands (1945–1970s) Walter van de Leur Sounds of Freedom, Cosmopolitan Democracy, and Shifting Cultural Politics: From “The Jazz Ambassador Tours” to “The Rhythm Road” Wilfried Raussert Part 3 Transnational Re-Locations Marching Towards Kullman’s Diner: Performing Transnational American Sites (of Memory) in Bavaria Birgit M. Bauridl The Promise of Democracy for the Americas: U.S. Diplomacy and the Meaning(s) of World War II in El Salvador, 1941–1945 Jorrit van den Berk Liberation and Lingering Trauma: U.S. Present and Haitian Past in Edwidge Danticat’s The Dew Breaker Josef Raab The Japanese American Relocation Center at Heart Mountain and the Construction of the Post-World War II Landscape Eric J. Sandeen Part 4 Transnational Perspectives from the Archives The Cornelius Ryan Collection of World War II Papers Doug McCabe “Quality First!” American Aid to the Nijmegen University Library, 1945–1949 Léon Stapper The Marshall Plan: “A Short Time to Change the World” Linda Christenson and Eric Christenson The Liberation Route Europe: Challenges of Exhibiting Multinational Perspectives Jory Brentjens and Wiel Lenders

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis volume brings together fourteen articles that reappraise the productivity of Stoker’s Dracula and the strong influence it still exerts on today’s generations. The volume explores various multimodal and multimedia adaptations of the book, by critically examining its literary, cinematic, theatrical, televised and artistic versions. In so doing, it reassesses the origins, evolution, imagery, mythology, theory and criticism of Gothic fiction and of the Gothic (sub)culture. The volume is innovative in that it congregates various angles to the Gothic phenomenon, providing an overview of the interdisciplinary relationships between different cultural, artistic and creative reworkings of the Gothic in general and of Stoker’s legacy in particular.Trade Review“Dracula and the Gothic in Literature, Pop Culture and the Arts is an interdisciplinary collection of articles put together by Isabel Ermida that focuses on the development of the vampire figure from its early inception as a literary personage and a representation of the demonic East European Other in the eyes of Victorian society to its ever-evolving symbolism in contemporary fiction, film, and other media. […] the analytical framework and overview of the ever-evolving vampire literature that this collection offers is an important contribution to Gothic (and Dracula) studies as a field, and will be beneficial to scholars, students, and those who have a general interest in the vampire figure or the Gothic genre as a whole” - Svitlana Krys and Andrew Malmquist, MacEwan University, in: H-Russia, H-Net Reviews, October 2016Table of ContentsGothic Old and New: Introduction Isabel Ermida PART I - Gothic Spaces, or the (De)Colonization of a Genre “The Son of the Vampire”: Greek Gothic, or Gothic Greece? Álvaro García Marín The Old and New Dracula Castle:
The Poienari Fortress in Dracula Sequels and Travel Memoirs Marius-Mircea Crișan Dracula Orientalized Raphaella Delores Gomez Empire, Monsters and Barbarians: Uncanny Echoes and Reconfigurations of Stoker’s Dracula in Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians Rogers Asempasah Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood: An Antomy of the American Gothic Carlos Azevedo PART II - Multimodal Representations of the Gothic – From the Screen to the Stage and the Arts Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931): The Vampire Wears a Dress Coat Dorota Babilas Aurally Bloodcurdling: Representing Dracula and His Brethren in BBC Radio Drama Leslie McMurtry “Land of Apparitions”: The Depiction of Ghosts and Other Supernatural Occurrences in the First Gothic Plays Eva Čoupková Gothic Architecture, Castles and Villains: Transgression, Decay and the Gothic Locus Horribilis Fanny Lacôte PART III - Postmodern Gothic – Identity Transformations of the Vampire Postmodern Gothic: Teen Vampires Joana Passos Vampires “On a Special Diet”: Identity and the Body in Contemporary Media Texts Lea Gerhards Forever Young, Though Forever Changing:
Evolution of the Vampire Maria Antónia Lima Who’s Afraid of Don Juan? Vampirism and Seduction Maria do Carmo Mendes Destroying and Creating Identity: Vampires, Chaos and Society in Angela Carter’s “The Scarlet House” Inês Botelho Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisPop culture emerged in the first decades of the twentieth century as a reaction to the restrictive social traditions of colonial America. It spread quickly and broadly throughout the bustling urban centers of the 1920s—an era when it formed a partnership with technology and the business world. This coalition gave pop culture its identity, allowing it to thrive and form alliances with artistic and literary movements. But pop culture may have run its course with the rise of meme culture. This publication revisits the social, psychic, and aesthetic roots of pop culture, suggesting that meme culture has fragmented its historical flow, thus threatening to bring about its demise.Table of ContentsMemes and the Future of Pop Culture  Marcel Danesi  Abstract  Keywords  1 Introduction  2 Origins  3 The Protestant Ethic  4 The Roaring Twenties  5 Theorizing Pop Culture  6 Technology and the Marketplace  7 Literary-Artistic Bricolage  8 Carnival, Archetype, and Mythology Theories Revisited  9 Sociobiology and the Theory of Memes  10 Meme Culture  11 The Simulacrum  12 Meme Culture versus Pop Culture  13 The “Communal Brain”  14 The Global Village  15 The “Corso” and “Ricorso” of History  16 The Tetrad  17 The Future  References

Read more less

Book SynopsisShopper’s Paradise: Retail Stores and American Consumer Culture deals with the cultural, social and economic impact of retail stores on American society. It has chapters on some of the most important retail genres, such as Internet stores (Amazon.com), department stores (Neiman Marcus), coffee shops (Starbucks), big-box stores (Walmart, Costco) and a number of other kinds of stores such as dollar stores, malls, and farmer’s markets.Table of ContentsShopper’s Paradise. Retail Stores and American Consumer Culture  Arthur Asa Berger Abstract Keywords  1 Introduction  2 Amazon.com  3 Department Stores  4 Shopping Malls  5 Supermarkets  6 Farmers Markets  7 Costco  8 Dollar Stores  9 Neiman Marcus (Formerly Neiman-Marcus)  10 CVS (Consumer Value Store) Pharmacies  11 Wal-Mart/Walmart  12 Starbucks  13 Consumer Cultures  14 A Consumer’s Odyssey: Everyday Life’s Routines and Its Many Stores  15 Coda  Acknowledgments  References  List of Figures

Read more less

Book SynopsisListen to the podcast about this book. The Joker both fascinates and repels us. From his origin in Detective Comics in 1940, he has committed obscene crimes, some of the worst the Batman universe has ever known, and, conversely, fans have made him the topic of erotic and pornographic “fan fiction.” Speculation about the Joker abounds, where some fans have even claimed that the Joker is “queer coded.” This work explores various popular claims about the Joker, and delves into the history of comic books, and of other popular media from a semiotic viewpoint to understand “The Clown Prince of Crime” in the contexts in which he existed to understand his evolution in the past. From his roots as a “typical hoodlum,” The Joker even starred in his own eponymous comic book series and he was recently featured in a non-canonical movie. This work examines what it is about the Joker which fascinates us.Table of ContentsThe Sign of the Joker: The Clown Prince of Crime as a Sign  Joel West Abstract Keywords  Preface—On Writing about Popular Culture and Todd Phillip’s “The Joker”  1 Introduction  2 Bad Clown, Evil Clown  3 The Joker: History, Canonicity and Continuity  4 The Joker and the Comic Book as Index, Icon and Symbol  5 The Comic Book­ as Ephemeral  6 Ages of the Joker  7 The Joker on the Couch  8 The Ontology of the Joker  9 Sexuality and the Single Joker  10 In the Name of the Joker  11 Conclusion  References

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture: Bengal at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Samarpita Mitra studies literary periodicals as a particular print form, and reveals how their production and circulation were critical to the formation of a Bengali public sphere during the turn of the twentieth century. Given its polyphonic nature, capacity for sustaining debates and adaptability by readers with diverse reading competencies, periodicals became the preferred means for dispensing modern education and entertainment through the vernacular. The book interrogates some of the defining debates that shaped readers’ perspectives on critical social issues and explains how literary culture was envisioned as an indicator of the emergent nation. Finally it looks at the Bengali-Muslim and women’s periodicals and their readerships and argues that the presence of multiple literary voices make it impossible to speak of Bengali literary culture in any singular terms.Trade Review'Samarpita Mitra’s well-researched exploration of these transformative elements plugs an important gap in historical literature on the cultural politics of modernity and nationalism in Bengal.(...) She argues that the Bengali public sphere was at once democratic and exclusionary, rendering a single, homogeneous literary culture impossible. Instead, she foregrounds the polyphonic nature of this domain, where women’s journals, Bengali Muslim literary periodicals, journals of various caste groups, and district journals jostled for space with the mainstream periodicals, all feeding into multiple, intersecting literary spheres, coexisting as well as competing with each other. Such nuanced unpacking of an archive, while clearly demonstrating the unevenness of the evolving class ideologies and identities of the indigenous middle classes, has a sobering effect on the usual paeans sung to the supposedly ‘transformative’ subjective agency of an educated and enlightened Bengali middle class. Periodicals, as Mitra shows, were catalysts of “social change and self-cultivation” and, in this sense, their roles went far beyond serving as mere “reflections” of contemporary social life, which is how scholars have tended to see them so far. In mediating imaginative explorations into social life as well as in opening up latent possibilities of change, the periodicals became agents of change in the same society that spawned them. This is a remarkable academic accomplishment, for which Mitra deserves our praise.' - The Telegraph, Kolkata.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Independent Press Award 2022 Distinguished Favorites – Anthology Winner of the 2021 NYC Big Book Award—Distinguished Favorite Anthology! Winner of the 2020 American Fiction Awards—Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2021 International Book Awards—Fiction Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards—Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2020 USA Best Book Awards—Fiction Anthologies! Candy Floss Collection is a set of three previously released, bestselling novels: Low-Fat Love, Blue, and Film. Together these novels create an overarching message about what it truly means to live a “big life” and the kinds of relationships we need with others and ourselves along the way. This is not a trilogy. This collection can be understood as installation art. Written with humor, cultural insight, and a wink, we follow each female protagonist and cast of offbeat characters as they search for love, friendship, and a sense of self. The characters must learn to mind the gap between their lives as they are and as they wish them to be, to chase their dreams even as they stumble on their insecurities, and to never settle for low-fat love. Along the way, characters are imaged in the glow of television and movie screens, their own stories shaped and illuminated by the stories in pop culture. Set in contemporary New York and Los Angeles, with special tributes to 1980s pop culture, each book questions and celebrates the ever-changing cultural landscape against which we live our stories, frame by frame. Candy Floss Collection can be read entirely for pleasure or used as supplemental reading in a variety of courses in women’s studies/gender studies, sociology, psychology, communication, popular culture, media studies, or qualitative inquiry. The book includes further engagement for class or book club use.Trade Review“Reading this collection was fascinating, as Leavy has a talent for developing this fiction as research approach, which allows readers to resonate with the stories… Like all good novels, it stays with you and promotes (self) reflection. It is impossible to shake off the stories of these women, partly because they are simple. Weeks after finishing reading the book, I find myself returning to these characters, and I realized it is because they are everyday people, facing challenges of everyday life, and portraying the diversity—and at times the impressive similarities—of the lives of women in our times.” – Journal of Autoethnography “Candy Floss Collection is a triumphant piece of art, an exemplar of fiction as research, a highly accessible piece of public scholarship, and an engaging read. It is a significant and even game-changing work and ought to be recognized as such. I highly recommend Candy Floss Collection to arts-based researchers, general readers, and professors wishing to stimulate reflection and lively discussion.” – Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal Read the interview with Patricia Leavy on Candy Floss Collection by We Are the Real Deal! “Epic! Brilliant! Absolutely delicious! Candy Floss Collection is Leavy’s definitive statement… The message is an important one: we can all live “big” lives by focusing on what matters most. It will inspire you to believe in possibility in your own life, and in those around you. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to settle again.” – Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., Ohio State University “Low-Fat Love proves the astonishing talent that Leavy possesses as both a writer and social commentator….” – U. Melissa Anyiwo, Ph.D., Curry College “[Blue is] a joyful, inspiring and painfully beautiful novel.” – Norman Denzin, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Film… is a love letter to popular culture… yet again demonstrating Leavy’s mettle as a masterful writer of fiction.” – Alexandra Lasczik, Ph.D., Southern Cross University “We love–and highly recommend–it!” – Wandering EducatorsTable of ContentsPreface LOW-FAT LOVE Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Part Three Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 BLUE Part One Chapter 1 chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Part Three Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 FILM Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Part Two Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Part Three Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Suggested Classroom Or Book Club Use Afterword Acknowledgements About The Author

Read more less

Book SynopsisWinner of the Independent Press Award 2022 Distinguished Favorites – Anthology Winner of the 2021 NYC Big Book Award—Distinguished Favorite Anthology! Winner of the 2020 American Fiction Awards—Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2021 International Book Awards—Fiction Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2021 National Indie Excellence Awards—Anthologies! Award-Winning Finalist of the 2020 USA Best Book Awards—Fiction Anthologies! Candy Floss Collection is a set of three previously released, bestselling novels: Low-Fat Love, Blue, and Film. Together these novels create an overarching message about what it truly means to live a “big life” and the kinds of relationships we need with others and ourselves along the way. This is not a trilogy. This collection can be understood as installation art. Written with humor, cultural insight, and a wink, we follow each female protagonist and cast of offbeat characters as they search for love, friendship, and a sense of self. The characters must learn to mind the gap between their lives as they are and as they wish them to be, to chase their dreams even as they stumble on their insecurities, and to never settle for low-fat love. Along the way, characters are imaged in the glow of television and movie screens, their own stories shaped and illuminated by the stories in pop culture. Set in contemporary New York and Los Angeles, with special tributes to 1980s pop culture, each book questions and celebrates the ever-changing cultural landscape against which we live our stories, frame by frame. Candy Floss Collection can be read entirely for pleasure or used as supplemental reading in a variety of courses in women’s studies/gender studies, sociology, psychology, communication, popular culture, media studies, or qualitative inquiry. The book includes further engagement for class or book club use.Trade Review“Reading this collection was fascinating, as Leavy has a talent for developing this fiction as research approach, which allows readers to resonate with the stories… Like all good novels, it stays with you and promotes (self) reflection. It is impossible to shake off the stories of these women, partly because they are simple. Weeks after finishing reading the book, I find myself returning to these characters, and I realized it is because they are everyday people, facing challenges of everyday life, and portraying the diversity—and at times the impressive similarities—of the lives of women in our times.” – Journal of Autoethnography “Candy Floss Collection is a triumphant piece of art, an exemplar of fiction as research, a highly accessible piece of public scholarship, and an engaging read. It is a significant and even game-changing work and ought to be recognized as such. I highly recommend Candy Floss Collection to arts-based researchers, general readers, and professors wishing to stimulate reflection and lively discussion.” – Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal Read the interview with Patricia Leavy on Candy Floss Collection by We Are the Real Deal! “Epic! Brilliant! Absolutely delicious! Candy Floss Collection is Leavy’s definitive statement… The message is an important one: we can all live “big” lives by focusing on what matters most. It will inspire you to believe in possibility in your own life, and in those around you. I don’t think you’ll ever be able to settle again.” – Laurel Richardson, Ph.D., Ohio State University “Low-Fat Love proves the astonishing talent that Leavy possesses as both a writer and social commentator….” – U. Melissa Anyiwo, Ph.D., Curry College “[Blue is] a joyful, inspiring and painfully beautiful novel.” – Norman Denzin, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “Film… is a love letter to popular culture… yet again demonstrating Leavy’s mettle as a masterful writer of fiction.” – Alexandra Lasczik, Ph.D., Southern Cross University “We love–and highly recommend–it!” – Wandering EducatorsTable of ContentsPreface LOW-FAT LOVE Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Part Three Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 BLUE Part One Chapter 1 chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Part Two Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Part Three Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 FILM Part One Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Part Two Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Part Three Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Suggested Classroom Or Book Club Use Afterword Acknowledgements About The Author

Read more less

Book SynopsisExploring Spirituality and Sexuality: An Introduction to an Interdisciplinary Field is a collection of scholarly essays which focuses on the multiple interrelations of spirituality and sexuality, including such facets as intimate relationships, inner cultivation, gender empowerment, gender empowerment, sex education, eroticism, and ecstasy embodiments.Table of ContentsForeword  Jon Braddy Preface Nicol Michelle Epple List of Illustrations Introduction to the Sexuality and Spirituality Field of Research  Phil Shining PART 1 Natural Instincts 1 Spirituality of the Sexually Charged Landscape  Dennis Alan Winters 2 Spirituality and Sexuality in Prehistoric Art  Richard Alan Northover PART 2 Religious Rapture 3 A Spirituality of Pleasure: the ‘Thousand- Year’ Intercourse of Siva and Sakti  John R. Dupuche 4 Experiencing yada: Holistic Encounters of Spiritual Bliss between Christian Believer and God  Nicol Michelle Epple PART 3 Alternative Ecstasy 5 Oscar Wilde’s Spirituality: the Erotics of Queer Theology  Rita Dirks 6 The Holy Rebellious Pussy: New Feminist Demands and Religious Confrontations  Assumpta Sabuco Cantó and Ana Álvarez Borrero PART 4 Taboo Challenges 7 The (In)compatibility between Spirituality and Sexuality: Contemporary Chinese Case Studies  Huai Bao 8 Sex Education and Tantra  Pavel Hlavinka PART 5 Limit-Experience Embodiments 9 The Abandoned Self: Excess and Inner Experience in Sadomasochism  Catherine Papadopoullos 10 Embodying ‘The Little Death’ of Orgasm: an Interdisciplinary Research on Sexual Trance  Phil Shining Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCrossing Cultural Boundaries in East Asia and Beyond explores the personal complexities and ambiguities, and the successes and failures, of crossing borders and boundaries. While the focus is on East Asia, it universalizes cultural anxieties with comparative cases in Russia and the United States. The authors primarily engage the individual experiences of border-crossing, rather than more typically those of political or social groups located at territorial boundaries. Drawing on those individual experiences, this volume presents an array of attempts to negotiate the discomforts of crossing personal borders, and attends to the intimate experiences of border crossers, whether they are traveling to an unfamiliar cultural location or encountering the “other” in local settings such as the classroom or the coffee shop.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMythic Imagination Today is an illustrated guide to the interpenetration of mythology and science throughout the ages. This monograph brings alive our collective need for story to guide the rules, roles, and relationships of everyday life. Whereas mythology is born primarily of perception and imagination, science emerges from systematic observation and experimentation. Both disciplines arise from endless curiosity about the workings of the Universe combined with creative urges to transform inner and outer worlds. Both disciplines are located within open neural wiring that gives rise to uniquely human capacities for learning, memory, and metaphor. Terry Marks-Tarlow explores the origins of story within the social brain; mythmakers and myths from multiple cultures; and how contemporary sciences of chaos and complexity theories and fractal geometry dovetail with ancient wisdom. The ancient Greek myth of Psyche and Eros is unpacked in detail—origins of the very concepts of ‘psyche’ and ‘psychology’.Table of ContentsMythic Imagination Today  The Interpenetration of Mythology and Science  Terry Marks-Tarlow  Abstract  Keywords  Introduction  1 Myths and Mythmaking  2 Introducing the New Sciences  2.13 The Magic of Mythology  3 Psyche and Eros Today  4 Foundations: Curiosity, Memory and Metaphor  Acknowledgments  References

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this selective overview of scholarship generated by The Hunger Games—the young adult dystopian fiction and film series which has won popular and critical acclaim—Zhange Ni showcases various investigations into the entanglement of religion and the arts in the new millennium. Ni introduces theories, methods, and the latest developments in the study of religion in relation to politics, audio/visual art, new media, material culture, and popular culture, whilst also reading The Hunger Games as a story that explores the variety, complexity, and ambiguity of enchantment. In popular texts such as this, religion and art—both broadly construed, that is, beyond conventional boundaries—converge in creating an enchantment that makes life more bearable and effects change in the world.Trade Review"...it offers an incredibly rare and valuable insight into a sparsely discussed scholarly field. Zhang does an admirable job at bringing together prison case studies and subsequently succeeds in granting the reader an invaluable insight into Míng popular religion." - J. Chadwin, University of Vienna, in: Religious Studies Review Volume 47, Number 3 (September 2021)Table of ContentsReligion and the Arts in The Hunger Games  Zhange Ni  Abstract  Keywords  1 Introduction  2 Enchantment I: Sovereign Power and Ritual Sacrifice  3 Enchantment II: Bare Life and the Religion/Art of Resistance  4 The Split Enchantment of The Hunger Games Reality Show  5 The Split Enchantment of Food and Clothing, the Game of Hungers  6 The Split Enchantment of The Hunger Games Transmedia Assemblage  Bibliography

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisWritten in an accessible style, with many photographs of important tourist sites and drawings by the author, Smooth Sailing provides an ethnographically informed introduction to the nature of tourism and an important aspect of tourism, ocean cruising. The book discusses topics such as the nature of tourism, different kinds of tourists, the role that myths play in tourism, gratifications from tourism, and travel as a means of personal transformation. It also deals with ocean cruising and considers the notion that cruises are boring, social class and cruising, cruising and addiction, and cruising and the psyche.Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments List of Illustrations Abstract Keywords  Preface on the Covid-19 Virus  1 Introduction  2 Aspects of Travel and Tourism  3 Tourists and Travelers  4 The Mind Set of the Traveler  5 Notes on Ocean Cruising  6 Cruising and the Psyche  7 Princess Cruises: A Case Study  8 Coda References

Read more less

Book SynopsisHistorically Judaism has been called both a nation and a religion, yet there are those Jews who eschew the religious and national definitions for a cultural one. For example, while TV’s Mrs. Maisel is ostensibly a Jew, the actor playing her is not, and Mrs. Maisel’s actions are not always Jewish. In The Fractured Jew Joel West separates Judaism into phenomenological and performative, starting with popular portrayals of Jews and Judaism, in today’s media, as a jumping-off point to understand Judaism and Jewishness, not from the outside, but from the emic, internal, Jewish point of view.Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgements  What This Book Is Not Abstract Keywords  Introduction  1 Who or What Is a Jew?  2 A Fractured Framework: Trauma, Identity, Ethnicity  3 Diachronic Denominationally Jewish  4 North American Semiotics: Jew, Jewish or Judaism as a Sign  5 North American Jews: Alienations  6 North American Jews: Denominations as History  7 Preforming Jew, Jewish, Judaism  8 The Jew Is a Joke—Internalized Antisemitism  Conclusion  References  Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAfter a 35 year-long career on worldwide TV screens, Lieutenant Columbo has become one of the most famous fictional detectives. Lilian Mathieu shows that the Columbo series owes its success to its implicit but formidable political dimension, as each episode is structured as a class struggle between a rich, famous, cultured or powerful criminal and an apparently humble and blunderer police officer dressed in a crumpled raincoat and driving an antique car. Highlighting the contentious context that gave birth to the series in 1968, he shows that the sociology of culture offers intellectual tools to understand how a TV detective story can be appreciated as a joyful class revenge.Table of ContentsAbstract Keywords  Introduction  1 Class against Class  2 A World of Distinction  3 Superiority in Crime  4 A Sense of Limits  5 A Misplaced Police Officer  6 Police Work  7 Just One More Thing … References  List of Episodes

Read more less

Book SynopsisMedia constitute a privileged field of analysis as it interferes dynamically with the current popular ideas and myths (myths which narrate, explain and often justify social realities – such as games of power, economic and financial inequalities, drug dealing, disasters, diseases or pandemic threats). In this frame, the archetypal dimensions of the imaginary, of gossiping and of storytelling also seem to play an important role even in the frame of the (so called) “rational discourse”. Media Narratives is an effort to analyze ongoing narratives (either political or fictional) in Argentina, Brazil, Greece, Mexico or United States, expressing interpretations of contemporary events (such as crimes, scandals, diseases or political activism), but also presenting common beliefs and desires revealed by the popular artistic creations. These narratives compose the mythical background of the contemporary globalized world, the “spirit of the time” as Edgar Morin had named it, a spirit which is expressed in current ideas and mentalities. This effort can be characterized as a representative survey of popular beliefs of the 21st Century represented in storytelling. The articles collected in this book will reveal some important facets of the contemporary mythologies. Contributors are: Lucia Acuña-Pedro, Graziela Ares, Eduardo Barbabela, Mercedes Calzado, Omar Cerrillo Garnica, Christiana Constantopoulou, Mariana Fernández, Humberto Fernandes, Jaqueline García Cordero, Enrique García Romero, Leda Maria Caira Gitahy, Yamila Gómez, Vanesa Lio, Melina Meimaridis, José A. Ruiz San Román, Pedro Paulo Martins Serra, Hara Stratoudaki, Leandro R. Tessler, and Gabriela Villen.Table of ContentsAcknowledgement List of Figures and Tables Notes on Contributors 1 Introduction Media Narratives of Contemporary Mythologies   Christiana Constantopoulou 2 The New Criminal News Narrative Modalities on Fear of Crime in Newscasts of the City of Buenos Aires, 2015–2019   Mercedes Calzado, Mariana Fernández, Yamila Gómez, and Vanesa Lio 3 ‘Sex, Drugs and Communism’ Far-Right Narratives about Universities in Brazil   Gabriela Villen, Graziela Ares, Leda Maria Caira Gitahy, and Leandro R. Tessler 4 The Business Elite and Media Worked Together? Analyzing Both Narratives in the Brazilian 2016 Impeachment Process   Humberto Fernandes and Eduardo Barbabela 5 Crime or Commiseration The Contingent Framing of Homelessness on Brazilian Television   Pedro Paulo Martins Serra 6 Immortal and Happy! Myths about Vulnerability in the Press   José A. Ruiz San Román, Enrique García Romero, Jaqueline García Cordero, Lucía Acuña-Pedro, and Miranda Claudio Cornejo 7 Blogging National Identity   Hara Stratoudaki 8 Contemporary Mythologies of Television’s Fictional Institutions in the United States   Melina Meimaridis 9 Mexican Drug Dealers in tv Series Symbols of New Heroism or the Adulation of Bandits?   Omar Cerrillo Garnica 10 Mythic Representations of Heterosexual Relations in Popular Serials Romantic Love against “Hyper Realistic” Porn   Christiana Constantopoulou 11 Concluding Remarks Consumer Storytelling in Advanced-Modern Societies   Christiana Constantopoulou Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFashion is an integral part of popular culture, closely intertwined with tales, magazines, photography, cinema, television, music and sports...up to the emergence of dedicated exhibitions and museums. Fashion is undergoing a major digital transformation: garments and apparels are presented and sold online, and fashion trends and styles are launched, discussed and negotiated mainly in the digital arena. While going well beyond national and linguistic borders, digital fashion communication requires further cultural sensitivity: otherwise, it might ignite inter-cultural misunderstandings and communication crises. This book presents the recent transformation of fashion from being a Cinderella to becoming a major cultural attractor and academic research subject, as well as the implications of its digital transformation. Through several cases, it documents intercultural communication crises and provides strategies to interpret and prevent them.Table of ContentsAbstract Keywords  Introduction  1 Fashion and (Popular) Culture  2 Fashion and Communication (Technologies)  Concluding Remarks References

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe presidency of Donald J. Trump, has had a considerable impacts on American politics and society. One of these was his altering of the comedic mood in America, taking comedy away from many of its traditions. His presidency turned comedy into political weaponry, as comedians on the liberal side of politics turned their efforts to ridiculing Trump’s buffoonish persona, while on the conservative side, a Trump-supportive group of comedians mocked those very comedians who opposed Trump. Trump himself emerged as a comedian, performing his dark, caustic, comical routines with consummate skill at his rallies. If comedy is a pulse for a country, then it is legitimate to ask if that pulse still beating, even after Trump lost reelection in 2020. This book will address this question, examining how Trump’s presidency interrupted the historical flow of American comedic traditions, and how it spread a dark mood throughout American society.Table of ContentsPreface Abstract Keywords  1 American Comedy  2 Buffoonery  3 Dark Comedy  4 The Circus Came and Went  5 A Comedic Nightmare References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisJust pronounce the word “manga” and conflicted representations of media reception emerge: either passive teenagers immersed in Japanese fictional worlds, or hyperactive fans. To understand what drives a variety of teenagers to read manga, we conducted empirical research among French readers enrolled in secondary schools. Manga is part of a whole constellation of interests, including music and digital technology. It is also the object of analytical, ethical or concrete appropriations. Reading then becomes a way to deal with past experiences and to connect with others, to learn how to express emotions and to assert (or contest) age and gender norms.Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments List of Tables and Graphs Introduction 1 What Is Manga?  1 “One Thousand Years of Manga” or “Sixty Years of Manga”? Definitions and Search for Origins  2 Production Process and Manga Specificities  2.1 The Effect of the Production Process  2.2 The Categorization of Readers  2.2.1 Targeting Readers  2.2.2 Age and Gender Group: Segmentation and Hybridization  2.3 The Rise of the Manga Cultural Industry in Japan  2.4 Manga Spread and Reception in France: From Media Panic to Recognition  3 Mapping the French Manga Market  3.1 Field Structuring  3.1.1 Today’s Publishers  3.2 Outcome 2 A Reading Practice Embedded in the Youth Culture  1 A Reading Embedded in Teenagers’ Schedules  1.1 Reading Easy and Practical  1.2 Reading in Various Contexts  1.3 Reading and Rereading  2 A Reading Practice Embedded in the “Youth Culture” Constellation  2.1 Cartoons  2.2 The Digital Era  2.3 Music  2.4 The Fantastic and the Sentimental  2.5 Reading and the Book  3 Friendship Networks  3.1 Exchange Networks  3.2 Discussing Manga  3.3 A Way of Connecting with Others  4 Manga-Related Hobbies  4.1 Drawing: A Mixed-Gender Activity  4.2 Girls: Cosplay and Fanfiction  4.2.1 Cosplays  4.2.2 Fanfictions  4.3 Anime Music Videos and Role Playing Games (amv and rpg)  4.4 Blogs  5 Readers’ Careers  5.1 Discovering Manga  5.2 High School as a Confirmation  5.3 Turning Points and Career Endings 3 Reading Manga  1 Entertainment  1.1 Enjoyment  1.2 Escapism  1.3 Laughing: A Serious Matter  1.3.1 Burlesque and Situational Comedy: A Comic Pattern of “Degradation”  1.3.2 Nonsense and Absurd  1.3.3 Comedies in a School Setting: Satire and the Subversion of Authority  1.3.4 Humor in Coming-of-Age Comedies: Comical Variations on Romantic and Sexual Relationships  1.3.5 Plays on Words  1.4 … and Crying  2 Relatability  2.1 The Various Facets of Identification: Admiring  2.2 Recognizing Oneself  2.3 Ethical Receptions  2.4 Seeking Comfort  3 Right Age, Right Gender, Right Manners  3.1 The Role of Age and Generations  3.2 Age Matters  4 Getting One’s Gender Straight: Boys, Fist Fights and Little Nana Girls  4.1 Boys and “Beating”  4.2 Diverse Models of Masculinity: Intelligence, Psychology, and Emotions  4.3 The Little Nana Girls  5 Growing Up with Manga: Practical Uses  5.1 Seeds of Knowledge  5.2 Seeds of Life 4 In Search of Lost Legitimacy  1 Conflicted Dispositions  1.1 Parents, Teachers and Friends  1.2 Internalization  2 Fans in Their Own Words: Self-Portraits  2.1 Not Being a Fan  2.2 Being a Fan  3 “Scholarly” Readings  3.1 Reading as a Meticulous Task  3.2 Reading Skills Conclusion Appendix 1 Glossary: The Manga and Japanese Animation Universe Appendix 2 The Manga Readers Interviewed and Their Characteristics Appendix 3 Summaries of Some Manga Titles by Those Who Read Them Appendix 4 Graphs and Tables about Manga Publishing in France Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe cultural change denominated as “the new normal” goes far beyond the adaptation to habits like physical distancing, limited person-to-person contact, teleworking, and self-isolation established with the COVID-19 pandemic. A series of significant transformations in human behavior spreads today in societies all around the world: physical intimacy decreases while virtual reality expands and alterity declines while artificial intelligence emerges, leading to structural reconfigurations of sex, relationships, gender awareness, and subjectivity. Sexuality and Eroticism in a Post-pandemic World explores this new cultural atmosphere through twelve interdisciplinary essays questioning global governmentality and challenging the biopolitics of the new normal—the administration of self-control societies so politically correct that repressed desire for otherness only finds a simulation of its satisfaction with the forced abnormality, outrageousness, and violence of mainstream porn—, going from ars erotica to alternative pornography, from online dating to gender fluidity, from LGBTQI+ artivism to sex life cultivation, and more.Table of ContentsForeword Preface List of Figures Notes on Contributors Introduction to the “New Normal” Biopolitics, Sexuality and Eroticism in a Post-pandemic World   Phil Shining Part 1 Beyond Repression: Defying the Moral Codes of 21st Century Authoritarianism 1 Transgressing the New Normal Sexuality and Obscenity in a Post-pandemic Spain   Assumpta Sabuco Cantó 2 A Media Pandemic Sexualized Right-Wing Populism and the Politics of Mis-sublimation   Sophia Kanaouti 3 A Room of Whose Own? Pleasure and Privacy in Pre-and Post-pandemic Havana   Dara E. Goldman Part 2 Beyond Sex: Embodying Pleasure and Sexuality in Times of Social Distancing 4 Pleasure in the Face of Death Poetry and Self-realization   Rita Dirks 5 The Touch We Miss   Nebojsa Kujundzic Part 3 Beyond Gender: Challenging Patriarchal and Heteronormative Sex Education through Alternative Pornography 6 Alt Porn as a New Sexual Script   Dionne van Reenen and Robert Scott Stewart 7 Sex & Love in the Time of Quarantine Re-signifying Gender and Erotic Representations—Erika Lust-Style   Lily Martinez Evangelista and M. Emilia Barbosa Part 4 Beyond the Senses: Immersing into Self-exploration through Visual and Plastic Arts 8 The Hunger for Touch Fatih Akin’s Gegen die Wand (Head-On) and the Cinema of Sensation   Şebnem Nazlı Karalı and George Karpathakis 9 pros-thesis   Lawrence Buttigieg 10 Scream at Life The Self as Erotic Figure   Jon Braddy Part 5 Beyond the Ego: Embracing the Spiritual Possibilities of Desire 11 The Era of the Erotic Understanding Epochal Change through Tantra and Christianity   John R. Dupuche 12 Sex Life Cultivation Ars Erotica as an Alternative to Sex Education and Sex Therapy   Phil Shining Index

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis book offers a comprehensive and accessible characterisation of the first-person shooter videogame genre. After providing an overview of the history of the first-person shooter videogame genre, Alberto Oya comments on the various defining peculiarities of this genre, namely the first-person perspective, the shooting gaming mechanics, the heroic in-game narrative or background story, and multiplayer gaming. Oya also argues that educators can use first-person shooter videogames to encourage their students to reflect on historical and philosophical issues.Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface Abstract Keywords  1 Introduction  2 History of the First-Person Shooter Videogame Genre  3 “First-Person” in First-Person Shooter Videogames  4 “Shooting” in First-Person Shooter Videogames  5 The Heroic Narrative in First-Person Shooter Videogames  6 Multiplayer Gaming in First-Person Shooter Videogames  7 How to Take Pedagogical Advantage of a First-Person Shooter Videogame  Conclusion  Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMusic, Popular Culture, Identities is a collection of sixteen essays that will appeal to a wide range of readers with interests in popular culture and music, cultural studies, and ethnomusicology. Organized around the central theme of music as an expression of local, ethnic, social and other identities, the essays touch upon popular traditions and contemporary forms from several different regions of the world: political engagement in Italian popular music; flamenco in Spain; the challenge of traditional music in Bulgaria; boerenrock and rap in Holland; Israeli extreme heavy metal; jazz and pop in South Africa, and musical hybridity and politics in Côte d’Ivoire. The collection includes essays about Latin America: on the Mexican corrido, the Caribbean, popular dance music in Cuba, and bossanova from Brazil. Communities of a cultural diaspora in North America are discussed in essays on Somali immigrant and refugee youth and Iranians in exile in the US. Grounded in cultural theory and a specialized knowledge of a particular popular musical practice, each author has written a critical study on the mix of music and identity in a particular social practice and context.Table of ContentsRichard YOUNG: Introduction. William ANSELMI: From cantautori to posse: Sociopolitical Discourse, Engagement and Antagonism in the Italian Music Scene from the 60s to the 90s. Daniel F. CHAMBERLAIN: El corrido: Identity, Narrative, and Central Frontiers. John Charles CHASTEEN: A National Rhythm: Social Dance and Elite Identity in Nineteenth-Century Havana. Catherine DEN TANDT: Globalization and Identity: The Discourse of Popular Music in the Caribbean. Murray FORMAN: “Keeping it Real”?: African Youth Identities, and Hip Hop. Keith KAHN-HARRIS: “I hate this fucking country”: Dealing with the Global and the Local in the Israeli Extreme Metal Scene. Henry KLUMPENHOUWER: The Idiocy of Rural Life: Boerenrock, the Rural Debate and the Uses of Identity. Adam KRIMS: Rap, Race, the “Local,” and Urban Geography in Amsterdam. George LANG: Cannibalizing Bossa Nova. Claire LEVY: Who is the “Other” in the Balkans? Local Ethnic Music as a Different Source of Identities in Bulgaria. Lisa MCNEE: Back from Babylon: Popular Musical Cultures of the Diaspora, Youth Culture and Identity in Francophone West Africa. Hamid NAFICY: Identity Politics and Iranian Exile Music Videos. Parvati NAIR: Vocal In-roads: Flamenco, Orality and Postmodernity in Las 3000 Viviendas, Viejo Patio (Culcimer and EMI, 1999) Viviana RANGIL: Selena: Two Complementary Cinematographic Interpretations. Michael Frank TITLESTAD: “The artist gathers the bones”: The Shamanic Poetics of Jazz Discourse. Stella VILJOEN: En Route to the Rainbow Nation: South African Voices of Resistance. Contributors. Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe avant-garde has been popular for some time, but its popularity has tended to fly under the radar. This “popular avant-garde,” conceived as the meeting ground of the avant-garde and popular, avoids the divorce of art and praxis of which the avant-garde has been accused. The Popular Avant-Garde takes stock of the debates about both the “historical” (“modernist”) and posterior avant-gardes, and sets them in relation to popular culture and art forms. With a critical introduction that examines the concepts of “the avant-garde,” “the popular,” and “the popular avant-garde,” the series of essays analyzes the way in which the avant-garde employs popular genres for political purposes, as well as how the popular acquires a critical function with respect to the avant-garde. Each of the volume’s three sections considers a different aspect of the productive exchange between the avant-garde and popular: the popular avant-garde as a culturally hybrid and cross-border phenomenon; the play between the popular avant-garde and developments in media and technology; and the popular avant-garde’s upending of conventional ideas about “the people” and “the popular.” The Popular Avant-Garde takes a fresh look at the now canonical Dadaist, Futurist, and Surrealist movements from the perspectives of gender and sexuality, and cultural and critical theory, while at the same time exploring less well-known avant-garde work in literature, film, television, music, photography, dance, sculpture, and the graphic arts. This volume’s coverage of the American and Afro-American, Luso-Brazilian and Latin-American, East-European, and Scandinavian avant-gardes, in addition to the vanguards of Spain and other parts of Western Europe, will appeal to all those interested in avant-garde and popular art forms.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction Renée M. Silverman: The Avant-Garde is Popular (Again) The Borders of the Avant-Garde Kirsten Ernst: “Not Reactionary, Just Late”: The Case for Ariano Suassuna as Brazilian Modernist Malynne Sternstein: This Impossible Toyen Alexander Starkweather Fobes: Huidobro, Cagliostro: Demiurge as Mage. Conjuring a Metaphor for the Avant-Garde Lori Cole: Revisiting the Vanguard: Duchamp in Buenos Aires Esther Sánchez-Pardo: Duende and Modernism: Hart Crane’s and Federico García Lorca’s Variations on Rhythm and Sound Avant-Garde Politics: Popular Culture, Media, and Social Change R. Hernández Rodríguez: A Revolution of Shadows: Culture and Representation in Early-Twentieth-Century Mexico Maria T. Pao: Giménez Caballero’s Fractured Fairy Tale: “El Redentor mal parido” (1926) Christopher Townsend: “A new dictionary of gestures”: Chaplin’s The Rink and Ricciotto Canudo’s Skating Rink Craig Saper: A Quick Read(ies): Speed and Formula in Bob Brown’s Pulp Fiction and Avant-Garde Machines Siona Wilson: Reading Freire in London: Jo Spence’s Photographs between Popular and Avant-Garde Jennifer Cho: Touching Pasts In The Shadow of No Towers: 9/11 and Art Spiegelman’s Comix of Memory Antti Salminen: From Avant-Garde to Para-Garde: The Truth About Marika Barnaby Dicker: Franciszka Themerson’s Ubu Comic Strip: Autography, Caricature, and the Avant-Garde Popular Art Forms and the Avant-Garde Marina Pérez de Mendiola: In Search of a People’s Art: The Divergent Positions of Jorge Oteiza and David Alfaro Siqueiros Giovanna Montenegro: Venezuelan Avant-Garde: María Calcaño’s Erotic Poetry Kirsten Strom: Popular Anthropology: Dance, Race, and Katherine Dunham Fabio Akcelrud Durão and José Adriano Fenerick: Tom Zé’s Unsong and the Fate of the Tropicália Movement Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisOne can find it in the classics of experimental literature such as Laurence Sterne’s Tristram Shandy or the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges, but also in the horror and fantasy fiction of Stephen King, in Mel Brooks’s spoof films and Grant Morrison’s superhero comics. The talk is of metalepsis, the transgression of narrative levels. While this device was long perceived as a narratological oddity reserved for avant-garde texts, it has recently emerged as a phenomenon of much wider bearing that exists in numerous media and in popular as well as high culture. When Storyworlds Collide wishes to do justice to this situation and offers both a refined model for the analysis of metalepsis across media and a detailed investigation of the uses and functions of metalepsis in popular culture, thus providing a valuable addition to the burgeoning field of post-classical and transmedial narrative theory. Starting from a thorough reevaluation of the concept of metalepsis as it is discussed both in classical narratology and more recent endeavours, this book puts forth a deceptively simple yet flexible definition and typology of this device, centred on the violation of the border separating the inside and outside of a storyworld and designed to be transmedially applicable. In a second step, this model is put to the test through an analysis of a wide range of metaleptic narratives drawn from popular fiction, film, and comics. When Storyworlds Collide takes popular culture seriously, employing it neither to merely exemplify theory nor to demonstrate that it is ultimately a knockoff of high culture. Rather, it shows that metalepsis possesses a unique dynamics in popular storytelling and has become an essential device for pop-cultural self-reflection – while still retaining an immense potential to create amusing and entertaining narratives. This book will be relevant to students and scholars from a wide variety of fields: narrative theory, intermediality and media studies, popular culture as well as literary, film and comics studies.Trade Review“One of the greatest merits of this book is that it provides readers with a convincing and viable definition of metalepsis. Based on a concise review of the dominant theories of metalepsis, starting with Gérard Genette’s original description of the phenomenon, and drawing on concepts from possible worlds theory, in particular Marie-Laure Ryan and Lubomír Doležel, Thoss defines metalepsis as the paradoxical transgression of the line separating the inside from the outside of a storyworld. Unlike Genette, who conceptualizes metalepsis as a hierarchical violation. […] As a whole, the book is tightly argued, well-written and thus a pleasure to read. Moreover, Thoss’s threefold typology of metaleptical transgressions is a more than useful addition to the existing literature and theory on metalepsis.” - Keyvan Sarkhosh, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, in: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik 41.2 (2016), pp. 93-97Table of ContentsList of illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Theory 2. Fiction 3. Film 4. Comics Conclusion References

Read more less