Popular culture Books
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Harry Potter and the Other
Book SynopsisA timely anthology that examines, interrogates, and critiques representations of race and difference across various Harry Potter media, including books, films, and official websites, as well as online forums and the classroom.
£77.35
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi More than Cricket and Football
Book SynopsisRather than focusing on the Western Hemisphere, this collection of some of world sport’s most heralded celebrities (including stars of Motocross, surfing, distance running, and more) serves as a sort of passport to many places that make up our global sporting environment.
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi The LGBTQ Comics Studies Reader
Book SynopsisExplores the exemplary trove of LGBTQ+ comics that coalesced in the underground and alternative comix scenes of the mid-1960s and in the decades after. Through insightful essays and interviews with leading comics figures, contributors illuminate the critical opportunities, current interactions, and future directions of these comics.
£85.00
University Press of Mississippi The LGBTQ Comics Studies Reader
Book SynopsisContributions by Michelle Ann Abate, William S. Armour, Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Camper, Tesla Cariani, Matthew Cheney, Hillary Chute, Edmond (Edo) Ernest dit Alban, Ramzi Fawaz, Margaret Galvan, Justin Hall, Alison Halsall, Lara Hedberg, Susanne Hochreiter, Sheena C. Howard, Rebecca Hutton, remus jackson, Keiko Miyajima, Chinmay Murali, Marina Rauchenbacher, Katharina Serles, Sathyaraj Venkatesan, Jonathan Warren, and Lin Young The LGBTQ+ Comics Studies Reader explores the exemplary trove of LGBTQ+ comics that coalesced in the underground and alternative comix scenes of the mid-1960s and in the decades after. Through insightful essays and interviews with leading comics figures, volume contributors illuminate the critical opportunities, current interactions, and future directions of these comics. This heavily illustrated volume engages with the work of preeminent artists across the globe, such as Howard Cruse, Edie Fake, Justin Hall, Jennifer Camper, and Ali
£24.71
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Children Deafness and Deaf Cultures in Popular
Book SynopsisExamines how creative works have depicted what it means to be a deaf or hard of hearing child in the modern world. Scholars discuss wide-ranging subjects and themes, including growing up deaf in a hearing world, stigmas associated with deafness, rival modes of communication, and friendship and discrimination.
£23.70
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Encountering Pennywise Critical Perspectives on
Book SynopsisConsiders the cultural fluctuations of IT's legacies by centering the novel within the theoretical frameworks that animate it and ensure its literary and cultural persistence. The collection explores the ways the novel replicates the icons of various canons and categories in order to accomplish specific psychological and cultural work.
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Conversations with Joe R. Lansdale
Book SynopsisBrings together interviews from newspapers, magazines, and podcasts conducted throughout Joe R. Lansdale’s career. The collection includes conversations between Lansdale and other noted peers like Robert McCammon and James Grady; two podcast transcripts that have never before appeared in print; and a brand-new interview, exclusive to the volume.
£78.40
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Asian Political Cartoons
Book SynopsisIncorporating hundreds of interviews, as well as textual analysis of cartoons; observation of workplaces, companies, and cartoonists at work; and historical research, Lent offers not only the first such survey in English, but the most complete and detailed in any language.
£73.80
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Asian Political Cartoons
Book SynopsisIncorporating hundreds of interviews, as well as textual analysis of cartoons; observation of workplaces, companies, and cartoonists at work; and historical research, Lent offers not only the first such survey in English, but the most complete and detailed in any language.
£999.99
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Eudora Welty and Mystery
Book SynopsisIn Eudora Welty’s puzzle-texts, she habitually engages with familiar genres and then delights readers with her transformations and nonfulfilment of conventions. This book reveals how often that play is with mystery, crime, and detective fiction genres, forms often condescended to in literary studies, but beloved by Welty throughout her lifetime.
£73.80
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi They Also Write for Kids CrossWriting Activism and Childrens Literature
Book SynopsisInvites readers to place children’s literature in conversation with works more typically understood as being for adult audiences, read multiethnic US literature alongside texts by global writers, consider children’s poetry and nonfiction as well as fiction, and read diachronically as well as cross-culturally.
£78.40
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Authenticating Whiteness Karens Selfies and Pop
Book SynopsisExplores the idea that popular media implicitly portrays whiteness as credible, trustworthy, familiar, and honest, and that this portrayal is normalized and ubiquitous. Whether on television, film, social media, or in the news, white people are constructed as believable and unrehearsed, from the way they talk to how they look and act.
£23.70
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Robert Williams Conversations
Book SynopsisA legendary figure of underground comix, Robert Williams (b. 1943) is an important social chronicler of American popular culture. The interviews assembled in in this volume attest to his rhetorical powers, which match the high level of energy evident in his underground comix and action-filled canvases.
£81.75
University Press of Mississippi If You Should Go at Midnight
Book SynopsisGuides readers through an exploration of legend tripping, drawing on years of scholarship, documentary accounts, and his own extensive fieldwork. Poring over old reports and legends, sleeping in haunted inns, and trekking through wilderness full of cannibal mutants and strange beasts, Debies-Carl provides an in-depth analysis of this practice.
£73.80
University Press of Mississippi Blockheads Beagles and Sweet Babboos
Book SynopsisSheds new light on the past importance, ongoing significance, and future relevance of a comics series that millions adore: Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts. More specifically, the book examines a fundamental feature of the series: its core cast of characters.
£73.80
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Becoming Ezra Jack Keats
Book SynopsisOffers the first complete biography of acclaimed children’s author and illustrator Ezra Jack Keats (1916-1983) intended for adult readers. Drawing extensively from his unpublished autobiography and letters, the book covers the breadth of Keats’s life.
£21.25
University Press of Mississippi Race and the Animated Bodyscape
Book SynopsisRace does not exist in animation - it must instead be constructed and ascribed. In Race and the Animated Bodyscape, Francis M. Agnoli introduces and illustrates the concept of the animated bodyscape, looking specifically at the US television series Avatar: The Last Airbender and its sequel, The Legend of Korra.
£23.70
University Press of Mississippi The Velveteen Rabbit at 100
Book SynopsisContributions by Kelly Blewett, Claudia Camicia, Alisa Clapp-Itnyre, Lisa Rowe Fraustino, Elisabeth Graves, Karlie Herndon, KaaVonia Hinton, Holly Blackford Humes, Melanie Hurley, Kara K. Keeling, Maleeha Malik, Claudia Mills, Elena Paruolo, Scott T. Pollard, Jiwon Rim, Paige Sammartino, Adrianna Zabrzewska, and Wenduo Zhang First published in 1922 to immediate popularity, The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams has never been out of print. The story has been adapted for film, television, and theater across a range of mediums including animation, claymation, live action, musical, and dance. Frequently, the story inspires a sentimental, nostalgic response--as well as a corresponding dismissive response from critics. It is surprising that, despite its longevity and popularity, The Velveteen Rabbit has inspired a relatively thin dossier of serious literary scholarship, a gap that this volume seeks to correct. While each essay can stand alone, the chapters in Th
£23.70
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Starmaker David O. Selznick and the Production
Book SynopsisReveals the mechanisms by which David O. Selznick and his collaborators discovered and promoted new stars and describes how these personalities were marketed, whether for financial gain or symbolic recognition and prestige.
£26.06
University Press of Mississippi Comics Art in China
Book SynopsisIn the most comprehensive and authoritative source on this subject, Comics Art in China covers almost all comics art forms in mainland China, providing the history from the nineteenth century to the present as well as perspectives on both the industry and the art form.
£23.70
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Exploring the Land of Ooo An Unofficial Overview
Book SynopsisA guide through the colourful and exuberant animated television series that initially aired from 2010 to 2018. In this thorough overview, author Paul Thomas explores the nuances of Adventure Time‘s characters, production history, ancillary media, and vibrant fandom.Trade ReviewAs thorough and comprehensive an account of Adventure Time as one could possibly hope for. I’m grateful for and flattered by all the care that Paul A. Thomas put into this work." - Tom Herpich, Adventure Time storyboard artist"Pen Ward’s Adventure Time is just the sort of bellwether series that deserves the thorough and thoughtful historical accounting Thomas has given us here. I love it (but I still freaking hate Trudy)." - Eric Homan, Adventure Time associate producer"Exploring the Land of Ooo is a wonderful book offering an extremely engaging and thorough production history of the popular show Adventure Time." - Paul Booth, professor of communication at DePaul University"Fascinating revelations from the world’s foremost scholar of Ooo." - Casey James Basichis, Adventure Time composer
£19.96
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Cloverfield
Book SynopsisInnovative and intense, Cloverfield was blockbuster filmmaking at its best. The film’s franchising followed the path of high-profile Hollywood properties. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the franchise, measuring how it steers between the commercial potential, creative risks, and political challenges in Hollywood.Trade ReviewCloverfield: Creatures and Catastrophes in Post-9/11 Cinema is undoubtedly an exciting contribution to the Reframing Hollywood series. Steffen Hantke uses new and worthy sources to achieve a rounded, cross-sectional appreciation of the film." - Ian Scott, author of American Politics in Hollywood Film
£73.80
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Cloverfield Creatures and Catastrophes in
Book SynopsisInnovative and intense, Cloverfield was blockbuster filmmaking at its best. The film’s franchising followed the path of high-profile Hollywood properties. This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the franchise, measuring how it steers between the commercial potential, creative risks, and political challenges in Hollywood.Trade ReviewCloverfield: Creatures and Catastrophes in Post-9/11 Cinema is undoubtedly an exciting contribution to the Reframing Hollywood series. Steffen Hantke uses new and worthy sources to achieve a rounded, cross-sectional appreciation of the film." - Ian Scott, author of American Politics in Hollywood Film
£18.95
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Roots Punk
Book SynopsisPunk rock evokes dissent and disruption, abrasive and anarchic musicality, and a host of countercultural aesthetics. Featuring interviews and over one hundred images, this volume focuses on how punk merged with roots music to create a rich style that incorporated honky-tonk, rockabilly, doo-wop, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, blues, and labour ballads.Trade Review[With] thorough, enticing interviews and incisive commentary, Roots Punk offers an important counternarrative to standard histories of punk." - David Pearson, author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States
£77.35
University Press of Mississippi Roots Punk
Book SynopsisPunk rock evokes dissent and disruption, abrasive and anarchic musicality, and a host of countercultural aesthetics. Featuring interviews and over one hundred images, this volume focuses on how punk merged with roots music to create a rich style that incorporated honky-tonk, rockabilly, doo-wop, reggae, ska, jazz, folk, blues, and labour ballads.Trade Review[With] thorough, enticing interviews and incisive commentary, Roots Punk offers an important counternarrative to standard histories of punk." - David Pearson, author of Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire: Punk Rock in the 1990s United States
£26.06
MP-MPP University Press of Mississippi Monsters and Saints
Book SynopsisPresents a collection of stories, poetry, art, and essays divining the contemporary intersection of Latinx and Indigenous cultures from the American Southwest, Mexico, and Central and South America.Trade ReviewThis truly innovative book amasses creative and research-based writing that illustrates a connection between historical indigenous communities and contemporary Chicanx identified peoples." - Rachel González-Martin, author of Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer IdentitiesTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Collecting Our Bones Shantel Martinez and Kelly Medina-LópezPart I. Ghosts in the Real: Historiography in Our Stories that Becomes Research Chapter 1. La Llorona: A LatIndingenous Specter of Trauma, Motherhood, and Contemporary Racial Violence Sarah De Los Santos Upton and Leandra Hinojosa Hernández Chapter 2. Legacies of Land, Cultural Clashes, and Spiritual Stirrings: A Testimonio of New Mexican Ghost Stories Amanda R. Martinez Chapter 3. Dueling Border-Ghosts: Exploring the Equator as a Space of Spirituality and Resistance Diana Isabel Martínez Chapter 4. Closing the Circle Eric Murillo Chapter 5. Ciguanabas, Refugees, and Other Hauntings: Three Salvadoran Women’s Epistemic Hauntings as Resistance against Heteropatriarchy Brenda Selena Lara Chapter 6. "Entre la Santa y la Muerte": Liminality and Empowerment in Mexico’s Santa Muerte Luisa Fernanda Grijalva-Maza Chapter 7. La CoyotaPerejundia Moises Gonzales Chapter 8. Iconografía Prohibida/Forbidden Iconography Lizzeth Tecuatl Cuaxiloa Chapter 9. Making a Living Saul RamirezPart II. Hazme Caso: Memoir, Poetry, and Stories Chapter 10. Curse of the Zamora Girls: Unveiling Familial Ghost Stories for Survival Bianca Tonantzin Zamora Chapter 11. And He Whispered, "Yolanda, Yolanda"Spencer R. Herrera Chapter 12. Mi Abuelita y Los Rosarios Arturo "Velaz" Muñoz Chapter 13. Los Aullidos de las Madres Sarah Amira de la Garza Chapter 14. my baby wanted an el camino, that’s real Diego Medina Chapter 15. Cry BabyKathleen Alcalá Chapter 16. Becoming Indigenous Again: Returning Home and Making the Ghosts Visible Juan Pacheco Marcial Chapter 17. cortando las nubes,or, death came on horses ire’ne lara silva Chapter 18. Thru the Veil and 32.2480° N, 112.9161° W (Sonoran Desert) Roxanna Ivonne Sanchez-AvilaPart III. Bringing the Borderlands Home: Public Discourses and Theories of the Flesh Chapter 19. Hauntology of the Oppressed: The MeXicana Gothic and Spectral Geographies in Sandra Cisneros’s "Woman Hollering Creek" Cathryn J. Merla-Watson Chapter 20. Haunted by Settler Nostalgia: (Lat)Indigenous Specters, White Vampires, and the Historical Amnesia of Twilight Susana Loza About the Contributors Index
£77.35
Cornell University Press Dismantlings
Book SynopsisFor the master''s tools, the poet Audre Lorde wrote, will never dismantle the master''s house. Dismantlings is a study of literary, political, and philosophical critiques of the utopian claims about technology in the Long Seventies, the decade and a half before 1980. Following Alice Hilton''s 1963 admonition that the coming years would bring humanity to a crossroadsmachines for HUMAN BEINGS or human beings for THE MACHINEMatt Tierney explores wide-ranging ideas from science fiction, avant-garde literatures, feminist and anti-racist activism, and indigenous eco-philosophy that may yet challenge machines of war, control, and oppression.Dismantlings opposes the language of technological idealism with radical thought of the Long Seventies, from Lorde and Hilton to Samuel R. Delany and Ursula K. Le Guin to Huey P. Newton, John Mohawk, and many others. This counter-lexicon retrieves seven terms for the contemporary critique of technology: Luddism, a verbal and Trade ReviewDismantlings is a remarkable book. It is also a difficult book. Difficult not because of impenetrable theoretical prose (the writing is clear and crisp), but because it is always challenging to go back and confront the warnings that were ignored... The lessons from the long seventies are those that we are still struggling to reckon with today, including the recognition that in order to fully make sense of the machines around us it may be necessary to dismantle many of them. * boundary 2 *Unable to do justice to this magnificent mongraph, it will have to suffice to say that Tierney's Dismantlings is one of the most important books of the year as it offers up a number of thinkers and artists that provide language and strategies for working through urgent issues impacting the globe today and for inspiring ways to use words against machines to act towards more equitable futures. -- Mary Foltz * The Year's Work in English Studies *Matt Tierney['s] excellent and impassioned new book, Dismantlings, reminds us that some of the most powerful critiques of technology throughout the period drew on rhetorics steeped in Luddite ideologies that were cannier than we think. * American Literary History *Table of ContentsIntroduction: For the Sake of Survival 1. Luddism 2. Communion 3. Cyberculture 4. Distortion 5. Revolutionary Suicide 6. Liberation Technology 7. Thanatopography Conclusion: American Carnage and Technologies of Tomorrow Acknowledgments Notes Works Cited Permissions Index
£30.40
Cornell University Press Imperial Romance
Book SynopsisIn Imperial Romance, Su Yun Kim argues that the idea of colonial intimacy within the Japanese empire of the early twentieth century had a far broader and more popular influence on discourse makers, social leaders, and intellectuals than previously understood. Kim investigates representations of Korean-Japanese intimate and familial relationshipsincluding romance, marriage, and kinshipin literature, media, and cinema, alongside documents that discuss colonial policies during the Japanese protectorate period and colonial rule in Korea (190545). Focusing on Korean perspectives, Kim uncovers political meaning in the representation of intimacy and emotion between Koreans and Japanese portrayed in print media and films. Imperial Romance disrupts the conventional reading of colonial-period texts as the result of either coercion or the disavowal of colonialism, thereby expanding our understanding of colonial writing practices. The theme of intermarriage gave elite Korean writeTrade ReviewKim provides fresh interpretations of such writers as Yŏm Sangsŏp and Yi Kwangsu by offering new readings of the domestic settings in their works, which explore how they redefined and re-created a new kind of social order among their characters. * Choice *Imperial Romance contains a concise analysis of selected Korean literary and media texts that include the themes of intermarriage and romance. Su Yun Kim's Imperial Romance presents the beginnings of an exciting conversation and prepares us to ask further questions regarding race, love, and romance, whilst evaluating not only the past, but the contemporary moment of globalization. * International Journal of Asian Studies *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Imperial Romance 1. Civilization and Enlightenment: The Role of the Japanese Home in the Early Colonial Period, 1905–1919 2. Under the Same Roof: A Royal Wedding and a Mixed Family for the Ruling Class 3. Wartime Ideology and the Integration of Korean-Japanese Mixed Families, 1930s 4. Romance and Colonial Universalism 5. Visualizing "International" and Korean-Japanese Marriage in Print Media Epilogue: Postcolonial Interracial Intimacy
£39.60
Cornell University Press They Will Have Their Game
Book SynopsisIn They Will Have Their Game, Kenneth Cohen explores how sports, drinking, gambling, and theater produced a sense of democracy while also reinforcing racial, gender, and class divisions in early America. Pairing previously unexplored financial records with a wide range of published reports, unpublished correspondence, and material and visual evidence, Cohen demonstrates how investors, participants, and professional managers and performers from all sorts of backgrounds saw these sporting activities as stages for securing economic and political advantage over others.They Will Have Their Game tracks the evolution of this fight for power from 1760 to 1860, showing how its roots in masculine competition and risk-taking gradually developed gendered and racial limits and then spread from leisure activities to the consideration of elections as races and business as a game. The result reorients the standard narrative about the rise of commercial popular culture to questiTrade ReviewIn this highly readable scholarly work, Cohen offers a descriptive study in power and hierarchy in American society from 1750 to 1860 and the evolving role of 'sporting culture' in their expression. Well-chosen and well-placed reproductions of period artwork illustrate socialization between social groups and the exclusionary divides that increasingly restricted participation by women, black slaves, and freemen. * Choice *They Will Have Their Game offers a compelling description of the process by which sporting culture emerged in eastern North America.... political and cultural historians should read it, and they should do so with care. * William & Mary Quarterly *The book is gracefully written, and a large number of well-chosen illustrations add to the narrative. They Will Have Their Game has many strengths. Perhaps most impressive is the research, especially in letters and legal records, which captures a level of detail I would not have thought possible. * Journal of the Early Republic *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Meaning of Sport Part One: The Colonial Period 1. The Rise of Genteel Sport 2. A Revolution in Sporting Culture Part Two: The Early National Period 3. Sport Reborn 4. Prestige or Profit Part Three: The Antebellum Period 5. A Mass Sporting Industry 6. Sporting Cultures Epilogue: Change and Persistence
£19.79
Cornell University Press Pop City
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewPop City is a uniquely valuable text for celebrity and fan studies researchers... it distinguishes itself from mainstream scholarship on K-pop and the Korean Wave... Oh paints a compelling picture of the uneasy yet instrumental relationship of Korean popular culture to the municipalities—large and small—that gamble resources and political capital. * Cultural Sociology *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction PART I. THE SPECULATIVE PRODUCTION OF DRAMAS AND DRAMA SITES 1. Speculative Producers: The Production of Korean Drama 2. Spectacular Places: Drama-Filming Sites PART II. THE AFFECTIVE CONSUMPTION OF K-POP IDOLS AND PLACES 3. Image Producers: The (Re)Production of K-Pop Idols 4. K-Star Road: Making Gangnam into a K-Pop–Filled Place 5. Cosme Road: K-Beauty and the Globalization of Myeong-dong Conclusion Notes Reference List Index
£15.19
Cornell University Press Marvel Comics in the 1970s
Book SynopsisMarvel Comics in the 1970s explores a forgotten chapter in the story of the rise of comics as an art form. Bridging Marvel''s dizzying innovations and the birth of the underground comics scene in the 1960s and the rise of the prestige graphic novel and postmodern superheroics in the 1980s, Eliot Borenstein reveals a generation of comic book writers whose work at Marvel in the 1970s established their own authorial voice within the strictures of corporate comics.Through a diverse cast of heroes (and the occasional antihero)Black Panther, Shang-Chi, Deathlok, Dracula, Killraven, Man-Thing, and Howard the Duckwriters such as Steve Gerber, Doug Moench, and Don McGregor made unprecedented strides in exploring their characters'' inner lives. Visually, dynamic action was still essential, but the real excitement was taking place inside their heroes'' heads. Marvel Comics in the 1970s highlights the brilliant and sometimes gloriously imperfect creations thatTrade ReviewMarvel Comics in the 1970s is a detailed, wonky examination of a significant period in the history of Marvel Comics for die-hard comics fans and scholars of the graphic novel. * Kirkus Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Best Marvel Comic of the 1970s 1. Inside Out: Stan Lee and the Drama of the Visible Self 2. Everyday Transcendence: Steve Englehart and the Quest for Selfhood 3. Crouching Tiger, Running Commentary: Doug Moench on the Margins of Marvel 4. Blood Will Tell: Marv Wolfman's Tomb of Dracula 5. Bodies and Words: Don McGregor's Tortured Romantic Individualism 6. Subjectivity and Its Discontents: Steve Gerber and the Uses of Disenchantment Coda: Claremont Rising
£31.50
Stanford University Press Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in
Book SynopsisComedy is a brutal business. When comedians define success, they don't talk about money—they talk about not quitting. They work in a business where even big names work for free, and the inequalities of race, class, and gender create real barriers. But they also work in a business where people still believe that hard work and talent lead to the big time. How do people working in comedy sustain these contradictions and keep laughing? In Behind the Laughs, Michael P. Jeffries brings readers into the world of comedy to reveal its dark corners and share its buoyant lifeblood. He draws on conversations with comedians, as well as club owners, bookers, and managers, to show the extraordinary social connections professional humor demands. Not only do comedians have to read their audience night after night, but they must also create lasting bonds across the profession to get gigs in the first place. Comedy is not a meritocracy, and its rewards are not often fame and fortune. Only performers who know the rules of their community are able to make it a career.Trade Review"Melding intimate interviews with astute analysis, Behind the Laughs reveals how the exploitation of comedians is neither funny nor simple. This is a well-researched book that pulls back the curtains on the business of comedy, revealing fascinating stories and troubling inequalities." -- Nancy Wang Yuen * author of Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism *"Comedy might be funny, but it's no laughing matter. It's a tough gig, as dependent on networks and connections as on talent and training. Who gets in the door and what happens inside is the subject of Behind the Laughs—Michael Jeffries' smart, original, highly-readable new book about the 'show' and 'business' of comedy. A must-read for anyone interested in the interplay of culture, labor, power, and inequality in the contemporary culture industries." -- Laura Grindstaff * University of California, Davis *Table of ContentsContents and AbstractsLights chapter abstractThis chapter introduces the book's thesis. Contrary to popular belief, comedy workers are not anti-social outcasts, but a highly social group with a deep commitment to their comedy communities. The pride in, and emphasis on, community becomes a psychological wage that offsets the unfairness and exploitation of the comedy business, and gives performers the support they need to pursue their dreams against long odds. However, comedy communities are experienced differently depending on intersections of race, class, and gender. Despite the collective identity affirmed by comedy workers from different backgrounds, women and people of color face numerous disadvantages and forms of mistreatment that white men do not. 1Chemistry of a Comedian chapter abstractThis chapter offers an introduction to comedy workers in their own words. Performers describe the qualities and personality traits they share, which makes it impossible to reduce them to the most commonly held stereotypes of comedians as narcissistic social misfits. The chapter describes the process through which the interviewees enter the comedy world, and recounts the earliest and most important lessons they learn about comedy. In discussing both topics – their personal qualities, and their early comedy careers – performers reveal themselves to be highly social animals. They move through comedy with great awareness of their surroundings, and strong connections to the people around them. 2From Funny to Family chapter abstract 3Succeeding at Not Failing chapter abstract 4Celebrity in the Making chapter abstract 5Privilege, Patriarchy, and Performance chapter abstract Curtains chapter abstract
£19.79
Stanford University Press The Costs of Connection: How Data Is Colonizing
Book SynopsisJust about any social need is now met with an opportunity to "connect" through digital means. But this convenience is not free—it is purchased with vast amounts of personal data transferred through shadowy backchannels to corporations using it to generate profit. The Costs of Connection uncovers this process, this "data colonialism," and its designs for controlling our lives—our ways of knowing; our means of production; our political participation. Colonialism might seem like a thing of the past, but this book shows that the historic appropriation of land, bodies, and natural resources is mirrored today in this new era of pervasive datafication. Apps, platforms, and smart objects capture and translate our lives into data, and then extract information that is fed into capitalist enterprises and sold back to us. The authors argue that this development foreshadows the creation of a new social order emerging globally—and it must be challenged. Confronting the alarming degree of surveillance already tolerated, they offer a stirring call to decolonize the internet and emancipate our desire for connection.Trade Review"A profound exploration of how the ceaseless extraction of information about our intimate lives is remaking both global markets and our very selves. The Costs of Connection represents an enormous step forward in our collective understanding of capitalism's current stage, a stage in which the final colonial input is the raw data of human life. Challenging, urgent, and bracingly original."—Naomi Klein, Gloria Steinem Chair of Media, Culture, and Feminist Studies, Rutgers University"A provocative tour-de-force. A powerful interrogation of the power of data in our networked age. Through an enchanting critique of different aspects of our data soaked society, Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias invite the reader to reconsider their assumptions about the moral, political, and economic order that makes data-driven technologies possible."—danah boyd, Microsoft Research and founder of Data & Society"There's a land grab occurring right now, and it's for your data and your freedom: companies are not only surveilling you, they're increasingly influencing and controlling your behavior. This paradigm-shifting book explains the new colonialism at the heart of modern computing, and serves as a needed wake-up call to everyone who cares about our future relationship with technology."—Bruce Schneier, author of Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World"Couldry and Mejias have written a profoundly important book, demonstrating the lasting value of social theory to the interpretation (and improvement) of our new digital reality. They deeply understand the nature of platform capitalism. They draw striking and rigorously reasoned parallels between modern tech giants and the firms and governments that exploited colonies in centuries past. And they advance an agenda for decolonizing data that promotes a healthier ecology of online interaction. This book is an essential guide to understanding the depths of the crises in data protection, privacy, and automation that we now face."—Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law, University of Maryland Carey School of Law"Couldry and Mejias show that data colonialism is not a metaphor. It is a process that expands many dark chapters of the past into our shiny new world of smartphones, smart TVs, and smart stores. This book rewards the reader with important historical context, fascinating examples, clear writing, and unexpected insights scattered throughout."—Joseph Turow, University of Pennsylvania"This book is a must-read for those grappling with how the global data economy reproduces long-standing social injustice, and what must be done to counter this phenomenon. With a feast of insights embedded in visceral historical and contemporary illustrations, the authors brilliantly push the reader to rethink the relations between technology, power, and inequality."—Payal Arora, author of The Next Billion Users: Digital Life beyond the West"This is a deeply critical engagement with the systems that enable 'data colonialism' to extend its reach into the past, present and future of human life itself. Couldry and Mejias provide a comprehensive and well-considered challenge to the seeming inevitability of this transformative development in capitalism. Theirs is a giant step forward along the path toward rediscovering the meaning and possibility of self-determination. It is not too late to join in!"—Oscar H. Gandy, Jr., Emeritus Professor, Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania"This book is among the most insightful and important contributions to our understanding of the political economy of data and the 'internet of things.' It brings together historical analysis, critical theory, and a trenchant sense of urgency to reveal what's really at stake as we choose to send information through everything and connect our bodies and minds to streams of data."—Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of Antisocial Media: How Facebook Disconnects Us and Undermines Democracy"Nick Couldry and Ulises A. Mejias go digging deeply into the digital: its spaces, its layers, its deployments. One of their guiding efforts concerns what it actually takes to have this digital capacity in play. It is not an innocent event: it is in some ways closer to an extractive sector, and this means there is a price we pay for its existence."—Saskia Sassen, author of Expulsions"The authors effectively blend their particular skills: Couldry applies critical theory to the transformation of media, and Mejias concentrates on the failings of social media to affect political change. Those studying political science, information technology, and communications at the undergraduate level will grapple with the authors' arguments about whether data can be colonized and exploited in the same way labor and resources were under traditional forms of colonialism. Highly recommended."—H. L. Katz, CHOICE"In contrast to other recent authors who see this collection of data for profit as a new type of capitalism...Couldry and Mejias argue that what is taking place under data colonialism is merely the extension of capitalism as it has developed over the last two centuries....Where the book shines is in using the theory underpinning the idea of data colonialism to articulate sites of resistance."—Laura Carter, LSE Review of Books"The process of data colonialism is a highly useful analytical framework for understanding the ever-growing role of data in modern life. Couldry and Mejias consider this framework within a truly global scope and provide a highly approachable text that synthesizes economics, history, and media studies scholarship."—Ben Pettis, Critical Studies in Media Communication"In this provocative, consequential book, Couldry and Mejias theorize the dynamics of change in contemporary capitalism as grounded in a new form of data colonialism....[The authors] delineate intriguing parallels between historical processes of colonial expansion by taking over land and other natural resources and contemporary processes of mining personal data as inputs for capitalism."—Sara Schoonmaker, Social Forces"Couldry and Mejias are fitting the internet, in all its 'now-now-now' insistence, into a much broader sweep of history than other commentators on the digital era have attempted."—Wendy M. Grossman, ZDNet"the book shares the core ambition of . . . Shoshana Zuboff's (2019) The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. Yet, arguably, by advancing the lens of data colonialism and drawing heavily on Marxist social theory, Couldry and Mejias have a more radical critique of capitalism in mind, one that historically ties it to colonialist efforts an appropriating, exploiting and controlling resources, redistributing benefits and spreading specific ideologies. . . . What is instead at stake, argue Couldry and Mejias, is a shift in the raw material that capitalism is appropriating and controlling: it is human life itself. . . . the major strength of the argument lies in a rich theoretically driven narrative that weaves together multiple strands of classic social theory – from Marx and Foucault to decolonial theory – and connects them with contemporary analyses of data justice and the legal-commercial complex regarding personal data."—Stine Lomborg, European Journal of CommunicationTable of ContentsPreface: Colonized by Data 1. The Capitalization of Life without Limit 2. Cloud Empire Interlude: On Colonialism and the Decolonial Turn 3. The Coloniality of Data Relations 4. The Hollowing Out of the Social 5. Data and the Threat to Human Autonomy 6. Decolonizing Data Postscript: Another Path Is Possible
£92.80
Stanford University Press A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet
Book SynopsisHow cats became the undisputed mascot of the internet. The advertising slogan of the social news site Reddit is "Come for the cats. Stay for the empathy." Journalists and their readers seem to need no explanation for the line, "The internet is made of cats." Everyone understands the joke, but few know how it started. A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet is the first book to explore the history of how the cat became the internet's best friend. Internet cats can differ in dramatic ways, from the goth cats of Twitter to the glamourpusses of Instagram to the giddy, nonsensical silliness of Nyan Cat. But they all share common traits and values. Bringing together fun anecdotes, thoughtful analyses, and hidden histories of the communities that built the internet, Elyse White shows how japonisme, punk culture, cute culture, and the battle among different communities for the soul of the internet informed the sensibility of online felines. Internet cats offer a playful—and useful—way to understand how culture shapes and is shaped by technology. Western culture has used cats for centuries as symbols of darkness, pathos, and alienation, and the communities that helped build the internet explicitly constructed themselves as outsiders, with snark and alienation at the core of their identity. Thus cats became the sine qua non of cultural literacy for the Extremely Online, not to mention an everyday medium of expression for the rest of us. Whatever direction the internet takes next, the "series of tubes" is likely to remain cat-shaped.Trade Review"I read the book I must applaud Some parts I ate Some parts I clawed"—Curious Zelda, author of The Adventures of a Curious Cat"Engaging and entertaining, A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet traces the emergence of the internet's mascot from punk culture and japonisme, misogyny and trolling. Elyse White provides a definitive overview of one of online culture's least understood phenomena, and a fascinating ride through internet history."—Ethan Zuckerman, MIT Center for Civic Media, author of Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection"Ever-present and infinitely adaptable, cats are among the internet's most enduring memes. Elyse White gives the internet cat compendium its due, outlining the historical, social, and cultural significance of the felines that have long dominated our feeds. A Unified Theory of Cats on the Internet is an essential look at life online."—Ryan Milner, author of The World Made MemeTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The Semiotic History of Grumpy Cats 2. The Great LOLcat Massacre 3. Extremely Online Felines 4. The Three Lives of Internet Cats Epilogue: Late Adopter
£13.94
Stanford University Press The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels
Book SynopsisA rigorous study of the social meaning and consequences of racist humor, and a damning argument for when the joke is not just a joke. Having a "good" sense of humor generally means being able to take a joke without getting offended—laughing even at a taboo thought or at another's expense. The insinuation is that laughter eases social tension and creates solidarity in an overly politicized social world. But do the stakes change when the jokes are racist? In The Souls of White Jokes Raúl Pérez argues that we must genuinely confront this unsettling question in order to fully understand the persistence of anti-black racism and white supremacy in American society today. W.E.B. Du Bois's prescient essay "The Souls of White Folk" was one of the first to theorize whiteness as a social and political construct based on a feeling of superiority over racialized others—a kind of racial contempt. Pérez extends this theory to the study of humor, connecting theories of racial formation to parallel ideas about humor stemming from laughter at another's misfortune. Critically synthesizing scholarship on race, humor, and emotions, he uncovers a key function of humor as a tool for producing racial alienation, dehumanization, exclusion, and even violence. Pérez tracks this use of humor from blackface minstrelsy to contemporary contexts, including police culture, politics, and far-right extremists. Rather than being harmless fun, this humor plays a central role in reinforcing and mobilizing racist ideology and power under the guise of amusement. The Souls of White Jokes exposes this malicious side of humor, while also revealing a new facet of racism today. Though it can be comforting to imagine racism as coming from racial hatred and anger, the terrifying reality is that it is tied up in seemingly benign, even joyful, everyday interactions as well— and for racism to be eradicated we must face this truth.Trade Review"This book is an example of the best the sociological imagination has to offer. Pérez advances a powerful theory, elegantly substantiated with historical and contemporary examples. I learned a lot and so will everyone who reads this book."—Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, author of Racism without Racists"In providing the first sustained discussion of racist humor in the United States, Pérez contributes a significant critical intervention to intellectual discussions of racism."—Simon Weaver, author of The Rhetoric of Racist Humour"Theoretically astute and historically rich, this unique study depicts the racial joke—far from being harmless and disarming—as being inseparable from the cementing of white solidarity, from the spreading of racist commonsense, and from easy disavowal of the damage being done."—David Roediger, author of The Wages of Whiteness"It is a commonplace assumption that humor is always harmless fun and vital for our everyday well-being. In this important new book, Raúl Pérez cogently argues that this is not invariably the case, and that jokes and joking relations can be hostile, divisive, alienating and dehumanizing – or in other words, very harmful. Within a strong and well-woven theoretical framework, The Souls of White Jokes offers a major contribution to the critical sociology of ethnicity and racism as well as to the study of humor in key institutions and organizations."—Michael Pickering, author of Blackface Minstrelsy in Britain"Pérez has written the most consequential sociological analysis of humor in the past 20 years... With the current debates over who or what is racist, Pérez has provided a guide that will provoke debates that are essential in a world of comic possibilities and comic cringes."—Gary Alan Fine, Symbolic Interaction"Raúl Pérez has published a much needed addition to the critical study of how racist jokes do the dirty work of constructing racism and racially hierarchical environments."—Michael J. Lorr, Ethnic and Racial Studies"Pérez has written an essential book for both the non-academic and academic audience—one that will undoubtedly serve as an important teaching tool about racial humor and the importance of understanding how racism is reproduced, even in the absence of hatred or negative feelings."—Muna Adem, Sociology of Race and Ethnicity"I find The Souls of White Jokes an important, theoretically rich and thoroughly convincing study of the entanglements of racist humour with white supremacy. I look forward to seeing how this book will influence scholarship in the field of humour studies in years to come."—Lucy Spoliar, The European Journal of Humour Research"In The Souls of White Jokes, Raúl Pérez provides a compelling explanation of how White racist jokes represent a real-time measurement where Americans can see or hear the continued subjugation and disenfranchisement of Non-Whites in the United States."—Cameron D. Lippard, Social Forces"The Souls of White Jokes seeks to counter the concerns of those on the left who believe that targeting racist humor diverts attention from more important issues, such as poverty and diminishing democratic institutions, in the US. More important, Pérez provides a forceful argument to counter those who believe disparaging racial and ethnic humor merits protection as free speech. Recommended."—J. S. Franks, CHOICETable of Contents1. The Racial Power of Humor 2. Amused Racial Contempt, or a Theory of White Racist Humor 3. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Violent Racist Humor of the Far Right 4. Blue Humor: The Racist Insults and Injuries of the Police 5. President Chimp: The Politics of Amused Racial Contempt Epilogue: Racist Humor and the Cult(ure) of Whiteness
£60.80
Stanford University Press A Decent Meal: Building Empathy in a Divided
Book SynopsisA poignant look at empathetic encounters between staunch ideological rivals, all centered around our common need for food. While America's new reality appears to be a deeply divided body politic, many are wondering how we can or should move forward from here. Can political or social divisiveness be healed? Is empathy among people with very little ideological common ground possible? In A Decent Meal, Michael Carolan finds answers to these fundamental questions in a series of unexpected places: around our dinner tables, along the aisles of our supermarkets, and in the fields growing our fruits and vegetables. What is more common, after all, than the simple fact that we all need to eat? This book is the result of Carolan's career-long efforts to create simulations in which food could be used to build empathy, among even the staunchest of rivals. Though most people assume that presenting facts will sway the way the public behaves, time and again this assumption is proven wrong as we all selectively accept the facts that support our beliefs. Drawing on the data he has collected, Carolan argues that we must, instead, find places and practices where incivility—or worse, hate—is suspended and leverage those opportunities into tools for building social cohesion. Each chapter follows the individuals who participated in a given experiment, ranging from strawberry-picking, attempting to subsist on SNAP benefits, or attending a dinner of wild game. By engaging with participants before, during, and after, Carolan is able to document their remarkable shifts in attitude and opinion. Though this book is framed around food, it is really about the spaces opened up by our need for food, in our communities, in our homes, and, ultimately, in our minds.Trade Review"Michael Carolan's collection of studies, experiences and stories in A Decent Meal is a reaction to the extreme social polarization in the U.S., which peaked with the storming of the Capitol. Knowledge of this disintegration, however, only appears in passing in his work – his main concern is how to stop the process. The sociologist does not think about big solutions, structural reforms or laws. For him, the focus is on the individual and the question of whether and how to get through to them. The book is a profoundly humanistic response to a tremendous humanistic crisis"—getAbstract Journal"With interactions around food as his guiding framework, Michael Carolan seeks to answer questions keeping many Americans awake right now: Can we learn to see some of today's red-hot issues through a different lens? And in doing so, can we find common ground and maybe even some civility in these deeply divided times? An engaging and eminently readable book that may surprise with some of its observations, offering both insights and hope for our future conversations."—Joyce E. McConnell, President, Colorado State University"This is an important and timely book that balances the voices of the right and left in a conversation about community and civility. An absolute pleasure to read, it illuminates encounters in the heartland of America and the pursuit of a decent meal. Not sure what a decent meal looks like? Michael Carolan shows us, and in the process also shows us what it looks like for Americans to come together in common cause." —Erik Schneiderhan, University of Toronto"Empathy is in short supply in America at the very time we need it. Many of our political divisions reflect a lack of understanding of those different from ourselves. Carolan does an outstanding job giving voice to people in the heartland and helping us to understand their fears, anxieties, and motivations. His work helps us confront the challenges facing American society and ways to overcome those divisions."—Darrell West, Brookings Institution"As a scholar who is interested in misunderstandings and empathy deficits, Carolan's writing offers insights into the ways that stereotypes take diverse forms and how these patterns—rooted in a fundamental lack of understanding—fuel political polarization. The end goal is not necessarily to see everybody as identical but to have an empathetic understanding rooted in a respect for alterity rather than a knee-jerk disdain for essentialized difference."—Josée Johnston, Social ForcesTable of Contents1. Journeys to the Heartland 2. How Would You Stomach That? 3. We're Being Pulled Apart 4. Farming Familiarity 5. Working to Respect Those Who Fed Us 6. Urban-Rural Food Plans 7. Forest to Table 8. Final Thoughts and New Trajectories
£21.59
Stanford University Press The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative
Book SynopsisDespite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.Trade Review"Guo brings much-needed historical and literary sensitivities to the study of complex technological forms. Her innovative approach sheds critical new light on the history, culture, and politics of the Chinese internet. Highly recommended!" -- Guobin Yang * University of Pennsylvania *"Built on over a decade of scrupulous field research and perspicacious on-site observations, this book puts itself on the must-read list of intellectual endeavors inquiring into the way of being on China's ever-evolving internet. Subtly contextualized and dexterously historicized, the narratives embed rich concepts in the flesh and blood of everyday life, virtual and real." -- Zixue Tai * University of Kentucky *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A Cultural Revolution in China's Digital Age chapter abstractBeginning with a discussion of major paradoxes on entertainment, control, and innovation surrounding the Chinese Internet, chapter 1 introduces the puzzle that the rest of the book addresses: how and why has a seemingly repressive authoritarian regime been able to catalyze an ingenious Internet culture in China. It proposes "the network of visibility" as an analytical lens to delve into the mechanisms behind the vibrancy of online culture in China. The network of visibility is analyzed through the process of competition for (1) user attention, and (2) content authority among Internet corporations, media outlets, and individual players in the cultural realm. Consequently, the vitality of the Chinese digital culture is rooted in this dynamic process of negotiation, collaboration, and contestation enacted by the interplay of diverse agents, including the state, cultural institutions, commercial corporations, and Internet users. 2A Historical Overview through Technological Platforms chapter abstractChapter 2 delineates the developmental history of the Internet in China through the four predominant platforms: bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Proceeding chronologically, this chapter addresses how the defining features of these platforms and competition among major players in the field have contributed to shaping public culture and publicity strategies emerging in the technology-mediated sphere. Special attention is paid to the role that the Chinese government and commercial portals play in building research and education networks, creating business models, and continuously expanding into new markets. 3Tracking Playfulness chapter abstractChapter 3 investigates the playfulness of the Chinese Internet and its symbiotic relationship with a culture of contention. Much has been written about the ingenuity of Chinese netizens in appropriating humor, parody, and satire to mock authorities, seek entertainment, and organize networked resistance. However, little scholarly work has addressed how playfulness came to dominate the Chinese Internet in the first place. Taking Internet celebrities as case studies, this chapter attributes the predominant fun-seeking mode to the rudimentary formation of elitist netizen communities in the late 1990s. It addresses the ways in which BBS, as an affective content platform, cultivated the symbiotic relationship between frivolity and serious political engagement among early Internet adopters. This collective spirit of fun-seeking also paved the way for the Internet industry's continuous experiments with comedic mechanisms in the years to come. 4National Blogging and Cultural Entrepreneurship chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on the intersection of the entertainment industry, entrepreneurial culture, and the golden age of blogging in China. It probes the rise of cultural entrepreneurs, who quickly aligned themselves with enterprises seeking to develop culture-related business and transformed the ways that cultural works are produced and publicized. The chapter examines four phenomenally successful, yet understudied cases: television host and producer Yang Lan; star-cum-director Xu Jinglei; publisher Hong Huang; and writer, publisher, and director Guo Jingming. These celebrities, as "attention-haves," due in large part to their fame already established through other channels, innovatively capitalized on digital media to explore new modes of cultural production and to build personal brands. Their trailblazing activities illuminate the ways in which China's nascent entertainment industry, with the backing of Internet corporations, has reinvigorated writing practices, cultivated middle-class aspirations, and aligned with entrepreneurial initiatives in the age of neoliberalism. 5Taboo Breakers and Microcultural Contention chapter abstractTaking the blogs of Mu Zimei and Han Han as case studies, this chapter investigates how an entertainment-oriented blogosphere has catalyzed the rise of opinion leaders who tactically disrupt preset parameters of social, moral, and political norms. It argues that style—defined as a conglomeration of diverse elements, including language, subject matter, online sociality, and the structure and layout of webpages—is essential to these taboo breakers' strategies of contention. In turn, the divergent responses these bloggers evoke fulfill the dual function of enlightenment and entertainment, and catalyze the forging of politically minded citizens at a micro level. 6Digital Witnessing on Weibo chapter abstractThis chapter spells out the multifarious function of the microblogging platform in China. Delving into representative Weibo-based incidents from 2009 to 2018, it examines the role that digital witnessing plays in promoting citizen activism and shaping public culture on Chinese microblogosphere. These cases exemplify the evolving transition of digital witnessing on Weibo, from an emphasis on responsibilities of spectators to multifarious forms of collective spectating mobilized by a diverse range of social actors. Taken together, digital witnessing on Weibo demonstrates how the technological features, business operations, the state, and Internet users have jointly shaped the sociocultural meanings of this platform. 7WeChat: An Inflorescence of Content Production chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how WeChat public accounts have revolutionized the ways in which original content is distributed and commodified. It examines the rise and fall of Mi Meng, owner of one of the most popular public accounts up until February 2019, when she closed her account due to public pressure. Mi Meng's writings not only struck a chord with economically disadvantaged groups but also resonated with the anxiety of a middle-class audience who felt their status becoming increasingly precarious. More important, the management of Mi Meng's account exemplified a changing mode of writing from an author-centered model to a model of team production that involved fan labor, personal branding, and a focus on networking capacity. At the same time, the sudden downfall of Mi Meng illustrates the same kind of unpredictability and precariousness that contributed to her sensational rise in the first place. 8Ambivalent Revolution chapter abstractChapter 8 discusses the implications of this book's findings and pinpoints areas for future research. Essentially, this book investigates digital cultural formation through the four most dynamic discursive spaces to emerge over the past two decades in China (1994–2019): the bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog (Weibo), and WeChat (Weixin). The creation of these digital platforms not only showcases the local appropriation of global technologies in China but also exemplifies how Internet users' mundane activities online hold significant potential for forging politically minded citizens at a micro level. By delineating the process by which user-generated content has been produced, promoted, and received, this book historicizes the study of digital media and sheds light on understanding emerging platforms.
£92.80
Stanford University Press The Evolution of the Chinese Internet: Creative
Book SynopsisDespite widespread consensus that China's digital revolution was sure to bring about massive democratic reforms, such changes have not come to pass. While scholars and policy makers alternate between predicting change and disparaging a stubbornly authoritarian regime, in this book Shaohua Guo demonstrates how this dichotomy misses the far more complex reality. The Evolution of the Chinese Internet traces the emergence and maturation of one of the most creative digital cultures in the world through four major technological platforms: the bulletin board system, the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Guo transcends typical binaries of freedom and control, to argue that Chinese Internet culture displays a uniquely sophisticated interplay between multiple extremes, and that its vibrancy is dependent on these complex negotiations. In contrast to the flourishing of research findings on what is made invisible online, this book examines the driving mechanisms that grant visibility to particular kinds of user-generated content. Offering a systematic account of how and why an ingenious Internet culture has been able to thrive, Guo highlights the pivotal roles that media institutions, technological platforms, and creative practices of Chinese netizens have played in shaping culture on- and offline.Trade Review"Guo brings much-needed historical and literary sensitivities to the study of complex technological forms. Her innovative approach sheds critical new light on the history, culture, and politics of the Chinese internet. Highly recommended!" -- Guobin Yang * University of Pennsylvania *"Built on over a decade of scrupulous field research and perspicacious on-site observations, this book puts itself on the must-read list of intellectual endeavors inquiring into the way of being on China's ever-evolving internet. Subtly contextualized and dexterously historicized, the narratives embed rich concepts in the flesh and blood of everyday life, virtual and real." -- Zixue Tai * University of Kentucky *Table of ContentsContents and Abstracts1A Cultural Revolution in China's Digital Age chapter abstractBeginning with a discussion of major paradoxes on entertainment, control, and innovation surrounding the Chinese Internet, chapter 1 introduces the puzzle that the rest of the book addresses: how and why has a seemingly repressive authoritarian regime been able to catalyze an ingenious Internet culture in China. It proposes "the network of visibility" as an analytical lens to delve into the mechanisms behind the vibrancy of online culture in China. The network of visibility is analyzed through the process of competition for (1) user attention, and (2) content authority among Internet corporations, media outlets, and individual players in the cultural realm. Consequently, the vitality of the Chinese digital culture is rooted in this dynamic process of negotiation, collaboration, and contestation enacted by the interplay of diverse agents, including the state, cultural institutions, commercial corporations, and Internet users. 2A Historical Overview through Technological Platforms chapter abstractChapter 2 delineates the developmental history of the Internet in China through the four predominant platforms: bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog, and WeChat. Proceeding chronologically, this chapter addresses how the defining features of these platforms and competition among major players in the field have contributed to shaping public culture and publicity strategies emerging in the technology-mediated sphere. Special attention is paid to the role that the Chinese government and commercial portals play in building research and education networks, creating business models, and continuously expanding into new markets. 3Tracking Playfulness chapter abstractChapter 3 investigates the playfulness of the Chinese Internet and its symbiotic relationship with a culture of contention. Much has been written about the ingenuity of Chinese netizens in appropriating humor, parody, and satire to mock authorities, seek entertainment, and organize networked resistance. However, little scholarly work has addressed how playfulness came to dominate the Chinese Internet in the first place. Taking Internet celebrities as case studies, this chapter attributes the predominant fun-seeking mode to the rudimentary formation of elitist netizen communities in the late 1990s. It addresses the ways in which BBS, as an affective content platform, cultivated the symbiotic relationship between frivolity and serious political engagement among early Internet adopters. This collective spirit of fun-seeking also paved the way for the Internet industry's continuous experiments with comedic mechanisms in the years to come. 4National Blogging and Cultural Entrepreneurship chapter abstractChapter 4 focuses on the intersection of the entertainment industry, entrepreneurial culture, and the golden age of blogging in China. It probes the rise of cultural entrepreneurs, who quickly aligned themselves with enterprises seeking to develop culture-related business and transformed the ways that cultural works are produced and publicized. The chapter examines four phenomenally successful, yet understudied cases: television host and producer Yang Lan; star-cum-director Xu Jinglei; publisher Hong Huang; and writer, publisher, and director Guo Jingming. These celebrities, as "attention-haves," due in large part to their fame already established through other channels, innovatively capitalized on digital media to explore new modes of cultural production and to build personal brands. Their trailblazing activities illuminate the ways in which China's nascent entertainment industry, with the backing of Internet corporations, has reinvigorated writing practices, cultivated middle-class aspirations, and aligned with entrepreneurial initiatives in the age of neoliberalism. 5Taboo Breakers and Microcultural Contention chapter abstractTaking the blogs of Mu Zimei and Han Han as case studies, this chapter investigates how an entertainment-oriented blogosphere has catalyzed the rise of opinion leaders who tactically disrupt preset parameters of social, moral, and political norms. It argues that style—defined as a conglomeration of diverse elements, including language, subject matter, online sociality, and the structure and layout of webpages—is essential to these taboo breakers' strategies of contention. In turn, the divergent responses these bloggers evoke fulfill the dual function of enlightenment and entertainment, and catalyze the forging of politically minded citizens at a micro level. 6Digital Witnessing on Weibo chapter abstractThis chapter spells out the multifarious function of the microblogging platform in China. Delving into representative Weibo-based incidents from 2009 to 2018, it examines the role that digital witnessing plays in promoting citizen activism and shaping public culture on Chinese microblogosphere. These cases exemplify the evolving transition of digital witnessing on Weibo, from an emphasis on responsibilities of spectators to multifarious forms of collective spectating mobilized by a diverse range of social actors. Taken together, digital witnessing on Weibo demonstrates how the technological features, business operations, the state, and Internet users have jointly shaped the sociocultural meanings of this platform. 7WeChat: An Inflorescence of Content Production chapter abstractThis chapter analyzes how WeChat public accounts have revolutionized the ways in which original content is distributed and commodified. It examines the rise and fall of Mi Meng, owner of one of the most popular public accounts up until February 2019, when she closed her account due to public pressure. Mi Meng's writings not only struck a chord with economically disadvantaged groups but also resonated with the anxiety of a middle-class audience who felt their status becoming increasingly precarious. More important, the management of Mi Meng's account exemplified a changing mode of writing from an author-centered model to a model of team production that involved fan labor, personal branding, and a focus on networking capacity. At the same time, the sudden downfall of Mi Meng illustrates the same kind of unpredictability and precariousness that contributed to her sensational rise in the first place. 8Ambivalent Revolution chapter abstractChapter 8 discusses the implications of this book's findings and pinpoints areas for future research. Essentially, this book investigates digital cultural formation through the four most dynamic discursive spaces to emerge over the past two decades in China (1994–2019): the bulletin board system (BBS), the blog, the microblog (Weibo), and WeChat (Weixin). The creation of these digital platforms not only showcases the local appropriation of global technologies in China but also exemplifies how Internet users' mundane activities online hold significant potential for forging politically minded citizens at a micro level. By delineating the process by which user-generated content has been produced, promoted, and received, this book historicizes the study of digital media and sheds light on understanding emerging platforms.
£23.79
Stanford University Press Who Needs Gay Bars?: Bar-Hopping through
Book SynopsisGay bars have been closing by the hundreds. The story goes that increasing mainstream acceptance of LGBTQ+ people, plus dating apps like Grindr and Tinder, have rendered these spaces obsolete. Beyond that, rampant gentrification in big cities has pushed gay bars out of the neighborhoods they helped make hip. Who Needs Gay Bars? considers these narratives, accepting that the answer for some might be: maybe nobody. And yet... Jarred by the closing of his favorite local watering hole in Cleveland, Ohio, Greggor Mattson embarks on a journey across the country to paint a much more complex picture of the cultural significance of these spaces, inside "big four" gay cities, but also beyond them. No longer the only places for their patrons to socialize openly, Mattson finds in them instead a continuously evolving symbol; a physical place for feeling and challenging the beating pulse of sexual progress. From the historical archives of Seattle's Garden of Allah, to the outpost bars in Texas, Missouri or Florida that serve as community hubs for queer youth—these are places of celebration, where the next drag superstar from Alaska or Oklahoma may be discovered. They are also fraught grounds for confronting the racial and gender politics within and without the LGBTQ+ community. The question that frames this story is not asking whether these spaces are needed, but for whom, earnestly exploring the diversity of folks and purposes they serve today. Loosely informed by the Damron Guide, the so-called "Green Book" of gay travel, Mattson logged 10,000 miles on the road to all corners of the United States. His destinations are sometimes thriving, sometimes struggling, but all offering intimate views of the wide range of gay experience in America: POC, white, trans, cis; past, present, and future. Trade Review"A fun, thoughtful, and nuanced examination of the past, present, and future roles of the 'gay bar' as the demand for and economics of queer community space wildly in flux." —Hugh Ryan, author of The Women's House of Detention and When Brooklyn Was Queer"Who Needs Gay Bars offers a powerful collection of microsociological portraits of gay bars across the United States. It accumulates into a nuanced map of a queer world shaped by desire, social and political urgencies, and politico-economic pressures as diverse as the community—from large urban to isolate rural outposts. It is ambitious in its expanse and surprisingly intimate in approach."—Ramón H. Rivera-Servera, The University of Texas, Austin"Breathtakingly intimate and yet vast in scope, this passion project balances sharp insights with the kind of lived-in details that make you want to pull up a stool and stay a while."—Samantha Allen, author of Real Queer America and Patricia Wants to Cuddle"With intelligent and easily accessible writing, this account stands as a testament to our community's resilience."—Alex Espinoza, author of Cruising and The Five Acts of Diego León"Queer bars have been a life-saving sanctuary for LGBTQ people over the last century, and they continue to serve as incubators, not just for queer and trans culture, but how we might also continue to build an even queerer future."—Honey Mahogany, Co-Owner, The Stud"In Who Needs Gay Bars? [Mattson] paints a vivid and nearly comprehensive portrait of the current state of gay bars as an institution and as an important component of the LGBTQ community in all its unwieldy diversity. He also paints a personal journey that many LGBTQ readers will relate to."—Gary L. Day, Philadelphia Gay News"Mattson does his best to survey as many of the myriad issues as possible, faced by an equally myriad number of bars of a dazzling variety. It's also a personal journey by the author that many LGBTQ readers will identify with."—Booklist"[one of] the best queer American travelogues since Edmund White's States of Desire was published way back in 1980."—Passport"[Who Needs Gay Bars?] does an excellent job of addressing how both the LGBTQ+ community and the non-LGBTQ+ community are responsible for the decline in access to gay bars.... Recommended."—A. J. Ramirez, CHOICETable of ContentsI: Ambivalence II: Gay Bar Fundamentals III: Safe Spaces for Whom IV: Lesbian-Owned Bars V: Cruisy Men's Bars VI: How to Save a Gay Bar VII: National Monuments
£23.39
Stanford University Press Administering Affect: Pop-Culture Japan and the
Book SynopsisHow do the worlds that state administrators manage become the feelings publics embody? In Administering Affect, Daniel White addresses this question by documenting the rise of a new national figure he calls "Pop-Culture Japan." Emerging in the wake of Japan's dramatic economic decline in the early 1990s, Pop-Culture Japan reflected the hopes of Japanese state bureaucrats and political elites seeking to recover their country's standing on the global stage. White argues that due to growing regional competitiveness and geopolitical tension in East Asia in recent decades, Japan's state bureaucrats increasingly targeted political anxiety as a national problem and built a new national image based on pop-culture branding as a remedy. Based on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork among rarely accessible government bureaucrats, Administering Affect examines the fascinating connection between state administration and public sentiment. White analyzes various creative policy figures of Pop-Culture Japan, such as anime diplomats, "Cool Japan" branding campaigns, and the so-called "Ambassadors of Cute," in order to illustrate a powerful link between practices of managing national culture and the circulation of anxiety among Japanese publics. Invoking the term "administering affect" to illustrate how anxiety becomes a bureaucratic target, technique, and unintended consequence of promoting Japan's national popular culture, the book presents an ethnographic portrait of the at-times surprisingly emotional lives of Japan's state bureaucrats. In examining how anxious feelings come to drive policymaking, White delivers an intimate anthropological analysis of the affective forces interconnecting state governance, popular culture, and national identity. Trade Review"Administering Affect leaves no ethnographic stone unturned. It is artfully organized and compellingly written. Its scholarship is meticulous and masterfully synthetic. Its conceptual contributions are original and wide-ranging. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the impulsions and compulsions of the contemporary dynamics of soft power."—James Faubion, Rice University"This is a bracing read: original, evocative, beautifully organized, and deeply persuasive. It's a rare piece of work, clearly situated in disciplinary debates and practices while offering far wider and equally substantive contributions."—David Leheny, Waseda University"With this long-awaited monograph, White proves himself a major contributor to research on media culture, affect, and governmental policy. With startling access and insights, White examines the deeply personal work of male bureaucrats—less as efficient automatons and more as highly fallible humans—crafting national anxieties with the paintbrush of girl-cute in Japan."—Christine Yano, University of Hawai'i at Manoa"White gives a unique, ethnographic case study of the efforts by the Japanese government to promote 'Pop-Culture Japan' as a means of reducing the anxieties caused by increased international competitiveness and regional tensions in East Asia. Based on extraordinary access to those in the Japanese government responsible for planning and implementing this program, the Japanese Foreign Ministry, and the Japan Foundation, the book features detailed analysis of and insights into the 'Cool Japan' branding campaigns, the young female 'Ambassadors of Cute,' and the promotion of anime, all designed by mostly male Japanese bureaucrats to foster appreciation of Japanese culture and reduce political anxieties....Recommended."—M. D. Ericson, CHOICE"White's work underscores that in furthering our understandings of Japanese society as a whole, we cannot be beholden to dominant narratives and groups. We must recognize the diversity of experience and practice that state narratives often elide and obfuscate."—John Ostermiller, Pacific Affairs
£64.80
Stanford University Press Administering Affect: Pop-Culture Japan and the
Book SynopsisHow do the worlds that state administrators manage become the feelings publics embody? In Administering Affect, Daniel White addresses this question by documenting the rise of a new national figure he calls "Pop-Culture Japan." Emerging in the wake of Japan's dramatic economic decline in the early 1990s, Pop-Culture Japan reflected the hopes of Japanese state bureaucrats and political elites seeking to recover their country's standing on the global stage. White argues that due to growing regional competitiveness and geopolitical tension in East Asia in recent decades, Japan's state bureaucrats increasingly targeted political anxiety as a national problem and built a new national image based on pop-culture branding as a remedy. Based on sixteen months of ethnographic fieldwork among rarely accessible government bureaucrats, Administering Affect examines the fascinating connection between state administration and public sentiment. White analyzes various creative policy figures of Pop-Culture Japan, such as anime diplomats, "Cool Japan" branding campaigns, and the so-called "Ambassadors of Cute," in order to illustrate a powerful link between practices of managing national culture and the circulation of anxiety among Japanese publics. Invoking the term "administering affect" to illustrate how anxiety becomes a bureaucratic target, technique, and unintended consequence of promoting Japan's national popular culture, the book presents an ethnographic portrait of the at-times surprisingly emotional lives of Japan's state bureaucrats. In examining how anxious feelings come to drive policymaking, White delivers an intimate anthropological analysis of the affective forces interconnecting state governance, popular culture, and national identity. Trade Review"Administering Affect leaves no ethnographic stone unturned. It is artfully organized and compellingly written. Its scholarship is meticulous and masterfully synthetic. Its conceptual contributions are original and wide-ranging. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the impulsions and compulsions of the contemporary dynamics of soft power."—James Faubion, Rice University"This is a bracing read: original, evocative, beautifully organized, and deeply persuasive. It's a rare piece of work, clearly situated in disciplinary debates and practices while offering far wider and equally substantive contributions."—David Leheny, Waseda University"With this long-awaited monograph, White proves himself a major contributor to research on media culture, affect, and governmental policy. With startling access and insights, White examines the deeply personal work of male bureaucrats—less as efficient automatons and more as highly fallible humans—crafting national anxieties with the paintbrush of girl-cute in Japan."—Christine Yano, University of Hawai'i at Manoa"White gives a unique, ethnographic case study of the efforts by the Japanese government to promote 'Pop-Culture Japan' as a means of reducing the anxieties caused by increased international competitiveness and regional tensions in East Asia. Based on extraordinary access to those in the Japanese government responsible for planning and implementing this program, the Japanese Foreign Ministry, and the Japan Foundation, the book features detailed analysis of and insights into the 'Cool Japan' branding campaigns, the young female 'Ambassadors of Cute,' and the promotion of anime, all designed by mostly male Japanese bureaucrats to foster appreciation of Japanese culture and reduce political anxieties....Recommended."—M. D. Ericson, CHOICE"White's work underscores that in furthering our understandings of Japanese society as a whole, we cannot be beholden to dominant narratives and groups. We must recognize the diversity of experience and practice that state narratives often elide and obfuscate."—John Ostermiller, Pacific Affairs
£21.59
Stanford University Press Blood and Lightning: On Becoming a Tattooer
Book SynopsisAny tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies, and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a heady cocktail, something described by Matt, the owner of Oakland's Premium Tattoo, as "blood and lightning." Faced with the client's anticipation of pain and excitement, the tattooer must carefully perform calm authority to obscure a world of preparation and vigilance. "Blood and lightning, my dude"—the mysterious and intoxicating effect of tattooing done right. Dustin Kiskaddon draws on his own apprenticeship with Matt and takes us behind the scenes into the complex world of professional tattooers. We join people who must routinely manage a messy and carnal type of work. Blood and Lightning brings us through the tattoo shop, where the smell of sterilizing agents, the hum of machines, and the sound of music spill out onto the back patio. It is here that Matt, along with his comrades, reviews the day's wins, bemoans its losses, and prepares for the future. Having tattooed more than five hundred people, Kiskaddon is able to freshly articulate the physical, mental, emotional, and moral life of tattooers. His captivating account explores the challenges they face on the job, including the crushing fear of making mistakes on someone else's body, the role of masculinity in evolving tattoo worlds, appropriate and inappropriate intimacy, and the task of navigating conversations about color and race. Ultimately, the stories in this book teach us about the roles our bodies play in the social world. Both mediums and objects of art, our bodies are purveyors of sociocultural significance, sites of capitalist negotiation, and vivid encapsulations of the human condition. Kiskaddon guides us through a strangely familiar world, inviting each of us to become a tattooer along the way. Trade Review"Blood and Lightning is a stellar and vivid depiction of an industry that has long been mythologized in popular culture. Kiskaddon's memoir offers a candid perspective on both the business and creative sides of tattooing. As it dives into a cultural rite of passage, Kiskaddon's work also excels as a character study."—Booklist"In Blood and Lightning, we don't just enter the silent and physical spaces within the world of tattooing, instead the spaces are lived, examined, and connected to our humanity. Kiskaddon shows how tattoos, like history and storytelling itself, can evolve depending on the body or the world they occupy."—Devin Katayama, Senior Produce for NPR's Throughline"Written in an easygoing style, Kiskaddon's narrative ends up as much a workplace memoir as an anthropological study, where the work being documented is both tattooing and ethnography itself, with frequent references to taking field notes and finding ways to get interviews (paying for a tattoo turns out to be the best way to get a tattoo artist to talk for two hours). It's a charming and thoughtful slice of life."—Publishers Weekly"Blood and Lightning is an illuminating peek behind the doors of a tattoo shop, digging into the realities, ethics, and philosophy of altering the bodies of strangers."—Ashley Holstrom, Foreword Reviews"Kiskaddon's sensuous ethnography takes us behind the scenes in the mecca of tattooing—Oakland, California. His richly detailed prose sings as he describes his apprenticeship: learning the right touch, both needle-to-skin and with other members of this 'cool' shop. More than any other ethnography I've read, this one breathes on the page: we inhale the sharp snap of isopropyl alcohol and the tang of sweat, while early Black Flag pumps out the speakers, thumping over the hum of machines, phone calls, and pain-filled exhalations of the clients. "—Jennifer C. Lena, author of Entitled: Discriminating Tastes and the Expansion of the Arts"In this book, Kiskaddon covers ground that few researchers have been willing to traverse. Moreover, he is a scholar/tattooist, a combination rarely seen in the serious literature about tattooing."—David C. Lane, author of The Other End of the Needle"Very thoughtful and knowledgeable; pulled me in right from the start."—Stephanie Tamez, Tattoo Artist and co-owner ofThis Time Tmrwprivate studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn NYC"Blood and Lightning is a landmark study of the craft of tattooing that is consistently compelling and rewarding."—Michael Welch, Chicago Review of Books
£21.59
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Ecology of Attention
Book SynopsisInformation overload, the shallows, weapons of mass distraction, the googlization of minds: countless commentators condemn the flood of images and information that dooms us to a pathological attention deficit. In this new book, cultural theorist Yves Citton goes against the tide of these standard laments to offer a new perspective on the problem of attention in the digital age. Phrases like �paying attention� and �investing one�s attention� attest to our mistaken belief that attention can be conceptualized in narrow economic terms. We are constantly drawn towards attempts to quantify and commodify attention, even down to counting the number of 'likes' a picture receives on Facebook or a video on YouTube. By contrast, Citton argues that we should conceptualize attention as a kind of ecology and examine how the many different environments to which we are exposed from advertising to literature, search engines to performance art condition our attention in different ways. In a world where the demands on our attention are ever-increasing, this timely and original book will be of great interest to students and scholars in media and communications and in literary and cultural studies, and to anyone concerned about the long-term consequences of the profusion of images as well as digital content in the age of the internet. Trade Review"Within the growing field of attention studies, Yves Citton�s new book is a superb and indispensable intervention. He provides a devastating analysis of the neoliberal attention economy and opens up crucial pathways for resisting its imperatives." Jonathan Crary, Columbia University "Citton offers a valuable critique and alternative to talk about an �economy of attention�. He shows how attention produces the individual who is usually presupposed as �paying� it, and he shows how the creation of attentiveness may not really be an economy at all. He starts by debunking the unthought assumptions of a whole field, and moves on to a media and social theory of breadth and subtlety." McKenzie Wark, author of Telesthesia
£49.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Invention of Celebrity
Book SynopsisFrequently perceived as a characteristic of modern culture, the phenomenon of celebrity has much older roots. In this book Antoine Lilti shows that the mechanisms of celebrity were developed in Europe during the Enlightenment, well before films, yellow journalism, and television, and then flourished during the Romantic period on both sides of the Atlantic. Figures from across the arts like Voltaire, Garrick, and Liszt were all veritable celebrities in their time, arousing curiosity and passionate loyalty from their “fans.” The rise of the press, new advertising techniques, and the marketing of leisure brought a profound transformation in the visibility of celebrities: private lives were now very much on public show. Nor was politics spared this cultural upheaval: Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, and Napoleon all experienced a political world transformed by the new demands of celebrity. And when the people suddenly appeared on the revolutionary scene, it was no longer enough to be legitimate; it was crucial to be popular too. Lilti retraces the profound social upheaval precipitated by the rise of celebrity and explores the ambivalence felt toward this new phenomenon. Both sought after and denounced, celebrity evolved as the modern form of personal prestige, assuming the role that glory played in the aristocratic world in a new age of democracy and evolving forms of media. While uncovering the birth of celebrity in the eighteenth century, Lilti's perceptive history at the same time shines light on the continuing importance of this phenomenon in today’s world.Trade Review“Lilti’s achievement is highly impressive. He provides a new perspective on the transformations of Western culture in the age of revolutions, and on the genesis of modern notions of selfhood and personal authenticity. And he reminds us that even as we laugh at contemporary celebrity culture, we need to take it seriously, and not merely as an excrescence or a pathology, but as a constituent element of political and cultural modernity.” David A. Bell, Princeton University “With The Invention of Celebrity, Antoine Lilti has established himself as one of the most significant and talented historians of eighteenth-century France…It is an imaginative study, at once audacious and theoretically grounded, that establishes celebrity as an object of historical analysis and lays the groundwork for further studies of the phenomenon.”Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London"Exhaustively researched, with in-depth analysis, this book is not a light read, but is definitely an interesting read for those who have more than a passing curiosity for the history behind the rise of 'celebrity.'"Feathered Quill Book Reviews"Good history opens up sightlines not only to the past but to the present as well. It allows us to see aspects of our current circumstances as the product of developments that are deeper and richer than we knew… Antoine Lilti’s The Invention of Celebrity is a book that does just that. A chronicle of the origins and development of our modern société du spectacle, it provides a genealogy of the media-driven world of celebrities and personalities who now dominate our headlines and crowd (out) our public debates."Literary Review"An original and seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Invention of Celebrity" is an impressively informative and insightful work that is enhanced with the inclusion of a section of full color illustrations, fifty-six pages of Notes, and a thirteen page Index."Midwest Book Review “This well-written and well-translated study of a central phenomenon of the modern world has a great deal to offer.”Canadian Journal of History Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction - Celebrity and Modernity Chapter 1 - Voltaire in Paris “The Most Famous Man in Europe" Voltaire and Janot Chapter 2 - Society of the Spectacle The Birth of Stars: The Economics of Celebrity Scandal at the Opera “Something Idolatrous” A European Celebrity The Invention of the Fan(atic) Chapter 3 - A First Media Revolution The Visual Culture of Celebrity Public Figurines Idols and Marionettes “Heroes of the Hour” Private Lives, Public Figures Chapter 4 - From Glory to Celebrity Trumpeting Fame Conceptualizing Celebrity Celebrity “Chastisement for Merit” Chapter 5 - Loneliness of the Celebrity “The Celebrity of Misfortune” Friend Jean-Jacques Eccentricity, Exemplarity, Celebrity The Burden of Celebrity Rousseau Judges Jean-Jacques The Disfiguration Chapter 6 - The Power of Celebrity A Fashion Victim? Revolutionary Popularity The President is a Great Man Sunset Island Chapter 7 - Romanticism and Celebrity Byromania Prestige and obligations Women Seduced and Public Women Virtuosos Celebrity in America Democratic Popularity and Popular Sovereignty “Celebrities of the Hour” Towards a New Age of Celebrity Conclusion Postface to the English edition Notes Illustration credits Index
£54.00
John Wiley and Sons Ltd The Invention of Celebrity
Book SynopsisFrequently perceived as a characteristic of modern culture, the phenomenon of celebrity has much older roots. In this book Antoine Lilti shows that the mechanisms of celebrity were developed in Europe during the Enlightenment, well before films, yellow journalism, and television, and then flourished during the Romantic period on both sides of the Atlantic. Figures from across the arts like Voltaire, Garrick, and Liszt were all veritable celebrities in their time, arousing curiosity and passionate loyalty from their “fans.” The rise of the press, new advertising techniques, and the marketing of leisure brought a profound transformation in the visibility of celebrities: private lives were now very much on public show. Nor was politics spared this cultural upheaval: Marie-Antoinette, George Washington, and Napoleon all experienced a political world transformed by the new demands of celebrity. And when the people suddenly appeared on the revolutionary scene, it was no longer enough to be legitimate; it was crucial to be popular too. Lilti retraces the profound social upheaval precipitated by the rise of celebrity and explores the ambivalence felt toward this new phenomenon. Both sought after and denounced, celebrity evolved as the modern form of personal prestige, assuming the role that glory played in the aristocratic world in a new age of democracy and evolving forms of media. While uncovering the birth of celebrity in the eighteenth century, Lilti's perceptive history at the same time shines light on the continuing importance of this phenomenon in today’s world.Trade Review“Lilti’s achievement is highly impressive. He provides a new perspective on the transformations of Western culture in the age of revolutions, and on the genesis of modern notions of selfhood and personal authenticity. And he reminds us that even as we laugh at contemporary celebrity culture, we need to take it seriously, and not merely as an excrescence or a pathology, but as a constituent element of political and cultural modernity.”David A. Bell, Princeton University “With The Invention of Celebrity, Antoine Lilti has established himself as one of the most significant and talented historians of eighteenth-century France…It is an imaginative study, at once audacious and theoretically grounded, that establishes celebrity as an object of historical analysis and lays the groundwork for further studies of the phenomenon.”Colin Jones, Queen Mary University of London"Exhaustively researched, with in-depth analysis, this book is not a light read, but is definitely an interesting read for those who have more than a passing curiosity for the history behind the rise of 'celebrity.'"Feathered Quill Book Reviews"Good history opens up sightlines not only to the past but to the present as well. It allows us to see aspects of our current circumstances as the product of developments that are deeper and richer than we knew… Antoine Lilti’s The Invention of Celebrity is a book that does just that. A chronicle of the origins and development of our modern société du spectacle, it provides a genealogy of the media-driven world of celebrities and personalities who now dominate our headlines and crowd (out) our public debates."Literary Review"An original and seminal work of outstanding scholarship that is thoroughly 'reader friendly' in organization and presentation, "The Invention of Celebrity" is an impressively informative and insightful work that is enhanced with the inclusion of a section of full color illustrations, fifty-six pages of Notes, and a thirteen page Index."Midwest Book Review“This well-written and well-translated study of a central phenomenon of the modern world has a great deal to offer.”Canadian Journal of HistoryTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction - Celebrity and Modernity Chapter 1 - Voltaire in Paris “The Most Famous Man in Europe" Voltaire and Janot Chapter 2 - Society of the Spectacle The Birth of Stars: The Economics of Celebrity Scandal at the Opera “Something Idolatrous” A European Celebrity The Invention of the Fan(atic) Chapter 3 - A First Media Revolution The Visual Culture of Celebrity Public Figurines Idols and Marionettes “Heroes of the Hour” Private Lives, Public Figures Chapter 4 - From Glory to Celebrity Trumpeting Fame Conceptualizing Celebrity Celebrity “Chastisement for Merit” Chapter 5 - Loneliness of the Celebrity “The Celebrity of Misfortune” Friend Jean-Jacques Eccentricity, Exemplarity, Celebrity The Burden of Celebrity Rousseau Judges Jean-Jacques The Disfiguration Chapter 6 - The Power of Celebrity A Fashion Victim? Revolutionary Popularity The President is a Great Man Sunset Island Chapter 7 - Romanticism and Celebrity Byromania Prestige and obligations Women Seduced and Public Women Virtuosos Celebrity in America Democratic Popularity and Popular Sovereignty “Celebrities of the Hour” Towards a New Age of Celebrity Conclusion Postface to the English edition Notes Illustration credits Index
£18.99
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Narrative Power: The Struggle for Human Value
Book SynopsisNarratives are the wealth of nations: they animate life, sustain culture and cultivate humanity. They regulate and empower us, bringing both joy and discontent. And they are always embedded in ubiquitous power: stories shape power, and power shapes story. In this provocative and original study, Ken Plummer takes us on a journey to explore some of the key dimensions of this narrative power. His main focus is on what he calls ‘narratives of suffering’ and how these change through transformative narrative actions across an array of media forms. The modern world is in crisis, and long-standing narratives are being challenged in five major directions: through deep inequalities, global state complexities, digital risks, the perpetual puzzle of truth and the ever-emerging contingencies of time. Asking how we can build sustainable stories for a better future, the book advocates the cultivation of a narrative hope, a narrative wisdom and a politics of narrative humanity. Narrative Power suggests novel directions for enquiry, discusses a raft of innovative ideas and concepts, and sets a striking new agenda for research and action.Trade Review"Here we are in the hands of a renowned narrative scholar and a most compassionate human being. In writing steeped in urgency, Plummer explores the potential of narrative to support human progress and alleviate suffering, commanding our full attention as he guides us through a world of crisis and possibility."—Molly Andrews, Co-director, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London "Ken Plummer takes readers on a high-altitude ride overlooking stories of power and inequality. The sources cited are impressive in sheer number and diversity of specific topics. Narrative Power is a welcome reminder of what symbolic interactionism can contribute to political understanding. But the political is also personal, and Plummer's own stories of confronting prevalent narratives of sexual identity connect an otherwise macro argument to the biographical level."—Arthur W. Frank, University of Calgary ". . . the book presents a good resource for scholars who seek an overview of the various dimensions of power related to narrative research and storytelling. For practitioners and students of social work, the book may be entry point into the world of narrative research, particularly as we consider the ways narratives are used to disrupt, challenge, or maintain the societal status quo."Affilia: Journal of Women and Social WorkTable of ContentsPrologue: Going Backstage OVERTURE: In the Beginning 1 Narratives of Suffering: Six Stories in Search of a Better World ACT I Setting Scenes: Narrative Power as a Way of Seeing 2 Narrative Actions of Power 3 Narrative Power as a Struggle for Human Value ACT 2 Locating Tensions: The Fragility of Narrative 4 Narrative Inequalities 5 Narrative Digitalism 6 Narrative States 7 Narrative Wisdom 8 Narrative Contingencies ACT 3 Moving On: Acts of Narrative Hope 9 Caring for Narrative Futures: Towards a Politics of Narrative Humanity Notes References Index
£49.50
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Narrative Power: The Struggle for Human Value
Book SynopsisNarratives are the wealth of nations: they animate life, sustain culture and cultivate humanity. They regulate and empower us, bringing both joy and discontent. And they are always embedded in ubiquitous power: stories shape power, and power shapes story. In this provocative and original study, Ken Plummer takes us on a journey to explore some of the key dimensions of this narrative power. His main focus is on what he calls ‘narratives of suffering’ and how these change through transformative narrative actions across an array of media forms. The modern world is in crisis, and long-standing narratives are being challenged in five major directions: through deep inequalities, global state complexities, digital risks, the perpetual puzzle of truth and the ever-emerging contingencies of time. Asking how we can build sustainable stories for a better future, the book advocates the cultivation of a narrative hope, a narrative wisdom and a politics of narrative humanity. Narrative Power suggests novel directions for enquiry, discusses a raft of innovative ideas and concepts, and sets a striking new agenda for research and action.Trade Review"Here we are in the hands of a renowned narrative scholar and a most compassionate human being. In writing steeped in urgency, Plummer explores the potential of narrative to support human progress and alleviate suffering, commanding our full attention as he guides us through a world of crisis and possibility."—Molly Andrews, Co-director, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London "Ken Plummer takes readers on a high-altitude ride overlooking stories of power and inequality. The sources cited are impressive in sheer number and diversity of specific topics. Narrative Power is a welcome reminder of what symbolic interactionism can contribute to political understanding. But the political is also personal, and Plummer's own stories of confronting prevalent narratives of sexual identity connect an otherwise macro argument to the biographical level."—Arthur W. Frank, University of Calgary ". . . the book presents a good resource for scholars who seek an overview of the various dimensions of power related to narrative research and storytelling. For practitioners and students of social work, the book may be entry point into the world of narrative research, particularly as we consider the ways narratives are used to disrupt, challenge, or maintain the societal status quo."Affilia: Journal of Women and Social WorkTable of ContentsPrologue: Going Backstage OVERTURE: In the Beginning 1 Narratives of Suffering: Six Stories in Search of a Better World ACT I Setting Scenes: Narrative Power as a Way of Seeing 2 Narrative Actions of Power 3 Narrative Power as a Struggle for Human Value ACT 2 Locating Tensions: The Fragility of Narrative 4 Narrative Inequalities 5 Narrative Digitalism 6 Narrative States 7 Narrative Wisdom 8 Narrative Contingencies ACT 3 Moving On: Acts of Narrative Hope 9 Caring for Narrative Futures: Towards a Politics of Narrative Humanity Notes References Index
£16.14
John Wiley and Sons Ltd Digital Media Ethics
Book SynopsisThe original edition of this accessible and interdisciplinary textbook was the first to consider the ethical issues of digital media from a global, cross-cultural perspective. This third edition has been thoroughly updated to incorporate the latest research and developments, including the rise of Big Data, AI, and the Internet of Things. The book’s case studies and pedagogical material have also been extensively revised and updated to include such watershed events as the Snowden revelations, #Gamergate, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, privacy policy developments, and the emerging Chinese Social Credit System.New sections include “Death Online,” “Slow/Fair Technology”, and material on sexbots. The “ethical toolkit” that introduces prevailing ethical theories and their applications to the central issues of privacy, copyright, pornography and violence, and the ethics of cross-cultural communication online, has likewise been revised and expanded. Each topic and theory are interwoven throughout the volume with detailed sets of questions, additional resources, and suggestions for further research and writing. Together, these enable readers to foster careful reflection upon, writing about, and discussion of these issues and their possible resolutions.Retaining its student- and classroom-friendly approach, Digital Media Ethics will continue to be the go-to textbook for anyone getting to grips with this important topic.Trade Review“The third edition of Digital Media Ethics, like its two predecessors, is an impressive pedagogical accomplishment, a rare bird in its field. Very few other textbooks tackle the same issues and do so with the same focus on student comprehension. … Digital Media Ethics is among the very best textbooks on technology ethics (if not on ethics overall) available.”New Media & Society Table of ContentsForeword by Luciano FloridiPreface to the Third EditionAcknowledgments1 Central Issues in the Ethics of Digital Media2 Privacy in the (Post-)Digital Era?3 Copying and Distributing via Digital Media: Copyright, Copyleft, Global Perspectives4 Friendship, Death Online, Slow/Fair Technology, and Democracy5 Still More Ethical Issues: Digital Sex, Sexbots and Games6 Digital Media Ethics: Overview, Frameworks, ResourcesReferencesIndex
£54.00
