Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisThe Celebrity Persona Pandemic explores how the construction of a public persona is fetishized in contemporary culture. As social media has progressively led to a greater focus on the production of the self, so this book looks at the most visible versions of persona through figures such as Stephen Colbert, Cate Blachett, and Justin Bieber, as well as fictional characters like Spock and Harry Potter. Ultimately, P. David Marshall closely studies how persona culture shapes our notions of value and significance, and dramatically shifts cultural politics. Forerunners is a thought-in-process series of breakthrough digital works. Written between fresh ideas and finished books, Forerunners draws on scholarly work initiated in notable blogs, social media, conference plenaries, journal articles, and the synergy of academic exchange. This is gray literature publishing: where intense thinking, change, and speculation take place in scholarship.

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Book SynopsisBar Yarns and Manic Depressive Mix Tapes distills thirty delirious, jam-packed years of some of the best music writing ever to come out of the Twin Cities. As a writer and musician, the ever-curious Jim Walsh has lived a life immersed in music, and it all makes its way into his columns and feature articles, interviews and reviews, including personal essays on life, love, music, family, death, and, yes, the manic-depressive highs and lows that come with being an obsessive music lover and listener. From Minneapolis’s own Prince to such far-flung acts as David Bowie, the Waterboys, Lucinda Williams, Parliament-Funkadelic, L7, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, U2, Hank Williams, Britney Spears, Elvis Presley and Nirvana, Walsh’s work treats us to a chorus of the voices and sounds that have made the music scene over the past three decades. The big names are here, from Rosanne Cash to Bruce Springsteen to Bob Marley and Jackson Browne, but so are those a little shy of superstardom, like the Tin Star Sisters and Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, the Gear Daddies, Semisonic, and The Belfast Cowboys. The book is also a tour (de force) of the Twin Cities' most celebrated music venues past and present, from the Prom Ballroom to Paisley Park to Duffy's. When Walsh isn't celebrating the sheer magic of live music or dreaming to tunes blasting from the car console, he might be surveying the scene with the Hamm's Bear at Grumpy's or the Double Deuce or singing the last night at the Uptown Bar blues. Whether he's dishing dirt with Yoko Ono or digging the Replacements' roots, giving an old rocker a spin or offering a mic to the latest upstart, Jim Walsh reminds us that in the land of a thousand lakes there are a thousand dances, and the music never dies.Capturing the pure notes and character of the sound of the Twin Cities and beyond, with a keen eye for trends and the telling detail, his book truly is a mix tape of thirty years of unforgettable music.Trade Review"Jim Walsh has been the introspective and thoughtful voice of a generation that reenergized Minnesota music and gave it to the world. This is a book about a man in love with music."—Chris Osgood of The Suicide Commandos"Most mere mortals would have burned out after so many years and so many decibels and late nights, but Jim Walsh is the battery rabbit of the local music scene. For him it really is all about the passion: his contagious joy, awe, and fierce fidelity to the communal spirit are there in everything he writes, and his voice is unmistakable."—Brad Zellar, author of Suburban World: The Norling Photos, Conductors of the Moving World, and House of Coates"Jim Walsh's Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes is as much a chronicle of the past few decades of the Minneapolis scene as it is a pitch-perfect memoir of what it means to live for music. A crucial read for anyone who has spent their days and nights tangled in the tether of a song."—Jessica Hopper, author of The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic"Jim Walsh’s Bar Yarns and Manic-Depressive Mixtapes is like a cicada come trilling out of the fertile past. Each chapter is a love song of old for the here and now, a desperate season in need of music elixir."—Nicole Helget, author of Summer of Ordinary Ways, The Turtle Catcher, and Stillwater"Walsh’s writing is musical, rhythmic and tuned, with a throughline of humanity."—MinnPost.com"Jim Walsh is a true believer: For him, rock ’n’ roll is more than music or culture and becomes religion. Published in Rolling Stone and The Village Voice, the Minnesota writer-musician is a good and heartfelt essayist and memoirist. "—Shepherd Express"Whether he’s discussing Prince, Springsteen or the Uptown Bar, Walsh is a man and a fan in touch with his feelings about songs, his own life and the communal spirit that music builds."—Star Tribune"There are a lot of rock critics who focus on the negative, or shrug off the humanity of music fandom in favor of cold logic and bloodless analysis. Walsh is not that kind of writer or critic: even when he struggles with what’s going on around him, even when life is unbearably shitty, his writing is usually positive and filled with hope."—PopMatters.com"Organized thematically, it demonstrates Walsh’s knack for using music as a springboard for writing about people’s lives and the communities they inhabit. Walsh’s intimate, nuanced prose makes you feel as if you’ve known him, and the people he writes about, for years."—Minnesota HistoryTable of ContentsContents Introduction Summerteeth Fly Me to the Moon Chickery Chick We Could Be Heroes Just For One Day Nye’s: The Long Goodbye 1. Spirit in the Night We’re Gonna Be Friends Baptism By Bruce Taken by a Photograph For a Dancer 2. On the Road to Find Out No Direction Home Side of the Road All Down the Line Legalize It Merry Christmas to the Thief Who Stole My CD Player 3. Showmen’s Rest Are You Lonesome Tonight? All Apologies Do You Remember Rock ’n’ Roll Radio? Meeting Across the River 4. Bar Yarns From the Land of Sky-Blue Waters Uptown Bar Blues Closing Time Ballad of the Tin Star Sisters Driftwood Nights 5. The Beautiful Ones The Gold Experience Salesmen and Racists Put a Little Love in It Magic 6. Manic-Depressive Mix #1 One Love Ooh La La This is the Sea All My Life Beautiful Day 7. Manic-Depressive Mix #2 Free Your Mind . . . Windfall Ballad of El Goodo Second to No One 8. Minneapolis Confidential Geese of Beverly Road Greetings from Lake We Be Gone Phantom of First Avenue Winter of Our Swedish Fiddler All These Weeks 9. Prince in the ’90s Emancipation Give Up the Funk Everyday People 10. Manic-Depressive Mix #3 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For Peace on Earth The Ballad of Paul and Sheila Signed, Sealed, Delivered Love is the Law Toxic I Am the Cosmos Georgia On My Mind It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) 11. Manic-Depressive Mix #4 Singing in My Sleep Short Man’s Room After the Dance All About Chemistry I Saw the Light Times Like This Partners in Crime 12. Manic-Depressive Mix #5 Bittersweet Symphony Danny Boy How to Fight Loneliness She’s So Heavy Forever Young Looking for the Northern Lights Harriet If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisAn urgent examination of the threat posed to social media by user disconnection, and the measures websites will take to prevent it No matter how pervasive and powerful social media websites become, users always have the option of disconnecting—right? Not exactly, as Tero Karppi reveals in this disquieting book. Pointing out that platforms like Facebook see disconnection as an existential threat—and have undertaken wide-ranging efforts to eliminate it—Karppi argues that users’ ability to control their digital lives is gradually dissipating. Taking a nonhumancentric approach, Karppi explores how modern social media platforms produce and position users within a system of coded relations and mechanisms of power. For Facebook, disconnection is an intense affective force. It is a problem of how to keep users engaged with the platform, but also one of keeping value, attention, and desires within the system. Karppi uses Facebook’s financial documents as a map to navigate how the platform sees its users. Facebook’s plans to connect the entire globe through satellites and drones illustrates the material webs woven to keep us connected. Karppi analyzes how Facebook’s interface limits the opportunity to opt-out—even continuing to engage users after their physical death. Showing how users have fought to take back their digital lives, Karppi chronicles responses like Web2.0 Suicide Machine, an art project dedicated to committing digital suicide. For Karppi, understanding social media connectivity comes from unbinding the bonds that stop people from leaving these platforms. Disconnection brings us to the limit of user policies, algorithmic control, and platform politics. Ultimately, Karppi’s focus on the difficulty of disconnection, rather than the ease of connection, reveals how social media has come to dominate human relations.Trade Review"Through its clever structure, Disconnect affectively lures the reader as Tero Karppi tells a convincing story of how social media sets the tone, mood, and modality of our everyday existence. Compellingly written, this is a must-read modern tale of engagement and disconnection."—Zizi Papacharissi, author of Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics"Disconnect is a timely, theoretically rich assessment of Facebook as platform and assemblage. Rhetorics of connectivity dominate Silicon Valley, and Tero Karppi helps illuminate and describe the complex, flickering patterns of connection and disconnection that envelop the networked users of such platforms. This is a valuable, accessible guide to the politics and poetics of Facebook."—Amit Ray, Rochester Institute of Technology"Disconnect could not have come at a more important time. Tero Karppi’s nuanced writing brings out the rich complexities of social media life and disconnection. This must-read book shows that walking away may not remove Facebook’s presence in our lives, but it reveals the limits of social media in our world and the business models that are built to keep us connected."—Jason Farman, author of Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World"Its “technosocial fabric” informs the ecology of social media in general, whose key historical difference to other media is that “viewers are actively involved with the content as redistributors and recommenders”."—Neural"This provocative, lively book is significant for challenging users to think critically about these tropes in the digital age. A welcome addition to collections on technology, media, and society."—CHOICE"A particular strength of the book is the way in which the discussion of affect, which can sometimes be nebulous and somewhat abstracted, is repeatedly pinned down into specific mechanisms, policies and strategies, with subtlety and far-reaching insight. "—Leonardo ReviewsTable of ContentsLog InEngage ParticipateDeactivateDieDisconnectLog OutAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisAn urgent examination of the threat posed to social media by user disconnection, and the measures websites will take to prevent it No matter how pervasive and powerful social media websites become, users always have the option of disconnecting—right? Not exactly, as Tero Karppi reveals in this disquieting book. Pointing out that platforms like Facebook see disconnection as an existential threat—and have undertaken wide-ranging efforts to eliminate it—Karppi argues that users’ ability to control their digital lives is gradually dissipating. Taking a nonhumancentric approach, Karppi explores how modern social media platforms produce and position users within a system of coded relations and mechanisms of power. For Facebook, disconnection is an intense affective force. It is a problem of how to keep users engaged with the platform, but also one of keeping value, attention, and desires within the system. Karppi uses Facebook’s financial documents as a map to navigate how the platform sees its users. Facebook’s plans to connect the entire globe through satellites and drones illustrates the material webs woven to keep us connected. Karppi analyzes how Facebook’s interface limits the opportunity to opt-out—even continuing to engage users after their physical death. Showing how users have fought to take back their digital lives, Karppi chronicles responses like Web2.0 Suicide Machine, an art project dedicated to committing digital suicide. For Karppi, understanding social media connectivity comes from unbinding the bonds that stop people from leaving these platforms. Disconnection brings us to the limit of user policies, algorithmic control, and platform politics. Ultimately, Karppi’s focus on the difficulty of disconnection, rather than the ease of connection, reveals how social media has come to dominate human relations.Trade Review"Through its clever structure, Disconnect affectively lures the reader as Tero Karppi tells a convincing story of how social media sets the tone, mood, and modality of our everyday existence. Compellingly written, this is a must-read modern tale of engagement and disconnection."—Zizi Papacharissi, author of Affective Publics: Sentiment, Technology, and Politics"Disconnect is a timely, theoretically rich assessment of Facebook as platform and assemblage. Rhetorics of connectivity dominate Silicon Valley, and Tero Karppi helps illuminate and describe the complex, flickering patterns of connection and disconnection that envelop the networked users of such platforms. This is a valuable, accessible guide to the politics and poetics of Facebook."—Amit Ray, Rochester Institute of Technology"Disconnect could not have come at a more important time. Tero Karppi’s nuanced writing brings out the rich complexities of social media life and disconnection. This must-read book shows that walking away may not remove Facebook’s presence in our lives, but it reveals the limits of social media in our world and the business models that are built to keep us connected."—Jason Farman, author of Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World"Its “technosocial fabric” informs the ecology of social media in general, whose key historical difference to other media is that “viewers are actively involved with the content as redistributors and recommenders”."—Neural"This provocative, lively book is significant for challenging users to think critically about these tropes in the digital age. A welcome addition to collections on technology, media, and society."—CHOICE"A particular strength of the book is the way in which the discussion of affect, which can sometimes be nebulous and somewhat abstracted, is repeatedly pinned down into specific mechanisms, policies and strategies, with subtlety and far-reaching insight. "—Leonardo ReviewsTable of ContentsLog InEngage ParticipateDeactivateDieDisconnectLog OutAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTraces a tradition of ironic and irreverent environmentalism, asking us to rethink the movement’s reputation for gloom and doomActivists today strive to educate the public about climate change, but sociologists have found that the more we know about alarming issues, the less likely we are to act. Meanwhile, environmentalists have acquired a reputation as gloom-and-doom killjoys. Bad Environmentalism identifies contemporary texts that respond to these absurdities and ironies through absurdity and irony—as well as camp, frivolity, irreverence, perversity, and playfulness. Nicole Seymour develops the concept of “bad environmentalism”: cultural thought that employs dissident affects and sensibilities to reflect critically on our current moment and on mainstream environmental activism. From the television show Wildboyz to the short film series Green Porno, Seymour shows that this tradition of thought is widespread—spanning animation, documentary, fiction film, performance art, poetry, prose fiction, social media, and stand-up comedy since at least 1975. Seymour argues that these texts reject self-righteousness and sentimentality, undercutting public negativity toward activism and questioning basic environmentalist assumptions: that love and reverence are required for ethical relationships with the nonhuman and that knowledge is key to addressing problems like climate change.Funny and original, Bad Environmentalism champions the practice of alternative green politics. From drag performance to Indigenous comedy, Seymour expands our understanding of how environmental art and activism can be pleasurable, even in a time of undeniable crisis.Trade Review"Bad Environmentalism confronts serious environmental problems by way of ‘unserious’ texts. Nicole Seymour takes on complex ideas with lucidity, economy, and a witty sense of humor. Against the familiar affects that tend to characterize both environmentalism and environmental studies—such as awe, love, guilt, reverence, and earnestness—Bad Environmentalism pits less solemn alternatives, including playfulness, impropriety, irreverence, irony, frivolity, and glee. I am a convert. Bad environmentalists, unite!"—Jennifer K. Ladino, author of Reclaiming Nostalgia: Longing for Nature in American Literature"In an era in which environmental crises have been normalized and environmentalists are viewed by many as overly earnest irritants, Nicole Seymour gives us something we crave (even if we’re loathe to admit it!). Bad Environmentalism offers stunningly original, creative, and playful readings of a diverse range of cultural forms, refuses the binaries of eco-purity politics, and advances a hearty support of ambiguity, irreverence, contradiction, humor, and pleasure, while holding firm against the racism and homophobia that often undergird mainstream environmentalist campaigns and logics. This is a challenging, often hilarious, and game-changing book."—David Naguib Pellow, author of What is Critical Environmental Justice? "As it turns out, climate change and the environment can be a laughing matter—at least, at an absurd or satirical level."—Foreword Reviews "Bad Environmentalism stands as an important example of the ways that humanities scholarship can make important interventions into issues of great political importance such as climate change."—LSE Review of Books "A valuable contribution to ecocriticism"—CHOICE "Given the increasingly flawed assumption that environmental knowledge will inevitably lead to action, Seymour’s Bad Environmentalism creates a space to engage with texts and critical approaches that question, ironize, and challenge the limits of environmental knowledge and feeling, and that open up new ways of thinking ecologically."—The Goose "One must give credit to Bad Environmentalism for creating space for such self-reflexivity among political activists, scholars, and students alike."—Social and Cultural Geography "Films... burden the environmental movement with demands for an unattainable and easily critiqued form of perfect environmental morality. Rather, as Bad Environmentalism unswervingly proposes, environmentalists do not need to be perfect. Demands of flawlessness often allow those who deny climate change to consistently define activists as hypocritical when those campaigners drive gas-powered cars to protests, use jet fuel to fly to movie premieres, or load trash bins with protest signs."—Interface "This book was a joy to read. That is not how I feel about anything Wendell Berry or Terry Tempest Williams ever wrote, however, and Nicole Seymour’s aim (in part) is to explain why, and why I should not feel ashamed about it. Environmentalism, she insists, is a performance, and, more often than not, its performance has featured suffocating earnestness, sanctimony, seriousness, and self-righteousness. Bad Environmentalism exposes and challenges this “good affect” by turning attention away from the mainstream and toward “dissident” cultural margins. "—Environmental History "Calling for alternative and expressive environmentalisms, Nicole Seymour’s Bad Environmentalism exposes the limited affects associated with mainstream environmentalism."—ISLE "She has crafted an important book that asks us—but also teaches us—to drop hierarchies of morality and identity and open our eyes to alternative visions of surviving on this planet, equitably, together."—Public Books "I consider Seymour’s analysis a crucial intervention in the privileging of the mainstream environmental messages found in documentaries by Al Gore, James Balog, and others. "—The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory "A crucial intervention in the privileging of the mainstream environmental messages found in documentaries by Al Gore, James Balog, and others."—Ecocriticism "Nicole Seymour’s Bad Environmentalism: Irony and Irreverence in the Ecological Age offers its archive of “bad environmentalism” to help dismantle the affective and ideological barriers that situate the environment as our sanctified, unfunny, nonhuman Other, one whose moral, ethical, and aesthetic standards we fail to live up to (even as we threaten to destroy it)."—H-Net Reviews "Bad Environmentalism, besides reminding us to check our privilege and our blind spots, gives us permission to employ affective modes that we might, in these troubling times, be tempted to suppress. Perhaps it’s not wrong to laugh as well as cry, even as the Amazon burns. Perhaps we can allow ourselves to be irritated by the sanctimony of some environmentalist voices. "—Ecozon@ "Theoretical in nature, the book never overwhelms the reader with deep dives into critical theorists unfamiliar to historians. Instead, it is funny, enjoyable and a call for a new type of action. "—Not Even Past Table of ContentsIntroduction1. “I’m No Botanist, but . . .”: Irony, Ecocinema, and the Problem of Expert Knowledge2. “So Much to See, So Little to Learn”: Perverting Nature/Wildlife Programming3. Climate Change Is a Drag and Camping Can Be Campy: On Queer Environmental Performance4. Animatronic Indians and Black Folk Who Don’t: Rewriting Racialized Environmental Affect5. Gas-Guzzling, Beer-Chugging, Tree Huggers: Toward Trashy EnvironmentalismsConclusion AcknowledgmentsNotesBibliography Index

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Book SynopsisPolitics, craft, and cultural nostalgia in the remaking of Star Wars for a new ageA long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away—way back in the twenty-first century’s first decade—Star Wars seemed finished. Then in 2012 George Lucas shocked the entertainment world by selling the franchise, along with Lucasfilm, to Disney. This is the story of how, over the next five years, Star Wars went from near-certain extinction to what Wired magazine would call “the forever franchise,” with more films in the works than its first four decades had produced. Focusing on The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One (2016), The Last Jedi (2017), and the television series Rebels (2014–18), Dan Golding explores the significance of pop culture nostalgia in overcoming the skepticism, if not downright hostility, that greeted the Star Wars relaunch. At the same time he shows how Disney, even as it tapped a backward-looking obsession, was nonetheless creating genuinely new and contemporary entries in the Star Wars universe.A host of cultural factors and forces propelled the Disney-engineered Star Wars renaissance, and all figure in Golding’s deeply informed analysis: from John Williams’s music in The Force Awakens to Peter Cushing’s CGI face in Rogue One, to Carrie Fisher’s passing, to the rapidly changing audience demographic. Star Wars after Lucas delves into the various responses and political uses of the new Star Wars in a wider context, as in reaction videos on YouTube and hate-filled, misogynistic online rants. In its granular textual readings, broad cultural scope, and insights into the complexities of the multimedia galaxy, this book is as entertaining as it is enlightening, an apt reflection of the enduring power of the Star Wars franchise.Trade Review"Star Wars is almost too big a subject for any one mind to grasp, but Dan Golding’s look at how the franchise maintains its nostalgic glow in the Disney era stays on target, excavating the unique combination of art and commerce that holds Star Wars together."—Adam Rogers, senior tech correspondent at Insider"Star Wars after Lucas is a useful and welcome review of the past four decades of Star Wars, as well as the strategies that corporations are increasingly adopting in order to perpetuate franchises. In particular, Dan Golding aptly describes Lucasfilm's struggles to balance nostalgic appeals with a growing commitment to diversity and inclusivity."—A. D. Jameson, author of I Find Your Lack of Faith Disturbing: Star Wars and the Triumph of Geek Culture"Dan Golding’s wonderful book strikes a perfect balance between criticism and knowledgeable fandom. Approaching Disney-era Star Wars, his writing provides important insights into the workings of nostalgia culture, transmedia storytelling, and the power of transnational media industries in the age of global capitalism. His readings of individual Star Wars texts are thoughtful, nuanced, and theoretically informed, while at the same time relating them back to the complexities of branding, cross-platform marketing, and global entertainment franchising. Star Wars after Lucas is essential reading for anyone with an interest in media franchising, globalization, media industries, and entertainment in the Disney era."—Dan Hassler-Forest, coeditor of Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling"Star Wars after Lucas is a spirited and often convincing defense of the saga’s ‘complex and multifaceted’ content. "—Shepherd Express"Anyone fascinated by the post-George Lucas Star Wars universe will find Dan Golding’s Critical Guide to the Future of the Galaxy an essential read. Focusing on The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi, and Star Wars Rebels, Golding crafts an insightful, smart analysis."—The Film Stage"Feminist progressives see in the galaxy a courageous human rights defense that stands for inclusivity, community, and individuality. Star Wars after Lucas demonstrates thoroughly and importantly how the legacy franchise has maintained its reflective glow in the Disney era."—CHOICE"Golding is insightful on the politics of Star Wars. “Despite its political malleability,” he writes, “Star Wars has, for better or worse, gained a general whiff of cultural conservatism.” That stems, he suggests, from the fact that the retro escapism of the original trilogy seemed of a piece with the political winds that gave two White House terms to a former actor who struck a genial, paternal mien while enacting brutally regressive policies."—The Tangential"Golding has managed to provide a book that is clear in its intentions of examining the Star Wars franchise in the years since it made the transition to a giant media conglomerate. The significance of nostalgia is interwoven throughout and provides a detailed yet broad exploration into how it has both impacted and been implemented into the long-running franchise."—Leonardo Reviews"When Golding surrounds the new Star Wars media with the pop culture, political, and digital factors that shaped it, it’s clear to readers that Star Wars is not a fluke, nor an outlier in modern American media: it’s the center of it. Scholars of contemporary film and media studies or any fan of the iconic franchise will enjoy this look into how a down and out narrative circled back to win the hearts of America once again."—CBQ: Communication Booknotes Quarterly"Golding’s book both succeeds as an investigation of Star Wars in the Disney era and performs the limitations such investigations necessarily entail, it provides a useful and necessary account of contemporary, popular entertainment."—SFRA ReviewTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Star Wars and the History of Nostalgia1. Before the Empire: The Politics of George Lucas and the Critique of the Original Trilogy2. It Calls to You: Selling Star Wars in 20153. Look How Old You’ve Become: The Force Awakens as Legacy Film4. An Awakening: Diversity as the Politics of The Force Awakens5. Just Like Old Times?: Music, Seriality, and the Fugue of The Force Awakens6. You Have to Start Somewhere: Contrasting Nostalgias in The Force Awakens and Rogue One7. You Think Anybody’s Listening?: Fighting Fascism in Rogue One and Rebels8. I’ve Always Hated Watching You Leave: Death, Han Solo, and Carrie Fisher9. I Will Finish What You Started: Star Wars from The Last Jedi and Beyond

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Book SynopsisUnmasks the horrors of a social order reproduced and maintained by the violence of police Year after year the crisis churns: graft and corruption, violence and murder, riot cops and armored vehicles claim city streets. Despite promises of reform, police operate with impunity, unaccountable to law. In The Horror of Police, Travis Linnemann asks why, with this open record of violence and corruption, policing remains for so many the best, perhaps only means of security in an insecure world. Drawing on the language and texts of horror fiction, Linnemann recasts the police not only as self-proclaimed “monster fighters” but as monsters themselves, a terrifying force set loose in the world. Purposefully misreading a collection of everyday police stories (TV cop dramas, detective fiction, news media accounts, the direct words of police) not as morality tales of innocence avenged and order restored but as horror, Linnemann reveals the monstrous violence at the heart of liberal social order. The Horror of Police shows that police violence is not a deviation but rather a deliberate and permanent fixture of U.S. “law and order.” Only when viewed through the refracted motif of horror stories, Linnemann argues, can we begin to reckon the limits of police and imagine a world without them. Trade Review"We know this more clearly today than ever before: policing is monstrous, unleashing terror while cannibalistically devouring resources otherwise destined for more human things. Travis Linnemann turns our reality upside-down as he turns the horror genre inside-out, insisting that only by confronting the dreadful monsters in our midst can we build a truly different world."—Geo Maher, author of A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete"Police stories are among the most popular in American culture. In this book—equally steeped in pop culture, the latest critical theory, and the history and contemporary reality of policing—Travis Linnemann reads those stories against the grain to argue that the police represent the monstrous core of our society and to challenge us to imagine a world without them."—Adam Kotsko, author of Neoliberalism’s Demons: On the Political Theology of Late Capital"In this highly original take, Travis Linnemann looks beyond the flashy headlines of the grossest excesses of police violence to the monstrosity that lies beneath it: police power itself. Using the tropes and conventions of the horror literary genre, Linnemann parses not just the fear that the police inspire amongst ‘us’ but also what haunts the police: mutuality, collectivity, and solidarity."—Emma Russell, author of Queer Histories and the Politics of PolicingTable of ContentsIntroduction: Police Story, Horror Story1. Bad Cops and True Detectives2. The Police at the End of the World, or The Political Theology of the Thin Blue Line3. RoboCop, or Modern Prometheus4. Monsters Are Real5. The Unthinkable WorldAcknowledgmentsNotesIndexNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow celebrity strategic partnerships are disrupting humanitarian space Can a celebrity be a “disrupter,” promoting strategic partnerships to bring new ideas and funding to revitalize the development field—or are celebrities just charismatic ambassadors for big business? Examining the role of the rich and famous in development and humanitarianism, Batman Saves the Congo argues that celebrities do both, and that understanding why and how yields insight into the realities of neoliberal development. In 2010, entertainer Ben Affleck, known for his superhero performance as Batman, launched the Eastern Congo Initiative to bring a new approach to the region’s development. This case study is central to Batman Saves the Congo. Affleck’s organization operates with special access, diversified funding, and significant support of elites within political, philanthropic, development, and humanitarian circuits. This sets it apart from other development organizations. With his convening power, Affleck has built partnerships with those inside and outside development, staking bipartisan political ground that is neither charity nor aid but “good business.” Such visible and recognizable celebrity humanitarians are occupying the public domain yet not engaging meaningfully with any public, argues Batman Saves the Congo. They are an unruly bunch of new players in development who amplify business solutions. As elite political participants, celebrities shape development practices through strategic partnerships that are both an innovative way to raise awareness and funding for neglected causes and a troubling trend of unaccountable elite leadership in North–South relations. Batman Saves the Congo helps illuminate the power of celebritized business solutions and the development contexts they create. Trade Review "This is an exciting, original, and fascinating book. It’s important not just for what it reveals—the Janus-faced, contradiction-laden nature of celebrity development politics—but for how this work was done. Batman Saves the Congo sets the standard for following high-profile development interventions from the privileged boardrooms where they are conceived to the coffee fields they seek to support. It’s a triumph."—Dan Brockington, author of Celebrity Advocacy and International Development "This is a thoughtful and thought-provoking contribution to current debates on celebrity activism in the humanitarian sector. Using Ben Affleck’s intervention in the Congo, the book offers a razor-sharp analysis of the inner workings of celebrity strategic partnerships as a new entrepreneurial model of aid. More than this, it develops an important criticism of humanitarianism and its entanglement with corporate and entertainment logics that, despite good intentions, work to hide colonial legacies behind the glamour of celebrity stardom."—Lilie Chouliaraki, author of The Ironic Spectator: Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism "Thoroughly researched and often laugh-out-loud funny, Batman Saves the Congo is a critically important look at a growing and under-examined — and frequently absurd — segment of the aid industry. "—Washington Post "This is a well-written, entertaining study that deserves a wide audience among readers interested in celebrity humanitarianism and the international politics of development in the Democratic Republic of the Congo."—CHOICE "The book Batman Saves the Congo is deeply researched, utilises a brilliant mix of methods of inquiry, and exposes a complex web of actors engaged in development efforts in the Congo."—Journal of Humanitarian Affairs Table of ContentsContentsAbbreviationsIntroduction: Batman Saves the Congo1. Celebrity, Disruption and Neoliberal Development2. Narrating the Congo: Dangerous Single Stories and the Organizations that Need Them3. Choosing the Congo: How a Celebrity Builds a Development Organization4. Marketing the Congo: Products that Sell Development5. Saving Congolese Coffee: Celebrities and the Business Model for Development6. Celebrities and the Local Politics of Development: As Seen from Kinshasa7. Conclusions on Celebrity and Development: Disruption, Advocacy and CommodificationEpilogue: COVID-19 and Making ECI Relevant AgainAcknowledgmentsAppendix A. Methodology and Data CollectionAppendix B. Affleck, ECI, and ECI Partner’s Interactions with Congress, 2011–2017Appendix C. K&L Gates Lobbying on Behalf of Eastern Congo InitiativeNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAll of this information at our fingertips—and we might not need any of itConcurrent with the compulsory connectivity of the digital age is the rise of the spoiler. The inevitability of information has changed the critical quality of modernity, leaving us with acute vertigo—a feeling that nothing new is left out there. Encompassing memes and trigger warnings, Vilem Flusser and Thomas Pynchon, Spoiler Alert wrangles with the state of surprise in post-historical times. Aaron Jaffe delivers a timely corrective to post-critical modes of reading that demonstrates the dangers of forfeiting critical suspicion.Forerunners: Ideas FirstShort books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

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Book SynopsisA radical new approach to humor, where traditional targets become its agents Humor is often dismissed as cruel ridicule or harmless fun. But what if laughter is a vital force to channel rage against patriarchy, Islamophobia, or mass incarceration? To create moments of empathy and dialogue between Black Lives Matter and the police? These and other such questions are at the heart of this powerful reassessment of humor. Placing theorists in conversation with comedians, Uproarious offers a full-frontal approach to the very foundation of comedy and its profound political impact. Here Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett address the four major theories of humor—superiority, relief, incongruity, and social play—through the lens of feminist and game-changing comics such as Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro. They take a radical and holistic approach to the understanding of humor, particularly of humor deployed by those from groups long relegated to the margins, and propose a powerful new understanding of humor as a force that can engender politically progressive social movements. Drawing on a range of cross-disciplinary sources, from philosophies and histories of humor to the psychology and physiology of laughter to animal studies, Uproarious offers a richer understanding of the political and cathartic potential of humor. A major new contribution to a wider dialogue on comedy, Uproarious grounds for us explorations of outsider humor and our golden age of feminist comics—showing that when women, prisoners, even animals, laugh back, comedy along with belly laughs forge new identities and alter the political climate. Trade Review"What happens when a professor of philosophy and a professor of history walk into a comedy club? If these professors are Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett, they write a brilliantly astute, acutely insightful, and sharply original book on gender, politics, ethnicities, empathy, humanism, and humor. In Uproarious, they stand up for the power of stand up, with Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro headlining their deeply erudite arguments. The result is an intellectual riot, overturning shibboleths and raising the roof—while breaking the glass ceiling—of ideas about women and comedy."—Gina Barreca, author of “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?”: Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times"Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett take the reader on a delightful and inspiring voyage into the belly of satire, comedy, and laughter. While we may have a visceral sense of humor’s powers, philosophy has not yet found the language for it. In giving us just that, Uproarious expands our understanding of feminist and race politics and exposes dimensions of sociality, embodiment, and empathy that carry rich (and, yes, humorous!) implications for critical theory and aesthetics."—Monique Roelofs, author of The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic"If you think humans are the only animals with a sense of humor, Uproarious surely will break you out of your misleading speciesist perspective. There's a lot we can learn from other animals about how and why humans' sense of humor evolved. This wide-ranging, transdisciplinary, and future-looking collection of essays nicely lays the groundwork for stimulating discussions freed from human exceptionalism."—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado

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Book SynopsisA radical new approach to humor, where traditional targets become its agents Humor is often dismissed as cruel ridicule or harmless fun. But what if laughter is a vital force to channel rage against patriarchy, Islamophobia, or mass incarceration? To create moments of empathy and dialogue between Black Lives Matter and the police? These and other such questions are at the heart of this powerful reassessment of humor. Placing theorists in conversation with comedians, Uproarious offers a full-frontal approach to the very foundation of comedy and its profound political impact. Here Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett address the four major theories of humor—superiority, relief, incongruity, and social play—through the lens of feminist and game-changing comics such as Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro. They take a radical and holistic approach to the understanding of humor, particularly of humor deployed by those from groups long relegated to the margins, and propose a powerful new understanding of humor as a force that can engender politically progressive social movements. Drawing on a range of cross-disciplinary sources, from philosophies and histories of humor to the psychology and physiology of laughter to animal studies, Uproarious offers a richer understanding of the political and cathartic potential of humor. A major new contribution to a wider dialogue on comedy, Uproarious grounds for us explorations of outsider humor and our golden age of feminist comics—showing that when women, prisoners, even animals, laugh back, comedy along with belly laughs forge new identities and alter the political climate. Trade Review"What happens when a professor of philosophy and a professor of history walk into a comedy club? If these professors are Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett, they write a brilliantly astute, acutely insightful, and sharply original book on gender, politics, ethnicities, empathy, humanism, and humor. In Uproarious, they stand up for the power of stand up, with Wanda Sykes, Margaret Cho, Hannah Gadsby, Hari Kondabolu, and Tig Notaro headlining their deeply erudite arguments. The result is an intellectual riot, overturning shibboleths and raising the roof—while breaking the glass ceiling—of ideas about women and comedy."—Gina Barreca, author of “If You Lean In, Will Men Just Look Down Your Blouse?”: Questions and Thoughts for Loud, Smart Women in Turbulent Times"Cynthia Willett and Julie Willett take the reader on a delightful and inspiring voyage into the belly of satire, comedy, and laughter. While we may have a visceral sense of humor’s powers, philosophy has not yet found the language for it. In giving us just that, Uproarious expands our understanding of feminist and race politics and exposes dimensions of sociality, embodiment, and empathy that carry rich (and, yes, humorous!) implications for critical theory and aesthetics."—Monique Roelofs, author of The Cultural Promise of the Aesthetic"If you think humans are the only animals with a sense of humor, Uproarious surely will break you out of your misleading speciesist perspective. There's a lot we can learn from other animals about how and why humans' sense of humor evolved. This wide-ranging, transdisciplinary, and future-looking collection of essays nicely lays the groundwork for stimulating discussions freed from human exceptionalism."—Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado

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Book SynopsisA provocative peek into this complicated film as a space for subversion, activism, and imaginative powerWhile both fans and foes point to Mad Max: Fury Road’s feminist credentials, Furious Feminisms asks: is there really anything feminist or radical happening on the screen? The four authors—from backgrounds in art history, American literature, disability studies, and sociology—ask what is possible, desirable, or damaging in theorizing feminism in the contested landscape of the twenty-first century. Can we find beauty in the Anthropocene? Can power be wrested from a violent system without employing and perpetuating violence? This experiment in collaborative criticism weaves multiple threads of dialogue together to offer a fresh perspective on our current cultural moment. Forerunners: Ideas First Short books of thought-in-process scholarship, where intense analysis, questioning, and speculation take the lead

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of cosplay and its relationship with the realms of its global fandom, performance, and the modes of fictional existence Flourishing far beyond its Japanese roots, cosplay has become an international phenomenon with fervid fans who gather at enormous, worldwide conventions annually. Here, author Frenchy Lunning offers an intimate, sensational tour through cosplay’s past and present, as well as its global lure.Through a culmination of years of personal research on cosplay, and growing out of Lunning’s wealth of scholarship, conference presentations, and cosplayer interviews, Cosplay is a unique and necessary examination of identity, performance, play, and otaku fandom and culture in relation to contemporary theories. With discussions covering construction, masquerades, and community through performance, Lunning presents cosplay as a dynamic and ever-evolving global practice. She combines the fascinating viewpoints of cosplayers with observational, in-depth research on cosplay history and practice, and a deep dive into critical theory involving the modes of fictional existence, in order to understand its global expansion. Augmented with beautiful photographs, this is an engrossing, lively read that explores a complicated and often misunderstood history and meditates on how cosplay allows its participants to create and construct meaning and identity.Trade Review"Showcasing provocative theoretical work and data collected at conventions in the United States and Japan since the 1990s, Frenchy Lunning makes a powerful argument for understanding the potential of cosplay and its engagements with fictional modes of existence. With deep implications for the politics of imagination and open and ongoing entanglements in a more-than-human world, Cosplay is as passionate as it is timely."—Patrick W. Galbraith, author of Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan "Readers looking for a comprehensive history of cosplay now have one"—Gamers with GlassesTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Cosplay Experience1. Cosplay: A Social History of Mass Culture and Identity2. The Lure of the Mask: Identity, Expression, and Embodiment3. Overcoming Abjection: From Ambiguity to Becoming4. In the Theater of the Cosplayer: Improvisations, Innovations, and Masquerade5. Fandom and the Fictional Mode of ExistenceNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of cosplay and its relationship with the realms of its global fandom, performance, and the modes of fictional existence Flourishing far beyond its Japanese roots, cosplay has become an international phenomenon with fervid fans who gather at enormous, worldwide conventions annually. Here, author Frenchy Lunning offers an intimate, sensational tour through cosplay’s past and present, as well as its global lure.Through a culmination of years of personal research on cosplay, and growing out of Lunning’s wealth of scholarship, conference presentations, and cosplayer interviews, Cosplay is a unique and necessary examination of identity, performance, play, and otaku fandom and culture in relation to contemporary theories. With discussions covering construction, masquerades, and community through performance, Lunning presents cosplay as a dynamic and ever-evolving global practice. She combines the fascinating viewpoints of cosplayers with observational, in-depth research on cosplay history and practice, and a deep dive into critical theory involving the modes of fictional existence, in order to understand its global expansion. Augmented with beautiful photographs, this is an engrossing, lively read that explores a complicated and often misunderstood history and meditates on how cosplay allows its participants to create and construct meaning and identity.Trade Review"Showcasing provocative theoretical work and data collected at conventions in the United States and Japan since the 1990s, Frenchy Lunning makes a powerful argument for understanding the potential of cosplay and its engagements with fictional modes of existence. With deep implications for the politics of imagination and open and ongoing entanglements in a more-than-human world, Cosplay is as passionate as it is timely."—Patrick W. Galbraith, author of Otaku and the Struggle for Imagination in Japan "Readers looking for a comprehensive history of cosplay now have one"—Gamers with GlassesTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: The Cosplay Experience1. Cosplay: A Social History of Mass Culture and Identity2. The Lure of the Mask: Identity, Expression, and Embodiment3. Overcoming Abjection: From Ambiguity to Becoming4. In the Theater of the Cosplayer: Improvisations, Innovations, and Masquerade5. Fandom and the Fictional Mode of ExistenceNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow the creative use of pop music in film—think Saturday Night Fever or Apocalypse Now—has shaped and shifted music history since the 1960s Quick: What movie do you think of when you hear “The Sounds of Silence”? Better yet, what song comes to mind when you think of The Graduate? The link between film and song endures as more than a memory, Nate Patrin suggests with this wide-ranging and energetic book. It is, in fact, a sort of cultural symbiosis that has mutually influenced movies and pop music, a phenomenon Patrin tracks through the past fifty years, revealing the power of music in movies to move the needle in popular culture. Rock ’n’ roll, reggae, R&B, jazz, techno, and hip-hop: each had its moment—or many—as music deployed in movies emerged as a form of interpretive commentary, making way for the legitimization of pop and rock music as art forms worthy of serious consideration. These commentaries run the gamut from comedic irony to cheap-thrills excitement to deeply felt drama, all of which Patrin examines in pairings such as American Graffiti and “Do You Want to Dance?”; Saturday Night Fever and “Disco Inferno”; Apocalypse Now and “The End”; Wayne’s World and “Bohemian Rhapsody”; and Jackie Brown and “Didn't I Blow Your Mind This Time?”. What gives power to these individual moments, and how have they shaped and shifted music history, recasting source material or even stirring wider interest in previously niche pop genres? As Patrin surveys the scene—musical and cinematic—across the decades, expanding into the deeper origins, wider connections, and echoed histories that come into play, The Needle and the Lens offers a new way of seeing, and hearing, these iconic soundtrack moments. Trade Review "Music writing and film writing are seldom as accessible and as rigorous as they are in Nate Patrin’s The Needle and the Lens—never mind in the same package and carrying the same weight. As he persuasively argues from first example to last, cinema after rock has often used existing recordings to ends that transform both, in terms cinematic and real-world alike. This sharp, humane book’s gift is in never losing sight, or focus, of either."—Michaelangelo Matos, author of Can't Slow Down: How 1984 Became Pop's Blockbuster YearTable of Contents Contents Introduction Scorpio Rising, “He’s a Rebel” The Graduate, “The Sounds of Silence” Easy Rider, “The Pusher” The Harder They Come, “Many Rivers to Cross” American Graffiti, “Do You Want to Dance” Saturday Night Fever, “Disco Inferno” Killer of Sheep, “This Bitter Earth” Apocalypse Now, “The End” Repo Man, “When the Shit Hits the Fan” Krush Groove, “King of Rock” Blue Velvet, “In Dreams” Wayne’s World, “Bohemian Rhapsody” Jackie Brown, “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” Belly, “Back to Life (However Do You Want Me)” The Royal Tenenbaums, “Needle in the Hay” Drive, “A Real Hero” Outro: Twenty-Four More Great Needle Drops Acknowledgments Notes References

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Book SynopsisCriminology has been reluctant to embrace fictional narratives as a tool for understanding, explaining and reducing crime and social harm. In this philosophical enquiry, McGregor uses examples from films, television, novels and graphic novels to demonstrate the extensive criminological potential of fiction around the world. Building on previous studies of non-fiction narratives, the book is the first to explore the ways criminological fiction provides knowledge of the causes of crime and social harm. For academics, practitioners and students, this is an engaging and thought-provoking critical analysis that establishes a bold new theory of criminological fiction.Table of ContentsIntroduction: Narrative, Criminology, and Fiction Narrative Criminologies Fictional Criminologies Phenomenological Criminology Counterfactual Criminology Mimetic Criminology Criminological Cinema Conclusion: Criminology Of Narrative Fiction

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Book SynopsisOffering an innovative approach to the Gothic, Gothic Things: Dark Enchantment and Anthropocene Anxiety breaks ground with a new materialist analysis of the genre, highlighting the ways that, since its origins in the eighteenth century, the Gothic has been intensely focused on “ominous matter” and “thing power.” In chapters attending to gothic bodies, spaces, books, and other objects, Gothic Things argues that the Gothic has always been about what happens when objects assume mysterious animacy or potency and when human beings are reduced to the status of just one thing among many—more powerful—others. In exploring how the Gothic insistently decenters the human, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock reveals human beings to be enmeshed in networks of human and nonhuman forces mostly outside of their control. Gothic Things thus resituates the Gothic as the uncanny doppelgänger of twenty-first-century critical and cultural theory, lurking just beneath the surface (and sometimes explicitly surfacing) as it haunts considerations of how human beings interact with objects and their environment. In these pages the Gothic offers a dark reflection of the contemporary “nonhuman turn,” expressing a twenty-first-century structure of feeling undergirded by anxiety over the fate of the human: spectrality, monstrosity, and apocalypse. Substituting horror for hope, the Gothic, Weinstock explains, has been a philosophical meditation on human relations to the nonhuman since its inception, raising significant questions about how we can counter anthropocentric thought in our quest to live more harmoniously with the world around us.Table of ContentsPreface: Three Beginnings | vii Introduction: Ominous Matter | 1 1 Gothic Thing Theory | 19 2 Dark Enchantment and Gothic Materialism | 41 3 Body-as-Thing | 72 4 Thing-as- Body | 91 5 Book: How to Do Things with Words | 115 6 Building: Bigger on the Inside | 137 Epilogue: The Ominous Matter of One’s Ordinary Life | 171 Acknowledgments | 173 Notes | 175 Works Cited | 181 Index | 195

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Book SynopsisOffering an innovative approach to the Gothic, Gothic Things: Dark Enchantment and Anthropocene Anxiety breaks ground with a new materialist analysis of the genre, highlighting the ways that, since its origins in the eighteenth century, the Gothic has been intensely focused on “ominous matter” and “thing power.” In chapters attending to gothic bodies, spaces, books, and other objects, Gothic Things argues that the Gothic has always been about what happens when objects assume mysterious animacy or potency and when human beings are reduced to the status of just one thing among many—more powerful—others. In exploring how the Gothic insistently decenters the human, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock reveals human beings to be enmeshed in networks of human and nonhuman forces mostly outside of their control. Gothic Things thus resituates the Gothic as the uncanny doppelgänger of twenty-first-century critical and cultural theory, lurking just beneath the surface (and sometimes explicitly surfacing) as it haunts considerations of how human beings interact with objects and their environment. In these pages the Gothic offers a dark reflection of the contemporary “nonhuman turn,” expressing a twenty-first-century structure of feeling undergirded by anxiety over the fate of the human: spectrality, monstrosity, and apocalypse. Substituting horror for hope, the Gothic, Weinstock explains, has been a philosophical meditation on human relations to the nonhuman since its inception, raising significant questions about how we can counter anthropocentric thought in our quest to live more harmoniously with the world around us.Table of ContentsPreface: Three Beginnings | vii Introduction: Ominous Matter | 1 1 Gothic Thing Theory | 19 2 Dark Enchantment and Gothic Materialism | 41 3 Body-as-Thing | 72 4 Thing-as- Body | 91 5 Book: How to Do Things with Words | 115 6 Building: Bigger on the Inside | 137 Epilogue: The Ominous Matter of One’s Ordinary Life | 171 Acknowledgments | 173 Notes | 175 Works Cited | 181 Index | 195

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Book SynopsisA new look at a beloved classic film that explores the philosophical dynamics of Casablanca Celebrating its eightieth anniversary this year, Casablanca remains one of the world’s most enduringly favorite movies. It won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is still commonly quoted: “We’ll always have Paris” and “Here’s looking at you, kid” And who can forget, “You must remember this…a kiss is just a kiss.” Yet no one expected much to come of this little film, certainly not its blockbuster stars or even the studio producing it. So how did this hastily cranked-out 1940s film, despite its many limitations, become one of the greatest films ever made? How is it that year after year, decade after decade, it continues to appear in the lists of the greatest movies ever produced? And why do audiences still weep when Rick and Ilsa part? The answer, according to Casablanca’s Conscience, is to paraphrase Rick, “It’s true.” Much has already been written about the film and the career-defining performances of Bogart and Bergman. Casablanca is an epic tale of love, betrayal, and sacrifice set against the backdrop of World War II. Yet decades later, it continues to capture the imagination of filmgoers. In Casablanca’s Conscience, author Robert Weldon Whalen explains why it still resonates so deeply. Applying a new lens to an old classic, Whalen focuses on the film’s timeless themes—Exile, Purgatory, Irony, Love, Resistance, and Memory. He then engages the fictional characters—Rick, Ilsa, and the others—against the philosophical and theological discourse of their real contemporaries, Hannah Arendt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Albert Camus. The relationships between fictional and historical persons illuminate both the film’s era as well as perennial human concerns. Both the film and the work of the philosophers explore dimensions of the human experience, which, while extreme, are familiar to everyone. It’s the themes that resonate with the viewer, that have sustained it as an evergreen classic all these years.Table of ContentsPrologue: Everybody Comes to Rick’s | 1 1 Exile | 13 2 Purgatory | 27 3 Irony | 44 4 Love | 56 5 Resistance | 78 Epilogue: You Must Remember This | 95 Acknowledgments | 105 Notes | 107 Bibliography | 127 Index | 137

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Book SynopsisA new look at a beloved classic film that explores the philosophical dynamics of Casablanca Celebrating its eightieth anniversary this year, Casablanca remains one of the world’s most enduringly favorite movies. It won three Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It is still commonly quoted: “We’ll always have Paris” and “Here’s looking at you, kid” And who can forget, “You must remember this…a kiss is just a kiss.” Yet no one expected much to come of this little film, certainly not its blockbuster stars or even the studio producing it. So how did this hastily cranked-out 1940s film, despite its many limitations, become one of the greatest films ever made? How is it that year after year, decade after decade, it continues to appear in the lists of the greatest movies ever produced? And why do audiences still weep when Rick and Ilsa part? The answer, according to Casablanca’s Conscience, is to paraphrase Rick, “It’s true.” Much has already been written about the film and the career-defining performances of Bogart and Bergman. Casablanca is an epic tale of love, betrayal, and sacrifice set against the backdrop of World War II. Yet decades later, it continues to capture the imagination of filmgoers. In Casablanca’s Conscience, author Robert Weldon Whalen explains why it still resonates so deeply. Applying a new lens to an old classic, Whalen focuses on the film’s timeless themes—Exile, Purgatory, Irony, Love, Resistance, and Memory. He then engages the fictional characters—Rick, Ilsa, and the others—against the philosophical and theological discourse of their real contemporaries, Hannah Arendt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Albert Camus. The relationships between fictional and historical persons illuminate both the film’s era as well as perennial human concerns. Both the film and the work of the philosophers explore dimensions of the human experience, which, while extreme, are familiar to everyone. It’s the themes that resonate with the viewer, that have sustained it as an evergreen classic all these years.Table of ContentsPrologue: Everybody Comes to Rick’s | 1 1 Exile | 13 2 Purgatory | 27 3 Irony | 44 4 Love | 56 5 Resistance | 78 Epilogue: You Must Remember This | 95 Acknowledgments | 105 Notes | 107 Bibliography | 127 Index | 137

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Book SynopsisRelocating Identities in Latin American Cultures explores the perpetually changing notion of Latin American identity, particularly as illustrated in literature and other forms of cultural expression. Editor Elizabeth Montes Garces has gathered contributions from specialists who examine the effects of such major phenomena as migration, globalization, and gender on the construct of Latin American identities, and, as such, are reshaping the traditional understanding of Latin America's cultural history.The contributors to this volume are experts in Latin American literature and culture. Covering a diverse range of genres from poetry to film, their essays explore themes such as feminism, deconstruction, and postcolonial theory as they are reflected in the Latin American cultural milieu.Table of ContentsIntroduction. Cities & Identities at the Turn of the Twentieth Century. Exile & Identity. Re-readings of Gender Representation. Literature & Globalisation. Index.

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Book Synopsis Programming Reality: Perspectives on English-Canadian Television, the first anthology dedicated to analyses of Canadian television content, is a collection of original, interdisciplinary articles, combining textual analysis and political economy of communications. It explores the television that has thrived in the Canadian regulatory and cultural context: namely, programs that straddle the border between reality and fiction or even blur it. The conceptual basis of this collection is the hybrid nature of television fare: the widely theorized notion that all mediations of reality involve fiction in the form of narrative or symbolic shaping. Each of the contributions here is a reminder, too, of the significant relationship of television to nation building in Canada - to the imaginative work involved in thinking through the relations that constitute nations, citizens, and communities. The collection focuses on English-language Canadian television because the imperatives guiding its texts are markedly different from those pertaining to their French-lanugage counterparts. The collection, therefore, develops a nuance of perspective on the cultural and political economic specificities that inform the imaginative work of television production for English Canada. Table of Contents Programming Reality: Perspectives on English-Canadian Television edited by Zoë Druick and Aspa Kotsopoulos Introduction Zoë Druick and Aspa Kotsopoulos Part One: Narrating Nation Reenacting Canada: The Nation State as an Object of Desire in the Early Years of Canadian Broadcasting David Hogarth Representing National History on Television: The Case of Canada: A People's History Lyle Dick Canadian Idols? CBC's The Greatest Canadian as Celebrity History Julie Rak Canadian Idol and the Myth of National Identity Michele Byers Hockey Dreams: Making the Cut Derek Foster Laughing at Authority or Authorized Laughter? Canadian News Parodies Zoë Druick Whose Child Am I? The Quebec Referendum and Languages of Affect and the Body Marusya Bociurkiw Part Two: Making Citizens Public Broadcasting/National Television: CBC and the Challenges of Historical Miniseries Aspa Kotsopoulos History as Edutainment: Heritage Minutes and the Uses of Educational Television Katarzyna Rukszto Education and Entertainment: The Many Reals of Degrassi Michele Byers Haunting Public Discourse: The Representation of Residential Schools in CBC Television Drama Mary Jane Miller Part Three: Mapping Geographies Representations of Urban Conflict in Moccasin Flats John McCullough Da Vinci's Inquest: Postmortem Glen Lowry Imagining National Citizens in Televised Toronto Jen VanderBurgh Realism and Community in the Canadian Soap Opera: The Case of Train 48 Sarah A. Matheson Human Cargo: Bridging the Geopolitical Divide at Home in Canada Kirsten Emiko McAllister Contributors Index Contributors Marusya Bociurkiw is assistant professor of media theory in the School of Radio and Television Arts at Ryerson University in Toronto. She is the author of four literary books, including Comfort Food for Breakups: The Memoir of a Hungry Girl (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2007). She has been producing films and videos in Canada for the past fifteen years, including, most recently, Flesh and Blood: A Journey between East and West. Her monograph on Canadian television, Feeling Canadian: Nationalism and Affect on Canadian Television, is forthcoming from Wilfrid Laurier University Press. Michele Byers is assistant professor in Sociology and Criminology at Saint Mary's University. She has written extensively on television, youth, and identity. In 2001, she was awarded a SSHRC grant to study the Degrassi series and the production of youth and Canadian identity. In 2004, she was awarded a second SSHRC grant to engage in a broader study of television, film, and the production of Canadian youth cultures. She is editor of Growing Up Degrassi: Television, Identity and Youth Cultures (Sumach Press, 2005). Lyle Dick is the West Coast historian with Parks Canada in Vancouver. He is the author of 70 publications on topics in Canadian and American history, historiography, and Arctic history, including the book Muskox Land: Ellesmere Island in the Age of Contact (University of Calgary Press, 2001). He was awarded the Harold Adams Innis Prize for Canada's best English-language book in the social sciences in 2003. His published work includes several detailed investigations into the relationships of narrative form and Canadian history, including earlier articles on the books and visual content of the CBC series Canada: A People's History. Zoë Druick is associate professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University, where she teaches courses in media, film, and cultural studies. She is the author of Projecting Canada: Documentary Film and Government Policy at the National Film Board (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007) and has published articles on documentary film, educational media, and cultural policy in Television and New Media, Studies in Documentary Film, Canadian Journal of Film Studies, and Canadian Journal of Communication. Her current work involves an investigation of the links between documentary and democracy. Derek Foster is assistant professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University. His PhD dissertation (Carleton University, School of Journalism and Communication, 2004) studied the evolution of squeegeeing as a controversial social issue through the lens of rhetorical theory. His recent publications focus on a wide variety of communication media studied as visual rhetoric and contesting discourses surrounding reality television. David Hogarth is associate professor in Communication Studies at York University. His research is concerned with the history and current state of documentary in Canada and worldwide. He is the author of Documentary Television in Canada: From National Public Service to Global Marketplace (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002) and Realer Than Reel: Global Dimensions in Documentary (University of Texas Press, 2006). He is now researching the political economy of independent documentary production. Aspa Kotsopoulos is senior policy analyst in Television Policy and Applications at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). In 2004 she received her PhD in Communications from Simon Fraser University, where her dissertation was nominated for a Governor General's award. She has published articles about Canadian television in various journals and anthologies, and has taught courses in film and media studies. Glen Lowry teaches in critical and cultural studies at Emily Carr Institute for Art + Design + Media in Vancouver. A specialist in contemporary Canadian literature and culture, he edits West Coast Line. His recent published work looks at the limits of cultural nationalism in relation to racialized writing, 20th-century poetics, photography, and contemporary art. He is currently working on a collaborative Research Creations project on the uncanny mirroring of Vancouver's urban waterfront in the desert West of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Sarah A. Matheson is assistant professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture and Film at Brock University. Her research and teaching interests are in film and television studies, with a recent focus on reality television in Canada and the U.S. and issues surrounding taste and popular culture. She has published several articles on the representation of Toronto on English-Canadian television. Kirsten Emiko McAllister is assistant professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. She has published in the areas of cultural memory, visual culture, and political violence, focusing on Japanese Canadian internment camps. Her more recent research focuses on refugees and discourses of inclusion and exclusion. Some of her publications include articles in Visual Studies and Cultural Values and a book co-edited with Annette Kuhn, Locating Memory: Photographic Acts (Berghahn, 2006). John McCullough teaches in the Department of Film at York University. He has a PhD in social and political thought and was the first coordinator of the graduate programs in interdisciplinary studies in fine arts at the University of Regina. His current research includes analysis of popular Hollywood films, Canadian regional television production, and First Nations in film and television. Mary Jane Miller is Professor of Dramatic Arts Emerita at Brock University. She is the author of Turn Up the Contrast: CBC Television Drama since 1952 (University of British Columbia Press and CBC, 1987) and Rewind and Search: Conversations with Makers and Decision Makers of CBC Television Drama (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1996). She is completing the forthcoming book Outside Looking In for McGill-Queen's University Press, about the representation of First Nations people in series television. Julie Rak is associate professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. She is the author of Negotiated Memory: Doukhobor Autobiographical Discourse (2005) and the editor of Auto/biography in Canada: Critical Directions (2005). She is co-editor (with Jeremy Popkin) of On Diary, a new translation of recent essays by Philippe LeJeune (University of Hawaii Press, 2008) and co-editor (with Andrew Gow) of Mountain Masculinity: The Life and Writings of Nello (Tex) Vernon Wood on the Canadian Rockies, 1911–1938 (Athabasca University Press, 2008). She is the editor of a special issue of The Canadian Journal of American Studies on popular auto/biography (forthcoming 2008). Julie has published on popular culture, Canadian culture and autobiography theory most recently in English Studies in Canada, biography, and Life Writing. Her current book project is about mass-produced memoir and biography in print and on television in North America. Katarzyna Rukszto is assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Wilfrid Laurier University. Her current research examines representational politics of museums and heritage sites, particularly those that focus on military history, war, and national identity. She is also revising a book manuscript on the Heritage Minutes. Jen VanderBurgh is a SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Film and Media at Queen's University, where she working on a manuscript that compares national approaches to archiving and teaching television. Her other research concerns representations of urbanity as a problematic of nation, culture, and technology in Canadian film and television. She has published in the Canadian Journal of Film Studies, Topia, Quebec Studies, and the Encyclopedia of the Documentary Film.

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Book Synopsis Making It Like a Man: Canadian Masculinities in Practice is a collection of essays on the practice of masculinities in Canadian arts and cultures, where to ""make it like a man"" is to participate in the cultural, sociological, and historical fluidity of ways of being a man in Canada, from the country's origins in nineteenth-century Victorian values to its immersion in the contemporary post-modern landscape. The book focuses on the ways Canadian masculinities have been performed and represented through five broad themes: colonialism, nationalism, and transnationalism; emotion and affect; ethnic and minority identities; capitalist and domestic politics; and the question of men's relationships with themselves and others. Chapters include studies of well-known and more obscure figures in the Canadian arts and culture scenes, such as visual artist Attila Richard Lukacs; writers Douglas Coupland, Barbara Gowdy, Simon Chaput, Thomas King, and James De Mille; filmmakers Clement Virgo, Norma Bailey, John N. Smith, and Frank Cole; as well as familiar and not-so-familiar tokens of Canadian masculinity such as the hockey hero, the gangsta rapper, the immigrant farmer, and the drag king. Making It Like a Man is the first book of its kind to explore and critique historical and contemporary masculinities in Canada with a special focus on artistic and cultural production and representation. It is concerned with mapping some of the uniquely Canadian places and spaces in the international field of masculinity studies, and will be of interest to academic and culturally informed audiences. Trade Review"Bringing together the fine arts, humanities, and social sciences in examining Canadian masculinities, Christine Ramsay's sophisticated anthology Making It Like A Man moves well beyond the old generalizations about masculinity and the usual emphasis on masculinity as being in a constant state of crisis. The range of topics, methods, and scholars is impressive and makes a rich contribution to understanding Canadian culture and demonstrates the need to pursue more work like this with a transdisciplinary approach to the intersection of masculinity and nationhood." - Peter Lehman, author of New Edition"Making It Like A Man delves deftly and deeply into one of the most conspicuous voids in Canadian arts and culture, namely: where have all the heroes gone? It's the question that fascinates Christine Ramsay as much as the quest. The fact is, masculinity has never been a simple or static state in Canadian culture, and in this lies the revelation. If men in Canadian culture weren't in a state of perpetual representational crisis, they'd be from somewhere else." - Geoff Pevere, co-author , author of Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey Toronto on Film Goin' Down the Road``The collection...investigates Canadian masculinities across disciplines, spaces, and time periods. Essays explore everything from national settlement propaganda in the late 1800s to Indigenous rap in contemporary Regina, and the authors make use of a wide array of analytical and theoretical approaches.... Making It Like a Man suggests that we need to move past the binaries (urban/rural, white collar/blue collar, bachelor/family) that govern them in order to engage more fully with the complexity of male identity in Canada.'' -- Jennifer Hardwick -- Canadian Literature, 216, Spring 2013Table of Contents Making It Like a Man: Canadian Masculinities in Practice, edited by Christine Ramsay List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Christine Ramsay I. Identity, Agency, and Manliness in the Colonial and the National 1. Carnival and Masculinity in the Travel Fiction of James De Mille Ken Wilson 2. ""No Money, but Muscle and Pluck"": Cultivating Trans-Imperial Manliness for the Fields of Empire, 1870-1901 Jarett Henderson 3. Who's on the Home Front? Canadian Masculinity in the NFB's Second World War Series ""Canada Carries On"" Michael Brendan Baker II. Emotional Geographies of Anxiety, Eros, and Impairment 4. Making Art Like a Man! David Garneau 5. ""Above Mere Men"": The Heterogeneous Male in Attila Richard Lukacs Piet Defraeye 6. Stranger Than Paradise: Immigration and Impaired Masculinities Christina Stojanova III. The Minority Male 7. The ""Hood"" Reconfigured: Black Masculinity in Rude D.L. McGregor and Sheila Petty 8. ""Keepin' It Real""? Masculinity, Indigeneity, and Media Representations of Gangsta Rap in Regina Charity Marsh 9. Fixing Stories ""Is Sure a Lot of Work"": Watching ""the Men's Dance"" in Medicine River and Green Grass, Running Water Peter Cumming 10. Masculinity in a Minority Setting: The Emblematic Body in Simone Chaput's Le coulonneux Nicole Côté IV. Capitalized, Corporatized, Compromised Men 11. The Politics of Marginalization at the Centre: Canadian Masculinities and Global Capitalism in Douglas Coupland's Generation X Kit Dobson 12. Dangerous Homosexualities and Disturbing Masculinities: The Disabling Rhetoric of Difference in Barbara Gowdy's Mister Sandman Sally S. Hayward V. Abject Masculinities 13. What Do Heterosexual Men Want? Or, ""The (Wandering) Queer Eye on the (Straight) Guy"" Thomas Waugh 14. Boy to the Power of Three: Toronto's Drag Kings Bobby Noble 15. Life Without Death? Space, Affect, and Masculine Identity in the Work of Frank Cole Christine Ramsay Bibliography Biographical Notes Index Contributors' Bios Michael Baker (Ph.D., McGill University) is the FQRSC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Centre for Cinema Studies, Department of Theatre and Film, at the University of British Columbia. He is co-editor of Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada (with Thomas Waugh and Ezra Winton) and author of numerous book chapters and journal articles on film and media. Nicole Côté is Associate Professor at the Department of Literature and Communication, University of Sherbrooke. She has published a number of articles and chapters on Quebec and on Franco- and Anglo-Canadian literatures. She has translated several Canadian authors and has edited two volumes of short stories, which she also translated: Nouvelles du Canada anglais (1999), an anthology; and Vers le rivage (2004), stories from Mavis Gallant ranging from the 1950s to the 1990s. She also co-edited Varieties of Exiles: New Essays on Mavis Gallant (2002), and Expressions culturelles de la francophonie mondiale (2008). She is French book review editor for Journal of Canadian Studies and is an editorial board member of Analyses. Her research centres on questions of identity, gender, and minorities, as well as on questions of cultural transfers. Peter E. Cumming is Associate Professor of Children's Literature and Culture and is Coordinator of the Children's Studies Program at York University. His M.A. thesis, ""Life After Man: 'New' Men in Canadian Fiction,"" and his Ph.D. dissertation, ""Some 'Male' from Canada 'Post': Heterosexual Masculinities in Contemporary Canadian Writing,"" focus on constructions of masculinities in contemporary Canadian writing, including in the works of Robert Kroetsch, Guy Vanderhaeghe, Leon Rooke, Leonard Cohen, Brian Fawcett, Thomas King, and Michael Ondaatje. As a teacher, consultant, and writer, Peter worked for six years in Inuit communities in Nunavut. Peter has taught Children's Literature, Canadian Literature, First Nations Literature, Creative and Expository Writing, Theatre, and Film at Guelph and York Universities as well as the University of Western Ontario. He is also a children's author (A Horse Called Farmer, Mogul and Me, Out on the Ice in the Middle of the Bay) and playwright in theatre for young audiences (including the bilingual plays Ti-Jean and Snowdreams). Peter is President of the Association for Research in Cultures of Young People (ARCYP). Piet Defraeye is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator in the Department of Drama at the University of Alberta. He is a drama critic, theorist, director, and dramaturge. Before coming to the University of Alberta, he taught and directed in Belgium, Toronto, and Fredericton. Recent directing credits include Arnold Wesker's The Kitchen (1999) and Von Kleist's Amphitryon (2002). His areas of specialization include dramaturgy, performance studies, theatre theory and modern drama, theatre of provocation, audience reception, Quebec theatre, and European theatre practices. Kit Dobson is Assis tant Professor in the Department of English at Calgary's Mount Royal University, where he works in Canadian Literature, Globalization Studies, and Film. His first book, Transnational Canadas: Anglo-Canadian Literature and Globalization, was published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press in 2009. David Garneau is Associate Professor of Visual Arts at the University of Regina. He was born and raised in Edmonton, received most of his postsecondary education (B.F.A. Painting and Drawing, M.A. English Literature) at the University of Calgary, and taught at the Alberta College of Art and Design for five years before moving to Regina in 1999. His practice includes painting, drawing, curation, and critical writing. His solo exhibition, Cowboys and Indians (and Métis?), toured Canada, 2003-7. His work often engages issues of nature, history, masculinity, and Métis identity. His artworks are in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canadian Parliament, the Indian and Inuit Art Centre, the Glenbow Museum, the MacKenzie Art Gallery, and many other public and private collections. He has curated several large group exhibitions: The End of the World (as we know it), Picture Windows: New Abstraction, Transcendent Squares, Sophisticated Folk, Contested Histories, and Making It Like a Man! Garneau has written numerous catalogue essays and reviews and was a co-founder and co-editor of Artichoke and Cameo magazines. He is currently exploring the Carlton Trail and roadkill as landscape subjects and working on curatorial projects featuring contemporary Aboriginal art exchanges between Canada and Australia. Sally Hayward received her Ph.D. in 2006 from the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta. Since 2007 she has worked as an instructor in the Academic Writing Program at the University of Lethbridge. Her research focuses on the rhetorical and narrative construction of disability in literature, medicine, the law, and the media. More specifically, she analyzes how and why people with disabilities are either appropriated by or occluded from the national imaginary. Her interest in disability and masculinity is reflected in the work she has done on the Robert Latimer case as well as in ""'Those Who Cannot Work': An Exploration of Disabled Men and Masculinity in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor,"" which was published in Prose Studies, and in ""(Dis)Enabling Masculinities: The Word and the Body, Class Politics, and Male Sexuality in El Saadawi's God Dies by the Nile,"" which was published in African Masculinities. Jarett Henderson completed his M.A. in Western Canadian social history at the University of Manitoba in 2004 and his Ph.D. in Canadian history at York University in 2010. His research interests include, but are not limited to, the intimate intersection of domestic and political life, the conflict between colonial and imperial states, and how the lived history of nineteenth-century imperialism was affected by notions of gender, race, status, and sexuality. He has taught Canadian history in Winnipeg, Toronto, and Oshawa and is currently completing a manuscript on Lord Durham's 1838 administration. Charity Marsh holds the Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance in the Department of Media Production and Studies at the University of Regina. She completed her Ph.D. in Popular Studies and Ethnomusicology at York University. Her thesis was titled ""Raving Cyborgs, Queering Practices, and Discourses of Freedom: The Search for Meaning in Toronto's Rave Culture."" Her current research focuses on interactive media and performance and how cultures and practices associated with this broad category contribute to dialogues concerning regionalism, cultural identity, and community specifically in western and northern Canada, and more generally on a global scale. In 2007 she was awarded a Canadian Foundation for Innovation Grant and a Saskatchewan Fund for Innovation and Science grant to develop the Interactive Media and Performance Labs as a way to support her ongoing research in the following areas: (1) Canadian (Indigenous) Hip-Hop Cultures; (2) DJ Cultures, including EDM, Club Culture, Rave Culture, Techno, Psy-Trance, and online, community, and pirate radio; and (3) Isolation, Identity, and Space: Production and Performance of Popular Music in Western and Northern Canada. In her artistic practices, she incorporates interdisciplinary approaches and multiple media, including turntables, video, radio broadcasting, text, and soundscape composition. Donna-Lynne McGregor is an independent screenwriter who focuses on film, television, and digital media screenwriting as an artistic practice that contributes to the development of discourse and theory in popular media. She received her M.F.A. in Film and Video Production from the University of Regina in 2007 and was the recipient of the University of Regina Governor General's Academic Gold Medal in 2008. In partnership with co-writer Chris Cunningham, she has written several half-hour comedies, TV series pilots, and feature-length thrillers and dramas, several of which have garnered awards. Bobby Noble is an Associate Professor of Sexuality and Gender Studies at the School of Women's Studies at York University. He completed his Ph.D. at York University in 2000 and, after teaching on the west coast at the University of Victoria, returned to join the School of Women's Studies at York University in July 2006. His research focuses on sexuality, gender, anti-racist whiteness, and feminist cultural studies. In particular, his work looks at the intersections of masculinity, embodiment, and sexuality in the fields of transsexual/transgender studies, queer theory, and cultural studies. Sheila Petty is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Regina. She has written extensively on issues of cultural representation, identity, and nation in African and African diasporic cinema and new media, and has curated film, television, and new media exhibitions for galleries across Canada. She is author of Contact Zones: Memory, Origin and Discourses in Black Diasporic Cinema. She is leader of an interdisciplinary research group and New Media Studio Laboratory that spans computer science, engineering, and fine arts. Christine Ramsay is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Regina. She is a member of the editorial boards of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies and Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies. Her research is in the areas of Canadian and Saskatchewan cinemas, masculinities in contemporary cinemas, the culture of cities, and philosophies of identity. She has published in several anthologies and journals, including Indigenous Screen Cultures in Canada, Expressions culturelles de la francophonie mondiale, Self Portrait II: Cinema in Canada, Boys: Masculinities in Contemporary Culture, North of Everything: English Canadian Cinema since 1980, Canada's Greatest Films, The Canadian Journal of Film Studies, and Post Script. She is currently editing an anthology with Randal Rogers entitled Mind the Gap! Saskatchewan Cultural Spaces (Canadian Plains Research Center, forthcoming 2012). Christina Stojanova is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Regina. Her areas of research include cultural semiotics of ethnic and immigrant representation; philosophical, psychoanalytical, and religious sources of identity formation; and theories of propaganda and persuasion in media and visual arts. Among her major publications are chapters in Traditions in World Cinema, Horror International, and The Cinema of Eastern Europe. She is co-editor, with Bela Szabados, of the critical anthology Wittgenstein at the Movies: Cinematic Investigations. She is co-editor of the anthology The Legacies of Jean-Luc Godard (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, forthcoming 2012) and is currently at work on her book New Romanian Cinema for University of Edinburgh Press. Thomas Waugh has since 1976 taught Film Studies at Concordia University, where he has also developed curriculum in Queer Studies and on AIDS. He has lectured, programmed, and published extensively on documentary, queer media, and sexual representation, as well as on the national cinemas of Canada and India. Among his books are ""Show Us Life"": Towards a History and Aesthetics of the Committed Documentary; Hard to Imagine: Gay Male Eroticism in Photography and Film from Their Beginnings to Stonewall; The Fruit Machine: Twenty Years of Writings on Queer Cinema; The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas; and (forthcoming) The Right to Play Oneself: Essays on Documentary by Thomas Waugh 1976-2001 and Challenge for Change / Société nouvelle: The Collection (coedited with Ezra Winton and Michael Baker). Ken Wilson lectures in English and Film Studies at the University of Regina. He has worked as a freelance writer for Saskatchewan Communications Network's series Prairie Night at the Movies and Prairie Eye. A past president of the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, he has served as editor of the Filmpool's Splice Magazine and has made experimental and site-specific films for several Saskatchewan-based arts events, including Crossfiring / Mama Wetotan, and, most recently, Windblown / Rafales.

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Book Synopsis Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance examines the deeper meanings and resonances of artistic dance in contemporary culture. The book comprises four sections: methods and methodologies, autoethnography, pedagogies and creative processes, and choreographies as cultural and spiritual representations. The contributors bring an insiders insight to their accounts of the nature and function of these artistic practices, giving voice to dancers, dance teachers, creators, programmers, spectators, students, and scholars. International and intergenerational, this collection of groundbreaking scholarly research points to a new direction for both dance studies and dance anthropology. Traditionally the exclusive domain of aesthetic philosophers, the art of dance is here reframed as cultural practice, and its significance is revealed through a chorus of voices from practitioners and insider ethnographers. Trade Review"Fields in Motion brings together twenty-four scholars interested in approaching dance from an ethnographic perspective. It is therefore a useful 'follow up' to Theresa Buckland's edited collection 'Dance in the Field: Theory, Methods, and Issues in Dance Ethnography' (1999). What makes the book special is that the contributors all focus largely on theatre dance, rather than on other genres more embedded within circumscribed communities, generally the domain of anthropologists specializing in dance. Although Joann Kealiinohomoku showed us the way in the late 1960s and 1970s by demonstrating that all dances are culturally rooted, art dance still remains, for many, beyond ethnographic enquiry since it is often perceived as 'outside culture.' The collection provides rich and diverse approaches to ethnography (polyphonic, multi-sited, auto-, experiential, intimate and so on), to field/dance sites (from small towns in Canada and the USA, to Paris, Helsinki and Toronto; from Taiwan, to Brazil, to New Zealand), and to the subjects of research (from amateurs to professionals; from largely female to male only). The authors take us on exciting journeys and the reader enters the worlds of dancers, spectators and researchers in a variety of social and cultural contexts, sometimes with great intimacy, at other times with more detachment, but always with heightened sensitivity. Reading 'Fields in Motion' allows for discovery of the many ways in which dancing bodies may be socially and culturally mediated so that our understanding of theatre dance gains greater nuances." -- Andrée Grau, Roehampton University"The authors in 'Fields in Motion' emerge from this unique anthology as engaging dance scholars from various parts of the world. Their words are framed by research on art dance 'at home.' They share with us, their readers, as they reflect on the views and behaviors of their dancer subjects, whom they researched through an ethnographic lens. Our own horizons expand as we meet these authors, and as we begin to perceive the spreading global dedication to ethnographic research for art dance 'at home.'" -- Joann W. Kealiinohomoku, Northern Arizona UniversityTable of ContentsTable of Contents for Fields in Motion: Ethnography in the Worlds of Dance, edited by Dena DavidaForeword Naomi Jackson (Canada/USA)AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Anthropology at Home in the Art Worlds of Dance Dena Davida (Canada)SECTION 1: Inventing Strategies, Models, and Methods1. Shifting Positions: From the Dancers' Posture to the Researchers' Posture Anne Cazemajou (France)2. A Template for Art World Dance Ethnography: The Luna ""Nouvelle Danser"" Event Dena Davida (Canada)3. Interview Strategies for Concert Dance World Settings Jennifer Fisher (Canada/USA)4. The ""Why Dance?"" Projects: Choreographing the Text and Dancing the Data Michèle Moss (Canada)5. What is the Pointe?: The Pointe Shoe as Symbol in Dance Ethnography Kristin Harris Walsh (Canada)SECTION 2: Embodying Autoethnographies6. Writing, Dancing, Embodied Knowing: Autoethnographic Research Karen Barbour (New Zealand)7. The Body as a Living Archive of Dance/Movement: Autobiographical Reflections Janet Goodridge (England)8. Self-Portrait of an Insider Researching Contemporary Dance and Culture in Vitória, Brazil Eluza Maria Santos (Brazil/USA)9. Reflections on Making the Dance Documentary Regular Events of Beauty: Negotiating Culture in the Work of Choreographer Richard Tremblay Priya Thomas (Canada)10. Angelwindow: ""I dance my body double"" Inka Juslin (Finland)SECTION 3: Examining Creative Processes and Pedagogies11. The Montréal Danse Choreographic Research and Development Workshop: Dancer-Researchers Examine Choreographer-Dancer Relational Dynamics during the Creative Process Pamela Newell and Sylvie Fortin (Canada)12. How the Posture of Researcher-Practitioner Serves an Understanding of Choreographic Activity Joëlle Vellet (France)13. A Teacher ""Self-Research"" Project: Sensing Differences in the Teaching and Learning of Contemporary Dance Technique in New Zealand Warwick Long (Canada/New Zealand), Ralph Buck (New Zealand), and Sylvie Fortin (Canada)14. Dance Education and Emotions: Articulating Unspoken Values in the Everyday Life of a Dance School Teija Löytönen (Finland)15. Black Tights and Dance Belts: Constructing a Masculine Identity in a World of Pink Tutus in Corner Brook, Newfoundland Candice Pike (Canada)16. The Construction of the Body in Wilfride Piollet's Classical Dance Classes Nadège Tardieu and Georgiana Gore (France)SECTION 4: Revealing Choreographies as Cultural and Spiritual Practices17. Vincent Sekwati Mantsoe: Trance as a Cultural Commodity Bridget E. Cauthery (Canada)18. Anthropophagic Bodies in Flea Market: A Study of Sheila Ribeiro's Choreography Mônica Dantas (Brazil)19. The Bridge From Past to Present in Lin Hwai-min's Nine Songs (1993): Literary texts and dance images Yin-ying Huang (Taiwan)20. Revealed By Fire: Lata Pada's Narrative of Transformation Susan McNaughton (Canada)21. Spectres of the Dark: The Dance-Making Manifesto of Latina/Chicana Choreographies Juanita Suarez (USA)22. Not of Themselves: Contemporary Practices in American Protestant dance Emily Wright (USA)Epilogue: Theory That Acts Like Dancing: The Autoethnographic Strut Lisa Doolittle and Anne Flynn (Canada)List of ContributorsCopyright AcknowledgementsIndex

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Book SynopsisAid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance examines Canada's mixed record since 1950 in transferring over $50 billion in capital and expertise to developing countries through ODA. It focuses in particular on the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the organization chiefly responsible for delivering Canada's development assistance. Aid and Ebb Tide calls for a renewed and reformed Canadian commitment to development co-operation at a time when the gap between the world's richest and poorest has been widening alarmingly and millions are still being born into poverty and human insecurity.Trade Review``Reviews and assessments of Canada's aid program have been numerous....not until the publication of David Morrison's Aid and Ebb Tide has there been a comprehensive review of its history, allowing a more fully informed assessment. The book is an important achievement, chronicling the evolution of Canada's aid program since its origins in support of the Colombo plan in 1950, to the end of the 20th century. It provides a level of details not previously captured, which will serve both students of aid as well as practitioners and analysts. It is a history long overdue, given the continued importance of aid in Canadian foreign policy efforts. It provides a particular vantage for reflections on new directions and prospects for Canadian aid program, as Canada heads into a new century of unquestionable levels of global poverty and inequity.'' -- Gauri Sreenivasan -- Canadian Journal of Development Studies``David Morrison's book has long been anticipated. It does not disappoint. It is marked by the most careful scholarship, a clear and accessible literary style, a telling sensitivity for apt quotations, nuanced theoretical and normative judgements, and a sure touch when dealing with politics and personalities. Aid and the Ebb Tide is and will for long remain absolutely indispensable for anyone interested in Canada's relations with the developing world, in the making of public policy in Canada, and in the complexity of any serious effort to give expresssion in Canadian foreign policy to the underlying social values that, though under strain, are still central to the Canadian political culture.'' -- Cranford Pratt, Emeritus Professor ofPolitical Science, University of Toronto``...this volume of over 600 pages, including almost 2,000 bibliographical references, constitutes the most comprehensive study of Canadian aid ever published....Written in clear and elegant prose, Morrison's work is impressive from several points of view. On the empirical level, it is comprehensive inasmuch as it deals with practically every facet of a half-century of Canadian aid. The book is especially effective in its treatment of the evolution of administrative structures, the substance of policies and the bureaucratic games behind the major changes of direction undergone by CIDA. Morrison also provides data that are helpful for comparing Canada's behavior with that of other industrialized countries. On the theoretical level, his book offers a fresh outlook. It demonstrates how nonstate actors -- especially the NGOs -- carry more weight than what statist and dominant-class approaches suggest....we ought to thank him for having had the stamina to see his marathon project through to the end. His book is an all-too-rare model of scholarship. It will certainly be an indispensable and enduring reference for every student of Canadian development assistance policy.'' -- Jean-Philippe Thérien, University of Montreal, Recensions``Aid and Ebb Tide is indispensable for anyone interested in CIDA, Canada's development assistance programs, and the policy-making process. Elegantly written and free of jargon, it is a pleasure to read.'' -- Robert O. Matthews, University of Toronto, University of Toronto QuarterlyTable of ContentsTable of Contents for Aid and Ebb Tide: A History of CIDA and Canadian Development Assistance by David R. Morrison List of Tables and Figures List of Acronyms Chronology of Key Events List of Ministers and Senior Officials Preface 01. Defining Canadian Development Assistance 02. The Early Years, 1950â66 03. Maurice Strong and the Creation of CIDA, 1966â70 04. Global Expansion and Growing Pains, 1970â77 05. Retrenchment and Reorientation, 1977â80 06. Rethinking the Mission, 1980â83 07. Multiple Mandates and Partners, 1983â89 08. A Jolt of Fresh Energy? ODA Policy Reviewed, 1984â89 09. Shifting Gears, 1989â93 10. Ebb Tide, 1993â98 11. Explaining Canadian ODA Appendices A. Canadian Official Development Assistance: Selected Components, Total, and ODA/GNP Ratio, 1949â50 to 1996â97 B. Percentage Distribution of Canadian Government-to-Government ODA by Region, Ten-Year Cumulative Totals, 1950â60, and Five-Year Cumulative Totals, 1960â95 C. Top Twenty Recipients of Canadian Government-to-Government ODA at Five-Year Intervals, 1960â61 to 1995â96 D. Core/Category I and Non-Core/Category II Countries, 1978, 1981, 1986 E. Publicly Financed Technical Assistance Personnel and Students and Trainees Supported by Canadian ODA, Five-Year Intervals, 1965â95 F. Canadian ODA: Proportion of DAC Effort and Comparative Standing, Five-Year Intervals, 1960â95 G. Percentage Distribution of All Attributable Country-to-Country Aid by Region, Canada and DAC Donors, 1970â71, 1980â81, and 1995â96 H. Percentage Distribution of Attributable Country-to-Country Aid by Country Income Level, Canada and All DAC Donors, 1970â71, 1980â81, and 1995â96 I. Canadian Multilateral ODA: Proportion of DAC Effort and Comparative Standing, Selected Years Notes Index

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Book SynopsisGilbert Patten, writing as Burt L. Standish, made a career of generating serialized twenty-thousand-word stories featuring his fictional creation Frank Merriwell, a student athlete at Yale University who inspired others to emulate his example of manly boyhood. Patten and his publisher, Street and Smith, initially had only a general idea about what would constitute Merriwell’s adventures and who would want to read about them when they introduced the hero in the dime novel Tip Top Weekly in1896, but over the years what took shape was a story line that capitalized on middle-class fears about the insidious influence of modern life on the nation’s boys.Merriwell came to symbolize the Progressive Era debate about how sport and school made boys into men. The saga featured the attractive Merriwell distinguishing between “good” and “bad” girls and focused on his squeaky-clean adventures in physical development and mentorship.By the serial’s conclusion, Merriwell had opened a school for “weak and wayward boys” that made him into a figure who taught readers how to approximate his example. In Frank Merriwell and the Fiction of All-American Boyhood, Andersontreats Tip Top Weekly as a historical artifact, supplementing his reading of its text, illustrations, reader letters, and advertisements with his use of editorial correspondence, memoirs, trade journals, and legal documents. Anderson blends social and cultural history, with the history of business, gender, and sport, along with a general examination of childhood and youth in this fascinating study of how a fictional character was used to promote a homogeneous “normal” American boyhood rooted in an assumed pecking order of class, race, and gender.

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Book SynopsisThis work offers a wide-ranging examination of how scientists have been portrayed in American culture. From the earliest depictions of Benjamin Franklin and his kite experiment to twenty-first-century renderings of mad scientists, representations of American scientists in the popular media reveal much about our cultural hopes and fears. In an entertaining and insightful survey of popular media over three hundred years of American history - religious tracts, political cartoons, literature, theater, advertising, art, comic books, radio, music, television, and film - Glen Scott Allen examines the stereotypes assigned to scientists for what they tell us about America's pride in its technological achievements as well as our prejudices about certain 'suspect' kinds of scientific investigation. Working in the tradition of cultural studies, Allen offers an analysis that is historically comprehensive and critically specific. Integrating both 'high' literature and 'low' comedy, he delves into the assumptions about scientists - good, bad, and mad - that have been shaped by and have in turn shaped American cultural forces. Throughout the book, his focus is on why certain kinds of scientists have been lionized as American heroes, while others have been demonized as anti-American villains. Allen demonstrates that there is a continuous thread running from the seminal mad scientists of Hawthorne's eighteenth-century fiction to modern megalomaniacs like Dr. Strangelove; that marketing was as important to the reputation of the great independent inventors as technological prowess was; and, that cultural prejudices which can be traced all the way back to Puritan ideology are at work in modern scientific controversies over cloning and evolution. The periods and movements examined are remarkably far-ranging: the literature and philosophy of the Romantics; the technology fairs and utopian fiction of the nineteenth century; political movements of the 1930s and 1940s; the science fiction boom of the 1950s; the space and arms races of the 1960s and 1970s; and, the resurgence of pseudosciences in the 1980s and 1990s. This book will be of interest not just to teachers and students of cultural studies and the history of science and technology but to anyone interested in American culture and how it shapes our experience and defines our horizons.

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Book SynopsisThis is a lively exploration of how non-fiction books have kept Americans learning long after leaving college. Over the past fifty years, knowledge of the natural world, history, and human behavior has expanded dramatically. What has been learned in the academy has become part of political discourse, sermons, and everyday conversation. The dominant medium for transferring knowledge from universities to the public is popularization - books of serious non-fiction that make complex ideas and information accessible to nonexperts. Such writers as Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Stephen Hawking, Daniel Boorstin, and Robert Coles have attracted hundreds of thousands of readers. As fields such as biology, physics, history, and psychology have changed the ways we view ourselves and our place in the universe, popularization has played an essential role in helping us to understand our world. ""Expanding the American Mind"" begins by comparing fiction and non-fiction - their relative respectability in the eyes of reading experts and in the opinions of readers themselves. It then traces the roots of popularization from the Middle Ages to the present, examining changes in literacy, education, and university politics. Focusing on the period since World War-II, it examines the ways that curricular reform has increased interest in popularization as well as the impact of specialization and professionalization among the faculty. It looks at the motivations of academic authors and the risks and rewards that come from writing for a popular audience. It also explains how experts write for nonexperts - the rhetorical devices they use and the voices in which they communicate. Beth Luey also looks at the readers of popularizations - their motivations for reading, the ways they evaluate non-fiction, and how they choose what to read. This is the first book to use surveys and online reader responses to study nonfiction reading. It also compares the experience of reading serious non-fiction with that of reading other genres. Using publishers' archives and editor-author correspondence, Luey goes on to examine what editors, designers, and marketers in this very competitive business do to create and sell popularizations to the largest audience possible. In a brief after-word she discusses popularization and the web. The result is a highly readable and engaging survey of this distinctive genre of writing.

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Book SynopsisA richly illustrated and provocative discussion of Victorian culture through an exploration of common household goodsTrade Review"Ken Ames has always 'heard a different drummer.' Death in the Diningroom explores his unique ideas of how our home furnishings give visitors a message about our status and concerns. Why don't we own a hall tree? Why are dead birds carved on the sideboard? And why are some Victorian chairs so uncomfortable? These and other strange thoughts pop up as you read his latest, well-illustrated book."—Ralph and Terry Kovel, authors of Kovels' Antiques and Collectables Price List"[E]ffectively explores and articulates 'the varied tasks and roles' performed by ordinary goods in the everyday life of Victorian America, as well as the complex, contradicted elements of culture they often reveal."—American Quarterly"An eminently engaging and entertaining work by one of the pre-eminent interpreters of Victorian culture."—Antique ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1. First Impressions 2. Death in the Dining Room 3. Words to Live By 4. When the Music Stops 5. Posture and Power Conclusion Notes Index

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Book SynopsisCartoons and comics have played important roles in the political and social processes of Latin America for more than a century. This book coalesces, for the first time in one volume, aspects of comic art of the entire region, capturing historical backgrounds, documenting trends, problems and situations of comic art in contemporary settings, and profiling cartoonists, comics characters, titles and genres. Ten countries of Central and South America and Spanish Caribbean are dealt with in separate chapters. Comic art forms/media that are subjects of chapters are animation, caricature, comic books, comic strips, humor magazines, and political cartoons. Approaches include historical and character analyses. Authors of chapters represent some of the most knowledgeable individuals in Latin American comic art.Table of ContentsLatin American Comic Art: An Overview, John A. Lent. Argentine Comics: A History, Andres Accorsi. Argentine Comics Today: A Foreigner's Perspective, Jeff Williams. Oesterheld, the Literacy Voice of Argentine Comics, Ana Merino. ""Inodoro Pereyra,"" a ""Gaucho"" in the Pampa of Paper and Ink, Ana Merino. Children's Comics in Brazil: From Chiquinho and Monica, a Difficult Journey, Waldomiro C.S. Vergueiro. Brazilian Adult Comics: The Age of Market, Nadilson Manoel da Silva. Brazilian Superheroes in Search of Their Own Identities, Waldomiro C.S. Vergueiro. Brazilian Pornographic Comics: Eroticism in the Work of Carlos Zefiro, Waldomiro C.S. Vergueiro. The Comic Book in a ""Revolutionary Process"": Chile in 1973, David Kunzle. Chile's La Ferme verus ITT, David Kunzle, Chile's Pepo, Much More Than a Condorito, Jorge Montealegre Iturra. Vignette: Comic Art in Columbia: A Short Historical Journey, Perucho Mejia G. Cuban. Political, Social Commentary Cartoons, John A. Lent. Parallel Lives: A History of Comics and Animated Cartoons in Cuba, Dario Mogno. Always the Other One: Salomon, Caridad Blanco de la Cruz. Mexican Popular Graphic Narrative and Comics, a History, Armando Bartra and Gisela Gil-Egui. Roger Sanchez's ""Humor Erotico"" and the Semana Comica: A Sexual Revolution in Sandinista Nicaragua? David Kunzle, Peruvian Comics: The Early Years, Mario Lucionl. Conversations with Three Peruvian Cartoonists, John A. Lent and Teresa Archambeault. Cartooning in Uruguay, a Short History, Daniel Puch. (Mis)fortune in a High Barren Plain: A Personal View of Comics in Uruguay, Carols M. Federici. Venezuela's Alonso and the Art of Leaving it All to Art, Gisela Gil-Egui. Author Index. Subject Index.

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Book SynopsisThe comic strip Gordo was published in U.S. newspapers for forty-four years (1941-1985). For almost all of this run its creator Gus Arriola was the most visible American of Mexican descent working as a syndicated cartoonist. At its peak Gordo appeared in 270 newspapers and was the more widely circulated and longer-running of only two American comic strips set in Mexico.Gordo recounted the humorous adventures and amorous preoccupations of a portly Mexican bean farmer, whose name, Gordo, means ""fat."" Among the supporting cast were his perspicacious nephew, the menagerie of their farm animals, and citizens of their village. Originally, the characters played to the stereotypes of Mexicans as portrayed by Hollywood and in popular culture.When Arriola realized that in the U.S. his comic strip was the only mass-circulation medium that portrayed Mexicans, he began taking pains to reflect accurately the traditions south of the border. Gordo was transformed forthwith, and its chubby hero became, more by accident than by plan, an ambassador for Mexico and its culture.Converting his protagonist to a tour guide in the 1960s, Arriola was able to regale American readers with many aspects of Mexican folklore, history, and art in an entertaining but informative fashion, winning awards and accolades for his efforts. Because animals and insects in the strip were among its stellar attractions, Arriola was creatively positioned to stump for ecological concerns. He was one of the earliest in popular culture to do so.Profusely illustrated with runs of the strip from various periods, the book traces Arriola's artistic evolution and celebrates the cartoonist as a supremely inventive stylist whose artwork always displays design qualities unusual for a comic strip. His stunning Sunday fiestas of color and design are exemplified with eight pages of full-color reproductions.This is the first book focused exclusively on Gus Arriola and the first that extensively examines the Mexican milieu as portrayed in American comics.

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Book SynopsisWhat are super-devoted fans of comic books really like? What draws them together and energizes their zeal? What do the denizens of this pop-culture world have in common?This book provides good answers as it scrutinizes the fans whose profiles can be traced at their conventions, in pages of fanzines, on websites, in chat-rooms, on electronic bulletin boards, and before the racks in comic-book stores. They are a singular breed, and an absorbing interest in comic books (sometimes life-consuming) unites them.Studies have shows that the clustering, die-hard disciples of Star Trek have produced a unique culture. The same can be said of American enthusiasts of comic books. These aficionados range from the stereotypical ""fanboy"" who revels in the minute details of mainstream superhero titles like X-Men to the more discriminating (and downright snobbish) reader of idiosyncratic alternative comics like Eightball. Literate comics like Watchman, Radioactive Man, and Peepshow demand a knowledgeable audience and reward members of the culture for their expertise while tending to alienate those outside. This book shows how the degree of ""comics literacy"" determines a fan's place in the culture and how the most sophisticated share the nuanced history of the format.Although their interaction is filled with conflicts, all groups share an intense love for the medium. But whether one is a Fanboy or a True Believer, the preferred hangout is the specialty store. Here, as they talk shop, the culture proliferates. They debate among themselves, spread news about the industry, arrange trades, discuss collectibles, and attach themselves to their particular mainstream.With history, interviews, and textual analysis Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers examines the varied reading communities absorbed by the veneration of the comics and demonstrates how each functions in the ever-broadening culture.

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Book SynopsisWith essays by Jan Baetens, David A. Beronä, Frank L. Cioffi, N. C. Christopher Couch, Robert C. Harvey, Gene Kannenberg, Jr., Catherine Khordoc, David Kunzle, Marion D. Perret, and Todd Taylor.In our culture, which depends increasingly on images for instruction and recreation, it is important to ask how words and images make meaning when they are combined. Comics, one of the most widely read media of the twentieth century, serves as an ideal for focusing an investigation on the word-and-image question.This collection of essays attempts to give an answer. The first six see words and images as separate art forms that play with or against each other. David Kunzle finds that words restrict the meaning of the art of Adolphe Willette and Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen in Le Chat Noir. David A. Beronä, examining wordless novels, argues that the ability to read pictures depends on the ability to read words. Todd Taylor draws on classical rhetoric to demonstrate that images in The Road Runner are more persuasive than words. N. C. Christopher Couch--writing on The Yellow Kid--and Robert C. Harvey--discussing early New Yorker cartoons--are both interested in the historical development of the partnership between words and images in comics. Frank L. Cioffi traces a disjunctive relationship of opposites in the work of Andrzej Mleczko, Ben Katchor, R. Crumb, and Art Spiegelman.The last four essays explore the integration of words and images. Among five comic book adaptations of Hamlet Marion D. Perret finds one in which words and images form a dialectic. Jan Baetens critiques the semiotically inspired theory of Phillippe Marion. Catherine Khordoc explores speech balloons in Asterix the Gaul. Gene Kannenberg, Jr., demonstrates how the Chicago-based artist Chris Ware blurs the difference between word and image.The Language of Comics, however, is the first collection of critical essays on comics to explore a single issue as it affects a variety of comics.

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Book SynopsisDisney artist Carl Barks (1901-2000) created one of Walt Disney's most famous characters, Scrooge McDuck. Barks also produced more than 500 comic book stories. His work is ranked among the most widely circulated, best-loved, and most influential of all comic book art.Although the images he created are known virtually everywhere, Barks was an isolated storyteller, living in the desert of California and preferring to labor without public fanfare during most of his career.He created work of such exceptional quality that he was accorded the greatest autonomy of any Disney artist. He is the only comic book artist ever to receive a Disney Legends award.The influence of Barks's work on such filmmakers as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg and on such artists as Gottfried Helnwein has extended Barks's significance far beyond the boundaries of comics. After Barks's death at the age of ninety-nine, Roy Disney praised him for his ""brilliant artistic vision."" Carl Barks: Conversations is the only comprehensive collection of Barks's interviews. It ranges chronologically from the very first one (with Malcolm Willits, the fan who uncovered Barks's identity) to the artist's final conversations with Donald Ault in the summer of 2000. In between are interviews conducted by J. Michael Barrier, Edward Summer, Bruce Hamilton, and others. Several of these interviews are published here for the first time. Ault's friendship with Barks, ranging over a period of thirty years, provides an unusually intimate resource not only for standard q&a interviews but also for casual conversations in informal settings. Carl Barks: Conversations reveals previously unknown information about the life, times, and opinions of one of the master storytellers of the twentieth century.

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Book SynopsisWho on the planet doesn't know that Elvis Presley gave electrifying performances and enthralled millions? Who doesn't know that he was the King of Rock 'n' Roll? But who knows that the King himself lived in the thrall of one dominant person?This was Gladys Smith Presley, his protective, indulgent, beloved mother.Elvis and Gladys, one of the best researched and most acclaimed books on Elvis's early life, reconstructs the extraordinary role Gladys played in her son's formative years. Uncovering facts not seen by other biographers, Elvis and Gladys reconstructs for the first time the history of the mother and son's devoted relationship and reveals new information about Elvis--his Cherokee ancestry, his boyhood obsession with comic books, and his early compulsion to rescue his family from poverty.Coming to life in the compelling narrative is the poignant story of a unique boy and the maternal tie that bound him. It is at once an intimate psychological portrait of a tragic relationship and a mesmerizing tale of the early years of an international idol.""For once, a legend is presented to us by the mind and heart of a literate, careful biographer who cares,"" wrote Liz Smith in the New York Daily News when Elvis and Gladys was originally published in 1985. This is the book, Smith says, ""for any Elvis lover who wants to know more about what made Presley the man he was and the mama's boy he became.""The Boston Globe called this thoughtful, informative biography of one of popular music's most enduring stars ""nothing less than the best Elvis book yet.""

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Book SynopsisChuck Jones: Conversations brings to life the legendary Warner Bros. artist who helped shape the history of American animation, defining our impressions of such characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote, and Pepé le Pew. These interviews span more than thirty years, beginning with a 1968 conversation in which Jones (1912-2002) shares the spotlight with science fiction giant Ray Bradbury. Throughout, the interviews illustrate the development of Jones's career, including shifts that came after the Warner Bros. animation unit closed in the early 1960s-from the uncertain years of American animation during that decade and the 1970s through the ""rediscovery"" of Jones and Hollywood studio animation during the 1980s and 1990s. Jones candidly discusses his aesthetic sensibilities, providing tips for aspiring animators and describing Warner Bros. animation in its heyday. Jones was an art college graduate who struggled through the Depression, trying to establish himself within the Hollywood industry. In these conversations he emerges as a witty raconteur and a well-read, inspiring advocate for animation art, intent on nurturing future generations of animators. Jones recalls vividly the Golden Age of studio animation from the 1930s to the 1950s, including his connections with the Walt Disney studio and United Productions of America. With pleasure, insight, and depth, he describes his family and early life as well as his post-Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies days. These interviews reveal Jones's struggles as an artist, the many influences upon him, and the creative process that made him famous. This volume contains previously unpublished material along with classic interviews.

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Book SynopsisThis interdisciplinary volume investigates the cultural and political landscapes of Colombia through citizenship, displacement, local and global cultures, grass-root movements, political activism, human rights, environmentalism, and media productions. Territories of Conflict offers a comprehensive view of the cultural and political landscapes of Colombia through in-depth analyses of citizenship, displacement, local and global cultures, grassroots movements, political activism, human rights, environmentalism, and media production. The volume investigates conflict as a creative force but one that is not devoid of its destructive meaning for Colombia. It is precisely through conflict that the nation's social and cultural fabric is being mapped out, thus resulting in territories -- understood in both a literal and a metaphorical sense -- that paradoxically coexist in discordance. Contributors to this interdisciplinary volumeinclude historians, sociologists, political scientists, musicologists, and environmentalists, as well as literary, media, and cultural studies specialists from the United States, Colombia, and Europe. CONTRIBUTORS: Maurizio Alì, Ingrid Johanna Bolívar Ramírez, Margarita Cuéllar Barona, Andrea Fanta Castro, Héctor Fernández L'Hoeste, Joaquín Llorca Franco, David Fernando García, Felipe Gómez Gutiérrez, Álvaro Diego Hro-Olaizola, Stacey Hunt, Camilo Alberto Jiménez Alfonso, Gregory J. Lobo, Tatjana Louis, Felipe Martínez-Pinzón, María Ospina, Kate Paarlberg-Kvam, Diana Pardo Pedraza, Aldona Bialowas Pobutsky, Chloe Rutter-Jensen, Claudia Salamanca Sánchez, Sven Schuster, Silvia Serrano, Andrea Fanta Castro is Assistant Professor of Spanish at Florida International University; Alejandro Herrero-OIaizola is the Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Spanish & Latin American Studies at the University of Michigan; and Chloe Rutter-Jensen is Associate Professor of Cultural Studies at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia.Trade Review[I]ts multi-focal approach and broad array of topics covered make this volume of great interest for a variety of scholars working on Latin-American, film, gender and critical race studies, and an indispensable resource for thoseinterested in Colombian cultural and violence studies. * HISPANÓFILA *Each chapter draws attention to a significant aspect of the Colombian conflict, raising questions and pointing out possible ways of tackling conflict .. this volume offers a multifocal and multilayered approach to account for its complexity. * REVISTA DE ESTUDIOS COLUMBIANOS (trans. from Spanish) *This exceptional compilation of controversial and often ignored topics appears at an opportune moment in Colombian history. It reflects the cartography of the 'territories of the conflict,' which are investigated beyond the official history and in dialogue with the proper analysis of violence, the memory, ethnicity, gender, music, film and the media. Territories of Confiict is undoubtedly the result of a solid and rigorous study that is welcome in the field of cultural studies on conflict and post-conflict in Colombia. * REVISTA CANADIENSE DE ESTUDIOS HISPÁNICOS (transl. from Spanish *) The arrival of Territories of Conflict allows those interested in Colombian cultural and political studies to have a unique and rigorous resource. This monograph well exceeds the expectations of being a unique and indispensable tool for any academic course dealing with contemporary Colombian history. * STUDIES IN LATIN AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE (trans. from Spanish) *The volume's essays cover a wide variety of subjects and multi-disciplinary approaches from US and Colombian authors, thus offering complementary and well-balanced views. In addition, the magnificent editorial work by Fanta Castro, Herrero-Olaizola and Rutter-Jensen makes this volume essential to an understanding of today's Colombia, its challenges and achievements as a nation. It is also worth mentioning the University of Rochester Press's bold initiative to include Latin American studies titles such as this one in their series. * CHASQUI (translated from Spanish) *'Territories of Conflict comes at a very opportune moment given the current juncture of the armed conflict in Colombia. The interplay among the essays creatively problematizes the ways in which cultural production simultaneously denounces and makes use of violence and conflict. This volume puts into dialogue multiple contexts and historical periods, from the long history of conflict and national formation and identity to some of the future challenges to be faced in a potential postconflict period.' - -- Kevin Guerrieri, University of San DiegoTable of ContentsIntroduction: Territories of Conflict through Colombian Cultural Studies Narratives of the Past in History Textbooks The Duty of Memory: La Violencia between Remembrance and Forgetting National Identity in Colombian Comics: Between Violence and New Configurations Victims and Warriors: Representations and Self-Representations of the FARC-EP and Its Leaders Charisma and Nation in the Hegemony of Uribismo in Colombia The Greenhouse Gaze: Climate and Culture in Colombia (1808-1934) The Darién Gap: Political Discourse and Economic Development in Colombia Safeguarding the Witoto: How Indigenous Law May Challengethe Universality of Human Rights The Soundscape and the Reshaping of Territories:Neighborhood Sounds in San Nicolás, Cali The Amputated Body: Ghostly and Literal Presence Colombian Women Activists and the Potential for Peace Beauty Queens and Theme Parks: Coffee Culture inContemporary Colombia Amores Invisibles: The Politics of Gender in theColombian Cultural Industry Unheard Claims, Well-Known Rhythms: The MusicalGuerrilla FARC-EP (1988-2010) The Case of Chocquibtown: Approaches to the Nation inContemporary New Colombian Music Weaving Words and Meanings for the ColombianCountryside: Jorge Velosa's Carranguera Lyrics Natural Plots: The Rural Turn in ContemporaryColombian Cinema Kidnapping and Representation: Images of a Sovereignin the Making Going Down Narco Memory Lane: Pablo Escobar in theVisual Media List of Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisPeter Fraser revisits stories told onscreen that in different ways all convey clear and ringing truths and touch the deepest human chords. Spanning different time periods and cultures, Twelve Films about Love and Heaven speaks to the hearts of those who cry at old movies and the old abiding Faith, and who believe a well-written book is always worth the time. It is a reminder to both artists and spectators that the pursuit of virtue, and above all in our family roles, is the greatest of adventures and the most glorious of victories. Table of Contents Benigni, Life Is Beautiful Fiennes, Onegin Redford, A River Runs through It Axel, Babette's Feast Levinson, The Natural Avildsen, Rocky Mulligan, To Kill a Mockingbird Ford, The Searchers Lean, Brief Encounter Borzage, A Farewell to Arms Chaplin, City Lights Murnau, Sunrise

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Book SynopsisFrom pulp comics to Maus, the story of the growth of comics in American cultureTrade Review“Demanding Respect is a solid, well-researched social history of the comic book in North America—detailed, thorough, and well-written. Theoretically sophisticated, it moves beyond the existing emphasis on fan culture to encompass the entire comic book art world. This is a valuable contribution to the literature on American popular culture.”—Laura Grindstaff, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, DavisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Evolution of the American Comic Book 1. The Early Industrial Age I: Pulp Logic and the Rise of the American Comic Book 2. The Early Industrial Age II: The Crusade Against Comic Books and the End of the Comic Book Boom 3. The Late Industrial Age: The Return of the Superhero and the First Comic Book Rebellion 4. From the Late Industrial to the Heroic Age: Comic Book Fandom and the Mainstream Pulp Rebellion 5. The Heroic Age II: Alternative Comics and a Rebellion from the Margins 6. The Heroic Age III: New Movements, Winning Respect, and the Rise of the Graphic Novel Conclusion: The Development of an Art Form Notes Index

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Book SynopsisFrom pulp comics to Maus, the story of the growth of comics in American cultureTrade Review“Demanding Respect is a solid, well-researched social history of the comic book in North America—detailed, thorough, and well-written. Theoretically sophisticated, it moves beyond the existing emphasis on fan culture to encompass the entire comic book art world. This is a valuable contribution to the literature on American popular culture.”—Laura Grindstaff, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, DavisTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: The Evolution of the American Comic Book 1. The Early Industrial Age I: Pulp Logic and the Rise of the American Comic Book 2. The Early Industrial Age II: The Crusade Against Comic Books and the End of the Comic Book Boom 3. The Late Industrial Age: The Return of the Superhero and the First Comic Book Rebellion 4. From the Late Industrial to the Heroic Age: Comic Book Fandom and the Mainstream Pulp Rebellion 5. The Heroic Age II: Alternative Comics and a Rebellion from the Margins 6. The Heroic Age III: New Movements, Winning Respect, and the Rise of the Graphic Novel Conclusion: The Development of an Art Form Notes Index

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Book SynopsisExposing the forces behind the decline of the rave scene in Philadelphia and elsewhereTrade Review"Anderson clearly has a passion for the subject matter and a keen focus on the 'decline' of rave culture which is to be commended. There is a need for in-depth considerations of post-rave club cultures as embedded in global, national, local and virtual spaces. The thoroughness of Anderson's empirical work, and her engagement with the data is useful and gives voice to young (and not so young!) people and culture."—Karenza Moore, Lancaster UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments 1. Introduction 2. Corporate Raves, Weeklies, Underground Parties, and More: Defining the Rave– Club Culture Continuum 3. Loyalists, Spillovers, and Other Party People: Personal and Collective Identities in the Post-rave Era 4. From 1990s Massives to Raves’ Death?: Forces of Cultural Change 5. “Players and Their Tracks”: Types of Cultural Work in the EDM Scene 6. EDM as a Vibrant Global Scene 7. Twenty- First- Century Scenes, Sounds, and Selves Appendix: Methods Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisThrough the combination of text and images, comic books offer a unique opportunity to explore deep questions about aesthetics, ethics, and epistemology in nontraditional ways. The essays in this collection focus on a wide variety of genres, from mainstream superhero comics, to graphic novels of social realism, to European adventure classics. Included among the contributions are essays on existentialism in Daniel Clowes's graphic novel Ghost World, ecocriticism in Paul Chadwick's long-running Concrete series, and political philosophies in Hergé's perennially popular The Adventures of Tintin. Modern political concerns inform Terry Kading's discussion of how superhero comics have responded to 9/11 and how the genre reflects the anxieties of the contemporary world. Essayists also explore the issues surrounding the development and appreciation of comics. Amy Kiste Nyberg examines the rise of the Comics Code, using it as a springboard for discussing the ethics of censorship and child protection in America. Stanford W. Carpenter uses interviews to analyze how a team of Marvel artists and writers reimagined the origin of one of Marvel's most iconic superheroes, Captain America. Throughout, essayists in Comics as Philosophy show how well the form can be used by its artists and its interpreters as a means of philosophical inquiry. Jeff McLaughlin is assistant professor of philosophy at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia.

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Book Synopsis¡Viva la historieta! critically examines the participation of Mexican comic books in the continuing debate over the character and consequences of globalization in Mexico. The focus of the book is on graphic narratives produced by and for Mexicans in the period following the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an economic accord that institutionalized the free-market vision of relationships among the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Eight chapters cover a broad range of contemporary Mexican comics, including works of propaganda, romance and adventure, graphic novels, a corporate ""brand"" series, didactic single-issue books, and a superhero parody series. Each chapter offers an examination of the ways in which specific comics or comic book series represent Mexico's national identity, the U.S.'s influence, and globalization's effects on technology and economics since the passage of NAFTA. Through careful attention to how recent Mexican comics portray a changing nation, author Bruce Campbell reveals a contentious range of perspectives on the problems and promises of globalization. At the same time, Campbell argues that the contrasting views of globalization that circulate widely in Mexican historietas reflect a still unsettled relationship between Mexico and its superpower neighbor.

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Book SynopsisWill the South rise again--this time cinematically? The answer to this question is among the subjects considered in this collection of essays. Though the South has provided the setting for outstanding and controversial films such as Gone With the Wind and The Birth of a Nation, these did not foster a genre of imitative films, and there never was a ""Southern"" as there was a ""Western."" This may have changed, however, in 1969-70 with the appearance of a film that suggested a set of stereotypes particularly congenial to films with southern settings. In Easy Rider, the characters departed not for the West on horseback but for the South on motorcycles, carrying with them the seeds of their own destruction, and since then the only credible films about the West have been parodies. Following Easy Rider, there have been several ""gasoline operas,"" and the South has been prominently featured in them. These attempts to create a Southern film genre and the fascinating question of how long it can be maintained is the focus of four of the essays in this collection. In addition, there are provocative reconsiderations of the Southern film classics Gone With the Wind, The Birth of a Nation, Jezebel, and The Southerner. Another group of essays looks at the ""vision"" of the South projected in the works of three renowned auteurs--John Ford, Robert Altman, and Martin Ritt. Any discussions about the South and film would be incomplete without a consideration of the importance of female characters and the relation of film to the works of William Faulkner, and these are the subjects of two groups of essays. The final section of essays focuses on the problems of capturing on film the unique qualities of a region and on the perils and pleasures of the search for authenticity when shooting in regional locations. These essays, which introduce a vast subject, were included in the Spring/Summer 1981 issue of The Southern Quarterly: A Journal of the Arts in the South.

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Book SynopsisBecause they are so often told as news, contemporary legends force us to reevaluate life as we know it. They confront us with macabre, fantastic, horrific, or hilarious characters and events that seem to come straight out of myths and folktales, but are presented as present day events. The difficulty is that it is not at all easy to decide whether these often disturbing stories should be treated as reliable or dismissed as fantasy. The legends explored in this book are some of the most bizarre, gruesome, and politically sensitive stories in the contemporary legend canon. At any moment a body may be invaded by noxious creatures, deliberately infected with deadly disease, or raided to provide donor organs for sick foreigners. These are ""winter's tales,"" the stuff of nightmares. In this book Gillian Bennett traces the cultural history of six legends, well-known in Europe and America from medieval times to the present day. Appearing in broadsides, ballads, myths, ancient and modern legends, novels, plays, films, television shows, and stories told in the oral tradition, these legends are not just silly tales which can be dismissed as trivial and untrue. They reveal much about the concerns and fears of everyday life and demonstrate the limits of knowledge and power in the modern world. Gillian Bennett is the author of ""Alas, Poor Ghost!"": Traditions of Belief in Story and Discourse and Traditions of Belief: Women and the Supernatural and coauthor of the standard legend bibliography and reader. She lives in Stockport, United Kingdom.

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