Popular culture Books

Book SynopsisJust as a person contrives a style, the purpose of which is integration and the effect of which is presentation, so a nation collectively projects an appearance, a national' style. This title provides both a social distraction and a sense of cohesion, indicating not only foreign importation but also native adaptation.

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Book SynopsisCharts how the heart has signified our essential desires, whether for love and passion in the medieval excesses of troubadour poetry and chivalric idealism, the body-soul dualism propounded by the Enlightenment, or even the modern notions of individualism expressed in the works of thinkers such as Nietzsche and Foucault.

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Book SynopsisDrawing upon research conducted in Europe, America and Australasia, this title investigates the rise and rise of cosmetic surgery, reviewing the various developments in celebrity culture and the consumer industries, which many argue are responsible for the popularity of cosmetic and surgical forms of extreme reinvention.

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Book SynopsisExamines the profound transformation taking place in the way we experience film, from the abandonment of traditional venues, to the rise of digital media.

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Book SynopsisDrawing from art, literature, music and film, Revill provides an in-depth look at railways throughout the world, examining the technological systems and nation building in railway history, as well as themes such as mobility and identity, design and marketing, and ecology, heritage and sustainability.

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Book SynopsisGrowing up during the Second World War, H. Bruce Franklin believed what he was told: that America’s victory would lead to a new era of world peace. Like most Americans, he was soon led to believe in a world-wide Communist conspiracy that menaced the United States, forcing the nation into a disastrous war in Korea. But once he joined the U.S. Air Force and began flying top-secret missions as a navigator and intelligence officer, what he learned was eye-opening. He saw that even as the U.S. preached about peace and freedom, it was engaging in an endless cycle of warfare, bringing devastation and oppression to fledgling democracies across the globe. Now, after fifty years as a renowned cultural historian, Franklin offers a set of hard-learned lessons about modern American history. Crash Course is essential reading for anyone who wonders how America ended up where it is today: with a deeply divided and disillusioned populace, led by a dysfunctional government, and mired in unwinnable wars. It also finds startling parallels between America’s foreign military exploits and the equally brutal tactics used on the home front to crush organized labor, antiwar, and civil rights movements. More than just a memoir or a history book, Crash Course gives readers a unique firsthand look at the building of the American empire and the damage it has wrought. Shocking and gripping as any thriller, it exposes the endless deception of the American public, and reveals from inside how and why many millions of Americans have been struggling for decades against our own government in a fight for peace and justice. Trade Review"A compelling memoir mixed with original historical research leading to fresh interpretations of the permanent war culture." * Kirkus *starred* review *"It's especially stunning for me personally, to read Franklin's gripping account of the era we both lived through--three years apart in age--and to realize that we followed the same unusual trajectory in beliefs and attitudes: Both committed Cold Warriors at the outset--my service in the Marine Corps and working on nuclear war plans in the Pentagon overlapping his active service in the Strategic Air Command rehearsing the catastrophic enactment of such plans--his disillusion with the Vietnam war and his turn to active resistance shortly preceding my own. Readers of any age will find this an exciting and startlingly self-aware memoir of a life transformed in our dangerous epoch, and most will find in it radically new perspectives on these perilous times, up to the present mind-boggling moment. A terrific book!" -- Daniel Ellsberg * author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner *"Only the late great Howard Zinn comes close to H. Bruce Franklin as truth-telling historian whose 'the personal is political' oeuvre should be read by every American, left or right, who aspires to be informed beyond headlines and rumor. Franklin’s Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War, meticulously researched, factually inarguable, is also a fascinating memoir in which the past is always prologue to the nearly out-of-body experience in which we find ourselves today. From 1939 through World War II to Korea to Vietnam to Iraq to Afghanistan to Syria to whatever is next: isn’t it time we figure out how we got here? May H. Bruce Franklin’s incendiary Crash Course crash into discussion on every street corner; in every board room, classroom, and bedroom in these our United States; and in the world beyond." -- Jayne Anne Phillips * National Book Award Finalist and author of Machine Dreams and Lark & Termite *"Two threads are skillfully interwoven in this absorbing memoir: the record of a remarkable life, with rich and varied experience; and astute analysis of the background of critical historical events. The outcome is a fascinating picture of post–World War II America, all under the grim shadow of 'forever war.'" -- Noam Chomsky * Institute Professor Emeritus, MIT, and author of Requiem for the American Dream *"Crash Course is a fabulous blend of exceptional memoir and astute political analysis. A quintessential American story of political coming-of-age. Highly recommended." -- Richard Falk * Professor Emeritus, International Law, Princeton University, and author of Palestine's Horizon *“This is a deeply personal and compelling account of Franklin’s lifelong entanglement with America’s perpetual war state, from his youthful enthusiasms, to his years of flight in the Strategic Air Command, to his sustained resistance to the Vietnam War, which changed his life in so many ways. Franklin has been one of the major scholars of America’s post-World War II commitment to war as policy, and here we learn how that happened. It’s a rousing and inspirational life story!” -- Kim Stanley Robinson * Hugo Award winner and author of New York 2140 *"A scorching overview of the militarization of America that is simultaneously the engrossing autobiography of an historian who came of age in World War Two and the early Cold War years. Crash Course is a vivid and sobering eyeopener for readers at every level from students to fellow seniors to everyone in between." -- John Dower * MIT Ford International Professor of History, emeritus, and author of The Violent American Century: W *"A required course for everyone concerned about how militarization has shaped American society and national identity from World War II through interventions in Korea and Vietnam to the current endless war on terror. Especially engaging is the interweaving of personal memoir and political analysis, of social life and foreign policy, by one of our greatest myth busters." -- Amy Kaplan * University of Pennsylvania, author of Our American Israel: the Story of an Entangled Alliance *"A passionate activist scholar, Franklin skillfully harnesses his lively and scrupulously candid autobiography to a deeply researched history of the emergence in the United States since World War II of what he calls the Forever War, which he places in compelling counterpoint to the growth of the wide-spread antiwar movement and allied progressive causes to which he himself was an important contributor. A terrific read." -- Michael Cowan * Professor Emeritus, American Studies, University of California Santa Cruz and author of City of The *"Trump’s Space Force Is Insane: Cultural Historian H. Bruce Franklin," by Daniel Falcone * Foreign Policy Journal *"From Conservative Patriot to Communist Vanguard: An Interview with H. Bruce Franklin," by Arvind Dilawar * Pacific Standard *"Franklin’s mastery of the craft of writing has created a book where each element enhances the essential nature of the other. The story he tells here describes not only an epoch in the history of a nation and an individual but also the consciousness that created that history." * Counter Punch *"Broken Bombers – How the U.S. Military Covered Up Fatal Flaws in the B-47 Stratojet with Disastrous Results," by H. Bruce Franklin * Military History Now *“I was spellbound. . . . Franklin’s story of his inspiring life. . .is reminiscent of the first American memoir, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. Like Benjamin’s, Bruce Franklin’s purpose here is to teach. Ben wanted me to improve myself; Bruce wants me to think politically. He admonishes us to improve the world.” * Amherst Magazine *"Interchange – Undoing the Falsifications of History: A Crash Course with H. Bruce Franklin" interview * WFHB "Interchange" interview *"Talkies," KPFA interview with Kris Welch and H. Bruce Franklin * "Talkies" KPFA *"This thought-provoking book will be of interest to readers seeking to understand America’s 20th-century history and its ongoing war culture." * Publishers Weekly *"Long Island’s EPMD and Writer/Activist H. Bruce Franklin on Tom Needham’s The Sounds of Film" by Long Island News PR * Long Island.com *"Military History Inside Out," War Scholar interview with Bruce Franklin * Military History Inside Out *"Booked Up: the 25 Best Books of 2018" by Jeffery St. Clair * CounterPunch Magazine *"[Franklin] has spent his adult life tilting at windmills, and our current situation suggests not much has come of his efforts and those of millions of others. But, along with his wife Jane, whom he praises generously as his partner in activism and for her inspiration to him, he is persistent, and courageous, and has been around the block fighting the forces of brutality and militarism. We should hope to see more of his excellent scholarship and lucid writing in future years." * Washington Babylon *"[Crash Course] is a blend of the life he's led and of the world around him since he was a kid. It's an irreverent story." * Veterans for Peace *"Trump vs. McCain: an American Horror Story," by H. Bruce Franklin * CounterPunch Magazine *"Crash Course is a highly entertaining read, and Franklin’s talent as a writer is unmistakable." * The VVA Veteran *"This book should be read widely, particularly by younger people wondering where their own lives, and their country, have been and may be heading....Crash Course is a very good course of study. I recommend it most highly." * Logos journal *"Former professor, anti-war activist to return for book talk after controversial firing," by Elise Miller * Stanford Daily *"Franklin shares experiences, perceptions of nation at war" by Elise Miller * Stanford Daily *"At heart, this is a fascinating book and well worth reading." * H-Net *"How We Launched Our Forever War in the Middle East" by H. Bruce Franklin https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/09/20/how-we-launched-our-forever-war-in-the-middle-east/ * CounterPunch Magazine *"Interchange – Tell It Slant: The Truth of the Bombs Bursting in Air" interview with H. Bruce Franklin https://wfhb.org/news/interchange-tell-it-slant-all-the-truth-about-forever-war/ * Interchange *"The best book I read in 2019 is H. Bruce Franklin’s Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War. Franklin, who served in the U.S. Air Force in the 1950s before becoming an English professor, cultural historian, and outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, is devastating in his critique of the military-industrial complex in this memoir. I recommend it highly to all Americans who want to wrestle with tough truths." * Bracing Views *"Crash Course is an absolutely thrilling odyssey from the secret insides of humankind’s deadliest air force bombers to at-the-gates picket lines demanding their demise. The range of Bruce Franklin’s experiences and his powers as a storyteller are as astonishing as his transformation from a man of war to a Gandhian peacemaker. This is a fast, moving book we all need to read on the road to saving our planet and our souls. Don’t miss it!" -- Harvey Wasserman * author of The People's Spiral of US History *"Solartopia Green Power Wellness Hour" interview with Bruce Franklin * Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Hour *"What Is Covid-19 Trying to Teach Us?" by H. Bruce Franklin * CounterPunch Magazine *"A fascinating examination of a dark transformation in American history." * The Historian *"We read Crash Course for the autobiography of an intellect. Franklin is one of twentieth-century America’s consummate intellectuals, an embodiment of mind and practice — praxis, if you will — that transcends career and celebrity." * Diplomatic History *"Talkies," KPFA interview with Bruce Franklin, hosted by Kris Welch https://archives.kpfa.org/data/20200812-Wed1100.mp3 * "Talkies," KPFA *"August 12-22, 1945: Washington Starts the Korean and Vietnam Wars," by H. Bruce Franklin https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/14/august-12-22-1945-washington-starts-the-korean-and-vietnam-wars/ * CounterPunch Magazine *Dr. H. Bruce Franklin: “Ever Since World War II, The U.S. Has Assumed More and More of the Hallmarks of a Fascist State” by Moshen Abdelmoumen https://ahtribune.com/interview/4377-bruce-franklin.html * American Herald Tribune *"What Happened to the 'World of Tomorrow'?" An interview with H. Bruce Franklin * Join Activism *"Ready for Another Game of Russian Roulette?," by H. Bruce Franklin * Counterpunch *Table of ContentsContents 1 The Last Victory? 2 The Bombs Bursting in Air, Or, How We Lost World War II 3 New Connections 4 Working for Communists during the Korean War 5 On the Water Front 6 Thirteen Confessions of a Cold Warrior 7 Wake Up Time 8 Burning Illusions 9 French Connections 10 Coming Home 11 The War Comes Home Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe twenty-first century is already riddled with protests demanding social justice, and in every instance, young people are leading the charge. But in addition to protesters who take to the streets with handmade placards are young adults who engage in less obvious change-making tactics. In Speaking Truths, sociologist Valerie Chepp goes behind-the-scenes to uncover how spoken word poetry—and young people’s participation in it—contributes to a broader understanding of contemporary social justice activism, including this generation’s attention to the political importance of identity, well-being, and love. Drawing upon detailed observations and in-depth interviews, Chepp tells the story of a diverse group of young adults from Washington, D.C. who use spoken word to create a more just and equitable world. Outlining the contours of this approach, she interrogates spoken word activism’s emphasis on personal storytelling and “truth,” the strategic uses of aesthetics and emotions to politically engage across difference, and the significance of healing in sustainable movements for change. Weaving together their poetry and personally told stories, Chepp shows how poets tap into the beautiful, emotional, personal, and therapeutic features of spoken word to empathically connect with others, advance intersectional and systemic analyses of inequality, and make social justice messages relatable across a diverse public. By creating allies and forging connections based on friendship, professional commitments, lived experiences, emotions, artistic kinship, and political views, this activist approach is highly integrated into the everyday lives of its practitioners, online and face-to-face. Chepp argues that spoken word activism is a product of, and a call to action against, the neoliberal era in which poets have come of age, characterized by widening structural inequalities and increasing economic and social vulnerability. She illustrates how this deeply personal and intimate activist approach borrows from, builds upon, and diverges from previous social movement paradigms. Spotlighting the complexity and mutual influence of modern-day activism and the world in which it unfolds, Speaking Truths contributes to our understanding of contemporary social change-making and how neoliberalism has shaped this political generation’s experiences with social injustice.Trade Review"Speaking Truths provides a nuanced examination of the inner workings of spoken word activism, draws clear connections to a diverse body of sociological theory, and perhaps most importantly, firmly situates creative activism as a meaningful form of social justice work." — Julie Gouweloos, Mobilization "This beautifully written work deftly interweaves vignettes and poems to illustrate the culture of spoken word in meticulous detail."— Jerusha O. Conner, author of The New Student Activists: The Rise of Neoactivism on College and University Campuses. "In this timely and deeply incisive investigation of poet-activists in Washington, D.C., Chepp illuminates the capacity of spoken word to transcend single-axis identity politics and create visionary, intersectional coalitions." — Patrick Ryan Grzanka, Editor of Intersectionality: Foundations and Frontiers "Valerie Chepp’s Speaking Truths beautifully adds to the growing literature on poetry slams, spoken word, and their surrounding communities. By exploring young poets as social justice activists, Chepp reminds us of the arts' undying capacity to imagine and build new, just, and more equitable worlds. Speaking Truths is a necessary offering in the burgeoning sub field of slam and spoken word studies." — Javon Johnson, author of Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities New Books Network: New Books in Popular Culture interview with Valerie Chepp— New Books Network: New Books in Popular CultureTable of ContentsList of Tables Preface 1 Spoken Word Activism: Young Adults and Social Justice in the Age of Neoliberalism 2 Spinning Stories from Words Got Spit: Researching a Verbal Arts Community 3 Speaking Truths: Experiential Knowledge, Embodied Testimony, and Activist Storytelling 4 Creative Politics: Art, Justice, and Empathic Possibilities 5 Healing Justice: The Politics of Healthy Selves and Communities 6 #Activism and Beyond: Sustainability and Social Change in a Digital World 104 7 Intersectionality as Activist Strategy: Toward a New Identity Politics Appendix A: Doing Ethnographic Research in the Era of Social Media Appendix B: Core Sample by Venue Participation Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisIn a hard driving society like the United States, holidays are islands of softness. Holidays are times for creating memories and for celebrating cultural values, emotions, and social ties. All Together Now considers holidays that are celebrated by American families: Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Halloween, and the December holidays of Christmas or Chanukah. This book shows how entire families bond at holidays, in ways that allow both children and adults to be influential within their shared interaction. The decorations, songs, special ways of dressing, and rituals carry deep significance that is viscerally felt by even young tots. Ritual has the capacity to condense a plethora of meaning into a unified metaphor such as a Christmas tree, a menorah, or the American flag. These symbols allow children and adults to co-opt the meaning of symbols in flexible and age-relevant ways, all while the symbols are still treasured and shared in common. Trade Review“Beautifully written, persistently theoretically insightful and methodologically sound and innovative, All Together Now is a gem. Cindy Dell Clark builds on and expands her earlier work on holidays from an interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspective. This engaging book shines through with scholarship capturing the production of celebratory communal events at the individual, family, community and cultural level. A landmark study!” -- William A. Corsaro * author of The Sociology of Childhood 5th edition *"As a folklorist, it has long been my belief that we must look to the younger generations as well as the elder when studying tradition. Thankfully, Cindy Dell Clark provides us with a careful and important volume of research on American holidays as experienced by children. Clark examines children's holiday anxieties that we adults have forgotten or simply ignore. Her research includes the understudied Memorial Day and Chanukah, and focuses our attention on children who are marginalized by normative national celebrations such as diabetic children at Halloween and Jewish children at Christmas." -- Jack F Santino * editor of Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death *"Researcher’s New Book Explores Symbolism of Fourth of July and Other American Holidays" by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers-Camden News Now *Not a positive review; no pull quote available. * Choice *"Let the Ghoul Times Roll: Halloween Culturally Significant Despite Social-Distancing Norms, Says Researcher," by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers Today *“Beautifully written, persistently theoretically insightful and methodologically sound and innovative, All Together Now is a gem. Cindy Dell Clark builds on and expands her earlier work on holidays from an interdisciplinary and intergenerational perspective. This engaging book shines through with scholarship capturing the production of celebratory communal events at the individual, family, community and cultural level. A landmark study!” -- William A. Corsaro * author of The Sociology of Childhood 5th edition *"As a folklorist, it has long been my belief that we must look to the younger generations as well as the elder when studying tradition. Thankfully, Cindy Dell Clark provides us with a careful and important volume of research on American holidays as experienced by children. Clark examines children's holiday anxieties that we adults have forgotten or simply ignore. Her research includes the understudied Memorial Day and Chanukah, and focuses our attention on children who are marginalized by normative national celebrations such as diabetic children at Halloween and Jewish children at Christmas." -- Jack F Santino * editor of Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death *"Researcher’s New Book Explores Symbolism of Fourth of July and Other American Holidays" by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers-Camden News Now *Not a positive review; no pull quote available. * Choice *"Let the Ghoul Times Roll: Halloween Culturally Significant Despite Social-Distancing Norms, Says Researcher," by Tom McLaughlin * Rutgers Today *Table of ContentsContents Preface 1 Introduction 2 Spring Season: Easter 3 Summer Season: Memorial Day and July 4th 4 Autumn Season: Halloween 5 Winter Season: Christmas and Chanukah 6 How Ritual Meaning Comes Together Appendix: About This Research Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisHow did Americans come to believe that working at home is feasible, productive, and desirable? Easy Living examines how the idea of working within the home was constructed and disseminated in popular culture and mass media during the twentieth century. Through the analysis of national magazines and newspapers, television and film, and marketing and advertising materials from the housing, telecommunications, and office technology industries, Easy Living traces changing concepts about what it meant to work in the home. These ideas reflected larger social, political-economic, and technological trends of the times. Elizabeth A. Patton reveals that the notion of the home as a space that exists solely in the private sphere is a myth, as the social meaning of the home and its market value in relation to the public sphere are intricately linked.Trade Review“This easy to read, fun, and unique book approaches discourses on work/life in a way that no one has before.”— Elizabeth Fish Hatfield, editor of Communication and the Work-Life Balancing Act "Patton draws on an impressive array of archival sources to demonstrate how communication technologies and architectural design have constructed ideals about working at home. Her nuanced historical analysis importantly reveals that our contemporary struggles over work/life balance are not new."— Amy Corbin, author of Cinematic Geographies and Multicultural Spectatorship in America "Easy Living sheds necessary light on the practice of working from home. It is also (and seemingly unintentionally) timely: as societies negotiate an exit from the pandemic emergency and attempt to move towards some form of the new normal, choices about whether to continue working from home or to return to the office are being made on both corporate and individual levels." — LSE Review of Books "Easy Living: The Rise of the Home Office [is] a piece of engaging and prescient scholarship which, especially at the present moment, makes a valuable contribution to now central and ongoing global debates about what working from home has meant, means now, and might mean in the future."— Visual Studies "Easy Living offers a strong critique of the contemporary myth of work-life balance, a myth that 'keeps workers from recognizing the exploitation of their labor and the dependence on service workers to support work-life balance'....Although written before the onslaught of Covid-19, Easy Living exposes the long-standing discourses of gender, race, and class undergirding American experiences of work and home, discourses laden with power and inequality that the pandemic has exposed."— Television & New Media "Remote Work Won’t Save Us: The home office was never designed to give workers more freedom. The pandemic has only made it worse," by Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein https://newrepublic.com/article/158704/remote-work-wont-save-us-home-office-elizabeth-patton-review— The New RepublicTable of ContentsContents Introduction Part I: Where Does Work Belong?: Toward a New Conception of Home 1 The Home and Its Function 2 Industry Stay Out 3 The Telephone and Better Living 4 Portable Typewriters for Home Use Part II: Consuming Office Practices and Technology in the Postwar Suburban Middle-Class Home 5 The Quest for Easy Livin’ in the Suburban Home 6 The Big Business of Homemaking 7 Junior-sized Offices 8 An Office Away from the Office Part III: The Birth of the Live-Work Lifestyle 9 Real Men Live in the City 10 Pseudo-Bohemian Bacherlorettes 11 Work Where You Live Part IV: Neoliberal Domestic Workspaces 12 The Electronic Cottage 13 Adaptable Parents, Flexible Jobs and Adaptive Homes 14 Urban Professional Lifestyles Acknowledgments Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Best Book Award in Comics History from the Grand Comics Database Honorable Mention, 2019-2020 Research Society for American Periodicals Book Prize The term “graphic novel” was first coined in 1964, but it wouldn’t be broadly used until the 1980s, when graphic novels such as Watchmen and Maus achieved commercial success and critical acclaim. What happened in the intervening years, after the graphic novel was conceptualized yet before it was widely recognized? Dreaming the Graphic Novel examines how notions of the graphic novel began to coalesce in the 1970s, a time of great change for American comics, with declining sales of mainstream periodicals, the arrival of specialty comics stores, and (at least initially) a thriving underground comix scene. Surveying the eclectic array of long comics narratives that emerged from this fertile period, Paul Williams investigates many texts that have fallen out of graphic novel history. As he demonstrates, the question of what makes a text a ‘graphic novel’ was the subject of fierce debate among fans, creators, and publishers, inspiring arguments about the literariness of comics that are still taking place among scholars today. Unearthing a treasure trove of fanzines, adverts, and unpublished letters, Dreaming the Graphic Novel gives readers an exciting inside look at a pivotal moment in the art form’s development. Trade Review"A thoughtful and engaging exploration of the complex disagreements and debates over the term, form and temporality of the 'graphic novel.'" -- Mel Gibson * editor of Superheroes and Identities *"The 1970s are one of the most under-appreciated periods in the history of comic books. As sales collapsed, comic book publishers grasped at any innovation that offered a potential road forward. Paul Williams’s masterful study focuses on this chaotic period as it traces the complex ways that catastrophic change spurred a fundamental reconsideration of what comic books were and could be. Drawing on a vast array of historical documents, Williams shows how the graphic novel became the cultural format of our time." -- Bart Beaty * author of The Greatest Comic Book of All Time *"Accessible and detailed, Williams’s study expands on previous scholarship on the evolution of comics into graphic narratives. Highly recommended." * Choice *"As Williams’ detailed scholarship shows, efforts by major creators like Corben, Will Eisner, and Art Spiegelman secured academic and cultural legitimacy for the graphic novel while ensuring, through their newly integrative approach, a differential art recognized for its aesthetic seriousness yet independent of institutional strictures." * Technical Communication Journal *"There is much to recommend in Williams’ examples of, and conversation around, long-form comics of the period provided throughout the book....An excellent corrective to the scatter-shot references one usually encounters [that] succeeds in correcting some long-standing misconceptions about the development of the graphic novel." * Inks * Review of Dreaming the Graphic Novel in Medienwissenschaft 01/2021 * Medienwissenschaft *"Dreaming the Graphic Novel is a methodological wonder for scholars interested in American popular culture, digital humanities, text mining, and the history of comics and graphic novels. His mixed methodological approach allows him to successfully participate in 'the ongoing recovery of comics studies’ prehistory' as well as establish 'a new way of doing graphic novel history.' Williams’ book should be a required reading...for courses offering an introduction to graphic novels in the U.S. Comics fans, comics scholars, and those interested in the history of graphic novel might also find this a stimulating read." * ImageTexT *"Dreaming the Graphic Novel undertakes the very important task of deepening our understanding of the origins of book format comics and giving a historical context to the anxieties around comics and graphic novels in the 2000s." * European Journal of American Culture *Table of ContentsContents Preface Abbreviations Introduction 1) The Death of the Comic Book 2) Eastern Promise 3) Making Novels 4) The ‘Graphic Novel’ Triumphant 5) Putting the ‘Novel’ into ‘Graphic Novel’ 6) Comics as Literature? Conclusion Appendix Acknowledgments Bibliography

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Book SynopsisBetween 1971 and 1979, All in the Family was more than just a wildly popular television sitcom that routinely drew 50 million viewers weekly. It was also a touchstone of American life, so much so that the living room chairs of the two main characters have spent the last 40 years on display at the Smithsonian. How did a show this controversial and boundary-breaking manage to become so widely beloved?Those Were the Days is the first full-length study of this remarkable television program. Created by Norman Lear and produced by Bud Yorkin, All in the Family dared to address such taboo topics as rape, abortion, menopause, homosexuality, and racial prejudice in a way that no other sitcom had before. Through a close analysis of the sitcom’s four main characters—boorish bigot Archie Bunker, his devoted wife Edith, their feminist daughter Gloria, and her outspoken liberal husband Mike—Jim Cullen demonstrates how All in the Family was able to bridge the generation gap and appeal to a broad spectrum of American viewers in an age when a network broadcast model of television created a shared national culture. Locating All in the Family within the larger history of American television, this book shows how it transformed the medium, not only spawning spinoffs like Maude and The Jeffersons, but also helping to inspire programs like Roseanne, Married... with Children, and The Simpsons. And it raises the question: could a show this edgy ever air on broadcast television today?Trade Review"Little did I know about the world Archie Bunker and All in the Family were born into until I read Jim Cullen’s informed and perceptive Those Were the Days: Why All In The Family Still Matters." -- Norman Lear"Jim Cullen's beguiling scholarship offers a nimble treatment of what was arguably American television's most influential scripted series, made in the waning days of the now bygone mass audience." -- Robert Thompson * Founding Director, Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture, Syracuse University *"'All in the Family' pushed the envelope on race and gender. Has America regressed since then?" by Jim Cullen * USA Today *"A very accessible and highly readable study that situates All in the Family aptly in its historical moment. It illuminates why the show became a landmark and what makes it so special to this day." -- Christina von Hodenberg * author of Television's Moment: Sitcom Audiences and the Sixties Cultural Revolution *"From how each character evolved to the family's resemblance to real-life changes and developing social awareness, Those Were the Days provides a solid study that will serve as discussion material for any media studies or American social history classroom." * Donovan's Literary Services *"Those were the days: As ‘All in the Family’ turns 50, a look at why it succeeded" by Jim Cullen * New York Daily News *"Norman Lear deserves his Golden Globe award — does America deserve him?" by Benjamin Lear * The Foreward *Mary Baker Eddy Library podcast: Jean Stapleton and the spiritual dimensions of “All in the Family” episode * Seekers and Scholars podcast *Table of ContentsContents Introduction: Broad(cast) Humor 1 Situation Comedy, Situation Tragedy: The Transitional World of All in the Family 2 The Revolution, Televised: Origins of the Family 3 Fuzzy Reception: Meeting the Bunkers 4 Producing Comedy: Making All in the Family 5 The Character of Home: Chez Bunker 6 Not Bad for a Bigot: The Making of Archie Bunker 7 A Really Great Housewife: The Character of Edith Baines Bunker 8 Left In: The Liberal Arts of Michael Stivic 9 “Little Girl” to Mother: The Working-Class Feminism of Gloria Bunker Stivic 10 Family Resemblance: The Rise and Fall of the Lear Television Empire Conclusion: Just Like Us Acknowledgments Index

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Book SynopsisWinner of the 2021 Excellence in Research and Scholarly Activity Award from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Finalist for the 2021 American Book Fest Best Book Awards Aging is one of the most compelling issues today, with record numbers of seniors over sixty-five worldwide. Gray Matters: Finding Meaning in the Stories of Later Life examines a diverse array of cultural works including films, literature, and even art that represent this time of life, often made by people who are seniors themselves. These works, focusing on important topics such as housing, memory loss, and intimacy, are analyzed in dialogue with recent research to explore how “stories” illuminate the dynamics of growing old by blending fact with imagination. Gray Matters also incorporates the life experiences of seniors gathered from over two hundred in-depth surveys with a range of questions on growing old, not often included in other age studies works. Combining cultural texts, gerontology research, and observations from older adults will give all readers a fuller picture of the struggles and pleasures of aging and avoids over-simplified representations of the process as all negative or positive. Trade Review“Creative, wide-ranging and well-written, Gray Matters offers a many-sided, complex understanding of late-life. It demonstrates that this period of our lives interweaves our past and present, takes grit, and offers opportunities for positive experiences. For some, learning becomes more enjoyable, as the phrase ‘senior college’ indicates. Gray Matters also skillfully shows that aging occurs in a social context, a fact often overlooked when the process is understood as solely an individual matter.”— Margaret Cruikshank, from the foreword "Often, the elderly handle the pandemic very well. Here’s why," by Ellyn A. Lem https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/elderly-coping-pandemic-despite-isolation/2020/09/18/f397dea8-f763-11ea-89e3-4b9efa36dc64_story.html#comments-wrapper— Washington Post "What the New Movie 'Old' Gets Right About Aging," by Ellyn Lem— Next Avenue "Just How Well Is Popular Culture Portraying Older Adults?" by Ellyn Lem— Next Avenue "The Literature of Elder Care is Often About Shifting Power Dynamics: Ellyn Lem on Works by Shakespeare, Lauren Fox, and Others" https://lithub.com/the-literature-of-elder-care-is-often-about-shifting-power-dynamics/— Literary Hub "Gray Matters invites readers to reexamine what they think they know about growing old. Offering succinct close readings of richly diverse cultural texts, Lem’s book presents literature as a resource for dealing with the practical and existential concerns of aging. With its interdisciplinary grounding in age studies theory and sociological data, Gray Matters is itself a valuable resource for readers ready to reorient their view of later life."— Erin Lamb, co-editor of Research Methods in Health Humanities "A savvy analysis of films, books, and studies undermining Philip Roth’s contention that 'Old age is not a battle. It is a massacre.'"— Susan Gubar, author of Late-Life Love: A Memoir "Lem draws examples from literature, film, television, and a survey of older people to support a wide-ranging and accessible examination of contemporary culture. Especially helpful to those who are new to the field, this book is a welcome addition to age-studies scholarship."— Valerie Lipscomb, author of Performing Age in Modern Drama "Drawing on literature, movies and TV as well as her survey research with 200 seniors, Lem explores the diversity of experiences of older people and pushes back against negative stereotypes about aging. Sexuality, housing, memory loss, adult children and death are among the topics."— Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Gray Matters increases readers’ knowledge about contemporary literature, media, and research focused on lived experiences of older adults. The content and insights can be introduced into gerontology courses and social work practice, human behavior, policy, and research courses, as well as informing direct practice with critical perspectives."— Affilia: Journal of Women and Social Work "This illuminating book will be appreciated by anyone who is growing old, or who is committed to social changes that ensure a pleasant and productive old age for all. Recommended."— ChoiceTable of ContentsForeword by Margaret Cruikshank Introduction: “Where Do I Begin?” Senior Parents and Their Adult Children: “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” Surveying the Housing Options: “No Place like Home”? Understanding Memory Loss: “Am I Losing my Mind?” Intimacy: “Love is All You Need”? Women and Men: “Separate But Equal”? Money, Work and Retirement: “Are We There Yet?” Death: “The Final Frontier”? Afterword Acknowledgments Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisUtilizing a breadth of archival sources from activists, artists, and policymakers, Teenage Dreams examines the race- and class-inflected battles over adolescent women’s sexual and reproductive lives in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century United States. Charlie Jeffries finds that most adults in this period hesitated to advocate for adolescent sexual and reproductive rights, revealing a new culture war altogether--one between adults of various political stripes in the cultural mainstream who prioritized the desire to delay girlhood sexual experience at all costs, and adults who remained culturally underground in their support for teenagers’ access to frank sexual information, and who would dare to advocate for this in public. The book tells the story of how the latter group of adults fought alongside teenagers themselves, who constituted a large and increasingly visible part of this activism. The history of the debates over teenage sexual behavior reveals unexpected alliances in American political battles, and sheds new light on the resurgence of the right in the US in recent years.Trade Review“Teenage Dreams is a vital contribution to our historic understanding of the US culture wars from the 1980s to the present moment. This rich analysis uncovers a wealth of youth activism around sexuality, revealing how we might benefit if we heard the voices of youth who are typically left out of public conversations on their own sexuality.” -- Julie Bettie * author of Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity *"Teenage sexuality has long been a site of contention in US politics and popular culture. Examining policies and popular ideologies starting in the 1980s, Charlie Jeffries brings to light political and social histories that have long restricted teenage girl sexuality. Jeffries’ research into how multiple influencers of US policy have denied teen girls access to sex-positive education and information is as timely as it is informative." -- Rebekah J. Buchanan * author of Writing a Riot: Riot Grrrl Zines and Feminist Rhetorics *“Teenage Dreams is a vital contribution to our historic understanding of the US culture wars from the 1980s to the present moment. This rich analysis uncovers a wealth of youth activism around sexuality, revealing how we might benefit if we heard the voices of youth who are typically left out of public conversations on their own sexuality.” -- Julie Bettie * author of Women without Class: Girls, Race, and Identity *"Teenage sexuality has long been a site of contention in US politics and popular culture. Examining policies and popular ideologies starting in the 1980s, Charlie Jeffries brings to light political and social histories that have long restricted teenage girl sexuality. Jeffries’ research into how multiple influencers of US policy have denied teen girls access to sex-positive education and information is as timely as it is informative." -- Rebekah J. Buchanan * author of Writing a Riot: Riot Grrrl Zines and Feminist Rhetorics *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Teenage Girls and the New Right 2. Women and Children? Sexual Speech and Sexual Harm 3. Explicit Content: Cultures of Girlhood 4. The Third Wave and the Third Way 5. Medicine, Education, and Sexualization Epilogue: Girlhood Sexualities in the Contemporary Culture Wars Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisThe Other End of the Needle demonstrates that tattooing is more complex than simply the tattoos that people wear. Using qualitative data and an accessible writing style, sociologist Dave Lane explains the complexity of tattoo work as a type of social activity. His central argument is that tattooing is a social world, where people must be socialized, manage a system of stratification, create spaces conducive for labor, develop sets of beliefs and values, struggle to retain control over their tools, and contend with changes that in turn affect their labor. Earlier research has examined tattoos and their meanings. Yet, Lane notes, prior research has focused almost exclusively on the tattoos—the outcome of an intricate social process—and have ignored the significance of tattoo workers themselves. "Tattooists," as Lane dubs them, make decisions, but they work within a social world that constrains and shapes the outcome of their labor—the tattoo. The goal of this book is to help readers understand the world of tattoo work as an intricate and nuanced form of work. Lane ultimately asks new questions about the social processes occurring prior to the tattoo’s existence. Trade Review"A compelling, in-depth look at tattoo artists and their social world as they pursue fulfilling, enchanting work in the midst of a dehumanizing capitalist system. Lane provokes fascinating questions about how artists organize spaces, navigate laws, and construct authenticity as tattoos become increasingly popular. Reading made me want to get more tattoos – and ask my artist all sorts of questions!" -- Ross Haenfler * author of Straight Edge Hardcore Punk, Clean Living Youth, and Social Change *"It takes two to tattoo–someone being tattooed and the tattooist. Their encounter has to be face-to-face, and this fact shapes how tattooists work, regardless of whether they approach their work as a craft or as high art. In this fascinating book, David Lane takes us into the many corners of the tattooists’ world, revealing how the occupation retains its traditions in the face of dramatic changes." -- Joel Best * University of Delaware *"Looking at the nature, habits, and cultural codes of professional tattooing, Lane reveals the complexity of tattooing as an art form, work world, and social process. The tattooists appear as resilient agents who resist capitalist alienation, unionization, and state-level regulations. We also see the artists as gatekeepers who maintain the class, race, and gender order of professional tattooing. A truly interesting read." -- Katherine Irwin * University of Hawai’i at Manoa *"In The Other Side of the Needle, David C. Lane provides an absorbing and accessibly written view of the tattoo world from the perspective of tattoo workers. Drawing on an art-world perspective and packed with insights from tattooists, the book explores the working lives of tattooists. It provides a much-needed and thorough treatment of this understudied area and will be of interest to scholars in the production of culture as well as to anyone interested in tattoos and tattooing. -- Victoria D. Alexander * Goldsmiths, University of London *Table of ContentsContents List of Figures Figure 1.1: The Stratified World of Tattooing Figure 7.1: Authenticity of Machine Ownership List of Tables Table 4.1: State and Local Tattoo Bans Introduction: Tattooing for Beginners 1 The Social World of Tattooing 2 Organizing Space 3 Careers of Tattooists 4 Legal Consciousness among Workers 5 Ties to Conventional Institutions and Ideas 6 Sources of Contention 7 External Threats and the Maintenance of Boundaries Conclusion: Continuity and Change Methodological Appendix Acknowledgments Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisLawrence of Arabia, The Miracle Worker, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Manchurian Candidate, Gypsy, Sweet Bird of Youth, The Longest Day, The Music Man, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, and more.Most conventional film histories dismiss the early 1960s as a pallid era, a downtime between the heights of the classic studio system and the rise of New Hollywood directors like Scorsese and Altman in the 1970s. It seemed to be a moment when the movie industry was floundering as the popularity of television caused a downturn in cinema attendance. Cinema ’62 challenges these assumptions by making the bold claim that 1962 was a peak year for film, with a high standard of quality that has not been equaled since. Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan show how 1962 saw great late-period work by classic Hollywood directors like John Ford, Howard Hawks, and John Huston, as well as stars like Bette Davis, James Stewart, Katharine Hepburn, and Barbara Stanwyck. Yet it was also a seminal year for talented young directors like Sidney Lumet, Sam Peckinpah, and Stanley Kubrick, not to mention rising stars like Warren Beatty, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Peter O’Toole, and Omar Sharif. Above all, 1962—the year of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Manchurian Candidate—gave cinema attendees the kinds of adult, artistic, and uncompromising visions they would never see on television, including classics from Fellini, Bergman, and Kurosawa. Culminating in an analysis of the year’s Best Picture winner and top-grossing film, Lawrence of Arabia, and the factors that made that magnificent epic possible, Cinema ’62 makes a strong case that the movies peaked in the Kennedy era.Trade Review"I wouldn’t have pointed to 1962 as a landmark year for movies, but Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan have proven me wrong. Their knowledgeable and persuasive book spotlights diverse films from the U.S. and abroad that put today’s mainstream releases to shame. Can you imagine a menu of superior movies like Lolita, The Manchurian Candidate, Ride the High Country, Days of Wine and Roses and The Music Man all coming out in one twelve-month period? The authors provide valuable context for this lineup, a treasure trove well worth celebrating." -- Leonard Maltin * film critic and historian *"1962 was the greatest AND most important year in movie history! 1939, its closest competitor, was the apex of Hollywood’s Golden Age when dream factories entranced and riveted audiences into their seats. But in 1962 new waves washed into theaters, and the spell was broken: the Golden Age gave way to the Emboldened Age. Filmmakers began to feel they could create their own dreams. Art houses and film schools proliferated. Audiences jumped out of their seats and argued about what they loved… and hated. Friendships were tested. Film mattered! It was the New Frontier. You shoulda been there! Wait! You can be there! Farber and McClellan have provided you with the best way to re-live those thrilling days. They’ve unearthed gems, told great tales, and provided plenty of juicy gossip. Cinema ’62 will arouse you to once again have arguments, go for the jugular, test your friendships…and care about film!” -- Philip Kaufman * award-winning director of The Right Stuff and Invasion of the Body Snatchers *"1962 was a magical year for all of us who love the movies. Filmmaking and art merged in ways that were under-appreciated until now. This fine work by Farber and McClellan makes me realize how fortunate we are to have these momentous and enduring movies. It also made me remember why I wanted to become a director." -- Penelope Spheeris * Director of The Decline of Western Civilization and Wayne’s World *"Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan, with first-rate scholarship and an accessible, entertaining style, make a superb case that 1962 was perhaps the most fascinating, influential, and yes, greatest year in world cinema. They examine a year when the major studios were still committed to making films for adults, the stifling production code was at last loosening up, foreign films were gaining in popularity, and a woman in the central role wasn't a brave and rare event. Cinema '62: The Greatest Year at the Movies is as great as its subject." -- Charles Busch * playwright, actor and screenwriter *"What an amazing year 1962 was in the history of cinema, and what an amazing book Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan have written about it. Cinema '62 is at once deft scholarship and sublime storytelling, a tough balance to maintain, but Farber and McClellan pull it off seamlessly. And the authors make an absolutely convincing case for 1962 as the greatest year in the history of world cinema." -- W.K. Stratton * author of The Wild Bunch *"The case for 1962 can certainly be made with socially provocative films such as Lawrence of Arabia, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lolita, and The Manchurian Candidate, yet the authors bolster their argument with dozens of other entries, including David and Lisa and a Taste of Honey, largely overlooked by the general public." * Library Journal *"There’s plenty of interesting history in Cinema ’62. Farber and McClellan bop from film to film with details about each one’s development, making, release, and influence." * Psychobabble *"Authors Farber and McClellan serve film fans a briskly written, meticulously researched history that gives an often-overlooked and underrated era in cinema its due." * Associated Press *"1962 Was The Year" http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2020/03/1962-was-the-year/ * Hollywood Elsewhere *"BETTE DAVIS VS. JOAN CRAWFORD: HOLLYWOOD'S GREATEST FEUD: On the set of Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, 1962" https://crimereads.com/bette-davis-vs-joan-crawford-hollywoods-greatest-feud/ * CrimeReads *"With fresh interviews from participants in many of the key projects and with the authors’ vast, personal knowledge of the films and the context in which they were made, Cinema ’62 is as sharp and lively as that modernist-slanted title implies. Best of all, its approach never feels as if it’s looking back. One feels that the authors just watched all the movies last week and they’re just dying to tell you about some life-changing piece of art that you’ve just got to see." * Variety *"The authors argue their case convincingly by systematically trotting out one exciting foreign film after another, reminding you that, especially thanks to France and Italy, the early 1960s represented a true golden age for arthouse cinema, as it was widely called at the time." * The Hollywood Reporter *Classic Movie Musts podcast interview with Michael McClellan https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/classic-movie-musts/id1375263468#episodeGuid=classicmoviemusts.podbean.com/786a74f0-976d-5578-95f4-2dcfa7cf39d5 * Classic Movie Musts podcast *"From ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’ And ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ To The Debut Of James Bond, Was 1962 The Greatest Movie Year EVER? A New Book Says Yes" by Pete Hammond * Deadline *"A potent reminder that the early 1960s were indeed a turning point in global cinema." * Classic Film & TV Cafe *A New and Notable Film Book for March 2020: "I never would have chosen 1962 as a watershed year for filmmaking but authors McClellan and Farber have proven me wrong. Their essays provide historical context and a well-informed look at the ingredients that meshed to make this an exceptional period for filmmakers and filmgoers alike." * LeonardMaltin.com *"DigiGods Episode 198: Hey Macorona!" interview with Stephen Farber http://digigods.ign.libsynpro.com/digigods-episode-198-hey-macorona * DigiGods podcast *Battleship Pretension podcast: Episode 681: Cinema '62 with Stephen Farber http://battleshippretension.com/episode-681-cinema-62-with-stephen-farber/ * Battleship Pretension *"The Greatest Year at the Movies: Experts Share Behind-the-Scenes Stories about the Unforgettable Classics We Know and Love" by Katie Bruno * Closer Weekly *"This is a solid work of film study and appreciation that makes its case for a new ‘Golden Year’ quite well." * CineSavant Column *"Was 1962 the best year for film? Grab your popcorn, we have time to discuss it," by Ben Hoyt * The Times of London *"Cinema '62 is a compelling and entertaining assessment of the films released in 1962 and will help budding film buffs assemble a list of must-see movies. Forget 1939, Cinema '62 looks at the acclaimed and neglected films of 1962, and persuasively and entertainingly argues it was the peak year for motion pictures." * Shelf Awareness for Readers *"Interview: Author Michael McClellan Talks New Book" https://journeysinclassicfilm.com/2020/04/23/interview-author-michael-mcclellan-talks-new-book/ * Journeys in Classic Film *"The Gold Standard: Is 1962 secretly the greatest year ever for movies?" by Ben Hoyle * Air Mail *"What’s the best movie year ever? People have claimed for years it was 1939; recently, there have been dissenters. Farber, a veteran Los Angeles film critic, and McClellan, a longtime film buyer, make their case for 1962, the year that produced such classics as 'Lawrence of Arabia,' 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'The Manchurian Candidate.'" * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel *"[Farber and McClellan] succeed in crafting a credible, critical narrative of an art form in transition, with chapters covering the foreign-film revolution, the loosening of sexual morals onscreen, the increasing influence of psychoanalysis and, naturally, the move from black and white to glorious Technicolor." * Flick Attack *"A terrific recapitulation of the year in film...It’s superb at probing the political, social, critical, and economic impact of the major and not-so major movies of the year with insight and meticulous research." * Mount Laurel Library, "Irv on Film" *"The authors knowledgeably examine some two-dozen films from 1962, offering cogent insights on what makes them great. Highly recommended." * Choice *CineSavant column mention of Cinema '62 https://cinesavant.com/cinesavant-column-254/ * CineSavant *"Wisely organized thematically....The result is a good survey of critical and box office receptions and makes for easy reading." * CineMontage *"[Farber and McClellan] do an excellent job of moving the needle for American/UK cinema in favor of their claim. They remind us, and provide short, but pithy discussions, of some truly great films of the year." * Quarterly Review of Film and Video *"Film historians/authors Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan make the argument for cinema in 1962, culminating with David Lean's extraordinary 'Lawrence of Arabia."' * Los Angeles Times Gift Guide *"29 Best New Cinema Books To Read In 2021" * Book Authority *"Cinema ’62: The Greatest Year at the Movies by Stephen Farber and Michael McClellan deserve[s] film lovers’ attention." * Boston Globe *"The authors not only rave about excellent films and the correspondingly high number of viewers, they also work out a trend that is already emerging—the end of the Hollywood studio system and the growing influence of so-called filmmakers. The authors deal with an equally important aspect by discussing the move away from black and white to color film." * Country Mag *Table of ContentsForeword by Bill Condon Preface and Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Overseas Explosion 2 New American Auteurs 3 Survivors: Con Men and Hollywood Honchos 4 Grande Dames and a Box-Office Queen 5 Calling Dr. Freud 6 Adapted for the Screen: Prestige and Provocation 7 Black and White to Technicolor 8 The New Frontier 9 Sexual and Social Outlaws 10 Crowning Achievement Epilogue Appendix A: Other Films of 1962 Appendix B: Accolades and Box Office for 1962 Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMarvel is one of the hottest media companies in the world right now, and its beloved superheroes are all over film, television and comic books. Yet rather than simply cashing in on the popularity of iconic white male characters like Peter Parker, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, Marvel has consciously diversified its lineup of superheroes, courting controversy in the process. Panthers, Hulks, and Ironhearts offers the first comprehensive study of how Marvel has reimagined what a superhero might look like in the twenty-first century. It examines how they have revitalized older characters like Black Panther and Luke Cage, while creating new ones like Latina superhero Miss America. Furthermore, it considers the mixed fan responses to Marvel’s recasting of certain “legacy heroes,” including a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel, a Korean-American Hulk, and a whole rainbow of multiverse Spidermen. If the superhero comic is a quintessentially American creation, then how might the increasing diversification of Marvel’s superhero lineup reveal a fundamental shift in our understanding of American identity? This timely study answers those questions and considers what Marvel’s comics, TV series, and films might teach us about stereotyping, Orientalism, repatriation, whitewashing, and identification. Trade Review"Jeffrey Brown does it again! With his usual compelling style of writing, this time we are treated to a very timely analysis of Marvel’s contemporary multicultural superheroes and their complex entanglements. The significance of this text is its sophisticated way of unpacking the pop cultural panoply of ideology, history, and identity in which the superhero aesthetic is inextricably confined."— Ronald L. Jackson II, co-author of the Comic-Con award winning book, Black Comics "Panthers, Hulks, and Ironhearts offers the first comprehensive study of how Marvel has reimagined what a superhero might look like in the twenty-first century. It examines how they have revitalized older characters like Black Panther and Luke Cage, while creating new ones like Latina superhero Miss America. Furthermore, it considers the mixed fan responses to Marvel’s recasting of certain 'legacy heroes,' including a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel, a Korean-American Hulk, and a whole rainbow of multiverse Spidermen."— Forces of Geek "[Brown] has written a wonderfully readable book whose academic posture does not make it any less appealing to the layperson or the aficionado."— South China Morning Post "Smash Pages QA: Jeffrey A. Brown: The pop culture scholar discusses his latest books on superheroes, diversity and gender"— SmashPagesTable of ContentsContents Introduction: Marvel and Modern America Spider-Analogues: Unmarking and Unmasking White Male Superheroism The Replacements: Ethnicity, Gender and Legacy Heroes in Marvel Comics Superdad: Luke Cage and Heroic Fatherhood in the Civil War Comics Black Panther: Aspiration, Identification and Appropriation Iron Fist: Ethnicity, Appropriation and Repatriation Totally Awesome Asian Heroes vs. Stereotypes A New America: Marvelous Latinx Superheroes Ms. Marvel: A Thoroughly Relatable Muslim Superheroine Afterword: “Because the World Still Needs Heroes” Works Cited

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Book SynopsisOur understanding of history is often mediated by popular culture, and television series set in the past have provided some of our most indelible images of previous times. Yet such historical television programs always reveal just as much about the era in which they are produced as the era in which they are set; there are few more quintessentially late-90s shows than That ‘70s Show, for example. From Memory to History takes readers on a journey through over fifty years of historical dramas and sitcoms that were set in earlier decades of the twentieth century. Along the way, it explores how comedies like M*A*S*H and Hogan’s Heroes offered veiled commentary on the Vietnam War, how dramas ranging like Mad Men echoed current economic concerns, and how The Americans and Halt and Catch Fire used the Cold War and the rise of the internet to reflect upon the present day. Cultural critic Jim Cullen is lively, informative, and incisive, and this book will help readers look at past times, present times, and prime time in a new light.Trade Review"This is a terrific book, fun and learned and provocative. Ranging across television from The Waltons to The Americans, Cullen provides an entertaining and thoughtful account of the ways that we remember and how this is influenced and directed by what we watch. The discussions of popular television series are excellent, and together they provide a compelling account of historical television, reminding us that nothing artistic happens by chance and that we should be careful of what we believe." -- Jerome de Groot * author of Consuming History: Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture *"Jim Cullen has been writing incisively about how Americans remember the past and make sense of the present through various forms of popular culture for a quarter-century. This time his focus is prime-time television with deep dives into seven celebrated series from the 1960s through the 2010s, which will inspire readers to return to these beloved programs with renewed insight and appreciation." -- Gary R. Edgerton * Professor of Creative Media and Entertainment at Butler University and coeditor of the Journal of Po *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION Television’s History 1 LEFT TO THE RIGHTThe Waltons as a 1970s Version of the 1930s 2 CAMP HISTORYHogan’s Heroes as a 1960s Version of the 1940s 3 A FUNNY WARM*A*S*H as a 1970s Version of the 1950s 4 DREAM ADVERTISEMENTMad Men as a 2000s Version of the 1960s 5 WE’RE ALL ALL RIGHTThat ’70s Show as a 1990s Version of the 1970s 6 DOMESTIC FRONTThe Americans as a 2010s Version of the 1980s 7 PROGRAMMING HOPEHalt and Catch Fire as a 2010s Version of the 1990s CONCLUSION Visualizing the Future of the Past Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAmerican culture has long represented mixed-race identity in paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it has been associated with weakness, abnormality, impurity, transgression, shame, and various pathologies; however, it can also connote genetic superiority, exceptional beauty, and special potentiality. This ambivalence has found its way into superhero media, which runs the gamut from Ant-Man and the Wasp’s tragic mulatta villain Ghost to the cinematic depiction of Aquaman as a heroic “half-breed.” The essays in this collection contend with the multitude of ways that racial mixedness has been presented in superhero comics, films, television, and literature. They explore how superhero media positions mixed-race characters within a genre that has historically privileged racial purity and propagated images of white supremacy. The book considers such iconic heroes as Superman, Spider-Man, and The Hulk, alongside such lesser-studied characters as Valkyrie, Dr. Fate, and Steven Universe. Examining both literal and symbolic representations of racial mixing, this study interrogates how we might challenge and rewrite stereotypical narratives about mixed-race identity, both in superhero media and beyond.Trade Review"How often do you read a book that you simultaneously think, I want to assign this to my graduate seminar, cite it in the piece I’m working on, and slip a copy to my teenage kid? Sika Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric Berlatsky’s Mixed-Race Superheroes shatters conventional notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the superhero genre while providing a deeply satisfying, critically engaging and eminently enjoyable read." -- Ralina Joseph * author of Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media Culture, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity *"While it has long been known that white supremacy was baked into the superhero at its origin some eighty years ago, this important collection of essays examines vibrant new works that reimagine and reinvent that troubled legacy. Through discussions of such figures as Miles Morales, the cinematic Valkyrie and Barack Obama, it advances the growing centrality of mixedness, mestiza consciousness and intersectionality in the transmedial twenty-first-century superhero genre. Given the realities of living in the post-2016 USA, this book couldn’t come at a better time." -- José Alaniz * author of Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond *"Dagbovie-Mullins and Berlatsky’s book is a unique and timely collection discussing superhero comics and films at the intersection of comics studies and critical mixed-race studies. The chapters provide valuable resources for scholars as well as students in multiple disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, and make a significant contribution to existing scholarship on racial mixedness in cultural productions." -- Lan Dong * Louise Hartman Schewe and Karl Schewe Professor, University of Illinois Springfield *"An insightful and transformative work. Mixed-Race Superheroes reveals the hidden possibilities of the superhero genre. Profoundly thoughtful and carefully researched, this volume uses the ubiquitous cultural language of the superhero genre and the complexity inherent to racial hybridity to illustrate crucial points about identity, community, and power in the United States. This volume uses a transmedia framework to bring characters, settings, and themes linked to superheroes into a dynamic and revealing conversation. This collection will be useful for researchers steeped in these issues while highlighting innovative points of inquiry for scholars new to the superhero genre." -- Julian C. Chambliss * co-editor of Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitic *"This scholarly, lucidly written, and timely book will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and a wider readership, the essays being accompanied by detailed end-notes, comprehensive lists of works cited, and an excellent index. The book will be essential reading for those in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including critical mixed-race studies, social/cultural representations, comics studies, popular culture, and sociology, and also interdisciplinary studies." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Well-argued and presents a fascinating angle for approaching the issue of mixed-race superheroes." * International Journal of Comic Art *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric L. Berlatsky Part I Superheroes in Black and White 1. Guess Who’s Coming Home? Mixed Metaphors of Home in Spider-Man’s Comic and Cinematic Homecomings by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins 2. The Ride of the Valkyrie Against White Supremacy: Tessa Thompson’s Casting in Thor:Ragnarok by Jasmine Mitchell 3. “Which World Would You Rather Live In?” The Anti-utopian Superheroes of Gary Jackson’s Poetry by Chris Gavaler 4. Flash of Two Races: Incest, Miscegenation, and the Mixed-Race Superhero in TheFlash Comics and Television Show by Eric L. Berlatsky Part II Metaphors of/and Mixedness 5. “Let Yourself Just Be Whoever You Are!” Decolonial Hybridity and the Queer Cosmic Future in Steven Universe by Corrine E. Collins 6. The Hulk and Venom: Warring Blood Superheroes by Gregory T. Carter 7. Monsters, Mutants, and Mongrels: The Mixed-Race Hero in Monstress by Chris Koenig-Woodyard 8. Examining Otherness and the Marginal Man in DC’s Superman through Mixed-Race Studies by Kwasu David Tembo Part III Multiethnic Mixedness (or Mixed-Race Intersections) 9. Talented Tensions and Revisions: The Narrative Double Consciousness of Miles Morales by Jorge J. Santos Jr. 10. “They’re Two People in One Body”: Nested Sovereignties and Mixed-Race Mutations in FX’s Legion by Nicholas E. Miller 11. Into to the Spider-Verse and the Commodified (Re)imagining of Afro-Rican Visibility by Isabel Molina-Guzmán 12. Truth, Justice, and the (Ancient) Egyptian Way: DC’s Doctor Fate and the Arab Spring by Adrienne Resha Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisAmerican culture has long represented mixed-race identity in paradoxical terms. On the one hand, it has been associated with weakness, abnormality, impurity, transgression, shame, and various pathologies; however, it can also connote genetic superiority, exceptional beauty, and special potentiality. This ambivalence has found its way into superhero media, which runs the gamut from Ant-Man and the Wasp’s tragic mulatta villain Ghost to the cinematic depiction of Aquaman as a heroic “half-breed.” The essays in this collection contend with the multitude of ways that racial mixedness has been presented in superhero comics, films, television, and literature. They explore how superhero media positions mixed-race characters within a genre that has historically privileged racial purity and propagated images of white supremacy. The book considers such iconic heroes as Superman, Spider-Man, and The Hulk, alongside such lesser-studied characters as Valkyrie, Dr. Fate, and Steven Universe. Examining both literal and symbolic representations of racial mixing, this study interrogates how we might challenge and rewrite stereotypical narratives about mixed-race identity, both in superhero media and beyond.Trade Review"How often do you read a book that you simultaneously think, I want to assign this to my graduate seminar, cite it in the piece I’m working on, and slip a copy to my teenage kid? Sika Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric Berlatsky’s Mixed-Race Superheroes shatters conventional notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the superhero genre while providing a deeply satisfying, critically engaging and eminently enjoyable read." -- Ralina Joseph * author of Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media Culture, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity *"While it has long been known that white supremacy was baked into the superhero at its origin some eighty years ago, this important collection of essays examines vibrant new works that reimagine and reinvent that troubled legacy. Through discussions of such figures as Miles Morales, the cinematic Valkyrie and Barack Obama, it advances the growing centrality of mixedness, mestiza consciousness and intersectionality in the transmedial twenty-first-century superhero genre. Given the realities of living in the post-2016 USA, this book couldn’t come at a better time." -- José Alaniz * author of Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond *"Dagbovie-Mullins and Berlatsky’s book is a unique and timely collection discussing superhero comics and films at the intersection of comics studies and critical mixed-race studies. The chapters provide valuable resources for scholars as well as students in multiple disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, and make a significant contribution to existing scholarship on racial mixedness in cultural productions." -- Lan Dong * Louise Hartman Schewe and Karl Schewe Professor, University of Illinois Springfield *"An insightful and transformative work. Mixed-Race Superheroes reveals the hidden possibilities of the superhero genre. Profoundly thoughtful and carefully researched, this volume uses the ubiquitous cultural language of the superhero genre and the complexity inherent to racial hybridity to illustrate crucial points about identity, community, and power in the United States. This volume uses a transmedia framework to bring characters, settings, and themes linked to superheroes into a dynamic and revealing conversation. This collection will be useful for researchers steeped in these issues while highlighting innovative points of inquiry for scholars new to the superhero genre." -- Julian C. Chambliss * co-editor of Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitical Domain *"This scholarly, lucidly written, and timely book will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and a wider readership, the essays being accompanied by detailed end-notes, comprehensive lists of works cited, and an excellent index. The book will be essential reading for those in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including critical mixed-race studies, social/cultural representations, comics studies, popular culture, and sociology, and also interdisciplinary studies." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Well-argued and presents a fascinating angle for approaching the issue of mixed-race superheroes." * International Journal of Comic Art *"How often do you read a book that you simultaneously think, I want to assign this to my graduate seminar, cite it in the piece I’m working on, and slip a copy to my teenage kid? Sika Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric Berlatsky’s Mixed-Race Superheroes shatters conventional notions of race, gender, and sexuality in the superhero genre while providing a deeply satisfying, critically engaging and eminently enjoyable read." -- Ralina Joseph * author of Postracial Resistance: Black Women, Media Culture, and the Uses of Strategic Ambiguity *"While it has long been known that white supremacy was baked into the superhero at its origin some eighty years ago, this important collection of essays examines vibrant new works that reimagine and reinvent that troubled legacy. Through discussions of such figures as Miles Morales, the cinematic Valkyrie and Barack Obama, it advances the growing centrality of mixedness, mestiza consciousness and intersectionality in the transmedial twenty-first-century superhero genre. Given the realities of living in the post-2016 USA, this book couldn’t come at a better time." -- José Alaniz * author of Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Silver Age and Beyond *"Dagbovie-Mullins and Berlatsky’s book is a unique and timely collection discussing superhero comics and films at the intersection of comics studies and critical mixed-race studies. The chapters provide valuable resources for scholars as well as students in multiple disciplines and interdisciplinary fields, and make a significant contribution to existing scholarship on racial mixedness in cultural productions." -- Lan Dong * Louise Hartman Schewe and Karl Schewe Professor, University of Illinois Springfield *"An insightful and transformative work. Mixed-Race Superheroes reveals the hidden possibilities of the superhero genre. Profoundly thoughtful and carefully researched, this volume uses the ubiquitous cultural language of the superhero genre and the complexity inherent to racial hybridity to illustrate crucial points about identity, community, and power in the United States. This volume uses a transmedia framework to bring characters, settings, and themes linked to superheroes into a dynamic and revealing conversation. This collection will be useful for researchers steeped in these issues while highlighting innovative points of inquiry for scholars new to the superhero genre." -- Julian C. Chambliss * co-editor of Assembling the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Essays on the Social, Cultural and Geopolitic *"This scholarly, lucidly written, and timely book will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars, and a wider readership, the essays being accompanied by detailed end-notes, comprehensive lists of works cited, and an excellent index. The book will be essential reading for those in a wide variety of fields and disciplines, including critical mixed-race studies, social/cultural representations, comics studies, popular culture, and sociology, and also interdisciplinary studies." * Ethnic and Racial Studies *"Well-argued and presents a fascinating angle for approaching the issue of mixed-race superheroes." * International Journal of Comic Art *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins and Eric L. Berlatsky Part I Superheroes in Black and White 1. Guess Who’s Coming Home? Mixed Metaphors of Home in Spider-Man’s Comic and Cinematic Homecomings by Sika A. Dagbovie-Mullins 2. The Ride of the Valkyrie Against White Supremacy: Tessa Thompson’s Casting in Thor:Ragnarok by Jasmine Mitchell 3. “Which World Would You Rather Live In?” The Anti-utopian Superheroes of Gary Jackson’s Poetry by Chris Gavaler 4. Flash of Two Races: Incest, Miscegenation, and the Mixed-Race Superhero in TheFlash Comics and Television Show by Eric L. Berlatsky Part II Metaphors of/and Mixedness 5. “Let Yourself Just Be Whoever You Are!” Decolonial Hybridity and the Queer Cosmic Future in Steven Universe by Corrine E. Collins 6. The Hulk and Venom: Warring Blood Superheroes by Gregory T. Carter 7. Monsters, Mutants, and Mongrels: The Mixed-Race Hero in Monstress by Chris Koenig-Woodyard 8. Examining Otherness and the Marginal Man in DC’s Superman through Mixed-Race Studies by Kwasu David Tembo Part III Multiethnic Mixedness (or Mixed-Race Intersections) 9. Talented Tensions and Revisions: The Narrative Double Consciousness of Miles Morales by Jorge J. Santos Jr. 10. “They’re Two People in One Body”: Nested Sovereignties and Mixed-Race Mutations in FX’s Legion by Nicholas E. Miller 11. Into to the Spider-Verse and the Commodified (Re)imagining of Afro-Rican Visibility by Isabel Molina-Guzmán 12. Truth, Justice, and the (Ancient) Egyptian Way: DC’s Doctor Fate and the Arab Spring by Adrienne Resha Acknowledgments Notes on Contributors Index

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Book SynopsisHoly adolescence, Batman! Robin and the Making of American Adolescence offers the first character history and analysis of the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. Debuting just a few months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the word “teenager” first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset both reflected and reinforced particular images of American adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have “played” Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!) Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality, gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of “Batman and—.” Trade Review“Lauren R. O’Connor explains Robin—as a teen, as a superhero, as a symbol—as a necessary way to understand adolescence in America along the axes of age, class, gender, and race. O'Connor does us all a favor and gives us a way to know how this enduring figure of adolescence fits into the superhero genre, into comics publishing, and into American culture.” -- Peter Coogan * author of Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre *"In Robin and the Making of American Adolescence, Lauren R. O'Connor deftly demonstrates how various iterations of Robin express contemporary anxieties about adolescence, sexuality, gender, and race. This insightful, engaging study discusses the various ways Batman's sidekick is often kicked aside; it urges us to see how Robin's subordinate position mirrors young people's peripheral status. Robin and the Making of American Adolescence is a valuable contribution to histories of comics and adolescence." -- Lara Saguisag * author of Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics *"In this engaging account located at the intersection of youth studies and comics studies, O’Connor uses Robin as a lens to look at shifting cultural constructions of adolescence in the USA over time. In doing so she emphasizes the significance of the longevity of the character and the diversity of the individuals who have taken on the role." -- Mel Gibson * co-editor of Superheroes and Identities *"Holy adolescence, Batman! Robin and the Making of American Adolescence offers the first character history and analysis of the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. Debuting just a few months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the word 'teenager' first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset both reflected and reinforced particular images of American adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have 'played' Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!) Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality, gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of 'Batman and—.'" * Forces of Geek *“Lauren R. O’Connor explains Robin—as a teen, as a superhero, as a symbol—as a necessary way to understand adolescence in America along the axes of age, class, gender, and race. O'Connor does us all a favor and gives us a way to know how this enduring figure of adolescence fits into the superhero genre, into comics publishing, and into American culture.” -- Peter Coogan * author of Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre *"In Robin and the Making of American Adolescence, Lauren R. O'Connor deftly demonstrates how various iterations of Robin express contemporary anxieties about adolescence, sexuality, gender, and race. This insightful, engaging study discusses the various ways Batman's sidekick is often kicked aside; it urges us to see how Robin's subordinate position mirrors young people's peripheral status. Robin and the Making of American Adolescence is a valuable contribution to histories of comics and adolescence." -- Lara Saguisag * author of Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Com *"In this engaging account located at the intersection of youth studies and comics studies, O’Connor uses Robin as a lens to look at shifting cultural constructions of adolescence in the USA over time. In doing so she emphasizes the significance of the longevity of the character and the diversity of the individuals who have taken on the role." -- Mel Gibson * co-editor of Superheroes and Identities *"Holy adolescence, Batman! Robin and the Making of American Adolescence offers the first character history and analysis of the most famous superhero sidekick, Robin. Debuting just a few months after Batman himself, Robin has been an integral part of the Dark Knight’s history—and debuting just a few months prior to the word 'teenager' first appearing in print, Robin has from the outset both reflected and reinforced particular images of American adolescence. Closely reading several characters who have 'played' Robin over the past eighty years, Robin and the Making of American Adolescence reveals the Boy (and sometimes Girl!) Wonder as a complex figure through whom mainstream culture has addressed anxieties about adolescents in relation to sexuality, gender, and race. This book partners up comics studies and adolescent studies as a new Dynamic Duo, following Robin as he swings alongside the ever-changing American teenager and finally shining the Bat-signal on the latter half of 'Batman and—.'" * Forces of Geek *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter One The Secret Origins of Adolescence Chapter Two Robin, Nightwing, Batman: The Shifting Sexuality of Dick Grayson Chapter Three Girls Wonder: Young Female Robins in the Modern Age of Comics Chapter Four Mixed Signals: Adolescence, Race, and Robin Chapter Five The Sidekick on Screen: Images of Robin in Television and Film Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisVivid images of the apocalypse proliferate throughout contemporary cinema, which pictures the death of civilization in wildly different ways. Some films imagine a future where humanity is wiped out entirely, while others envision humans as an endangered species, enslaved by alien invaders or hunted by zombie hordes. This book provides a lively overview of apocalypse cinema, including alien invasions, nuclear annihilation, asteroid collisions, climate change, and terrifying plagues. Covering pivotal films from the silent era to the present day, including Metropolis, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dr. Strangelove, Contagion, and Avengers: Endgame, Stephen Prince explores how these dark visions are rooted in religious and prophetic traditions, and he considers how our love for apocalypse cinema is tied to fundamental existential questions and anxieties that never go out of fashion. Trade Review“From stories of cosmic catastrophes and space invaders to nuclear and natural disasters, Stephen Prince provides here an expertly-crafted, lively account of the apocalyptic visions made possible only by the movies.” — Carl Plantinga, author of Alternative RealitiesTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Sources and Traditions in Apocalyptic Cinema 2. Astrophobia 3. I’m Not Saying We Wouldn’t Get Our Hair Mussed 4. The Revenge of Nature Acknowledgements Further Reading Works Cited Index

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Book SynopsisHonoring relatives by tending graves, building altars, and cooking festive meals has been a major tradition among Latin Americans for centuries. The tribute, "El Día de los Muertos," has enjoyed renewed popularity since the 1970s when Latinx activists and artists in the United States began expanding "Day of the Dead" north of the border with celebrations of performance art, Aztec danza, art exhibits, and other public expressions. Focusing on the power of public ritual to serve as a communication medium, this revised and updated edition combines a mix of ethnography, historical research, oral history, and critical cultural analysis to explore the manifold and unexpected transformations that occur when the tradition is embraced by the mainstream. A testament to the complex role of media and commercial forces in constructions of ethnic identity, Day of the Dead in the USA provides insight into the power of art and ritual to create community, transmit oppositional messages, and advance educational, political, and economic goals. Today Chicano-style Day of the Dead events take place in all fifty states. This revised edition provides new information about: The increase in events across the US, incorporating media coverage and financial aspects, Recent political movements expressed in contemporary Day of the Dead celebrations, including #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo Greater media coverage and online presence of the celebration in blogs, websites, and streaming video Día de los Muertos themes and iconography in video games and films The proliferation of commercialized merchandise such as home goods, apparel, face paints and jewelry at mainstream big box and web retailers, as well as the widespread proliferation of calavera-themed decorations and costumes for Halloween 24 new full color illustrations Trade Review"Marchi provides a unique and valuable account of the rise of Day of the Dead celebrations in the U.S., demonstrating the complex dynamics of ethnic and cultural identity in the contemporary cultural economy, urban community, and media environment." -- Eric W. Rothenbuhler * author of Ritual Communication and co-editor of Media Anthropology *"What a difference a day (the Day of the Dead) makes! In the U.S. in the past generation, a Latin American family/religious ritual has been reinvented as a holiday of ethnic pride that builds bridges between new and settled immigrants, between Latinos and Anglos, and across cultural identity, consumerism, and political protest. Regina Marchi reveals all this in a marvelous work, a rare blend of charm, grace, attentive field work, and theoretical savvy." -- Michael Schudson * author of The Good Citizen: A History of American Public Life *"Regina Marchi speaks directly to all of those wondering how Mexico's tradition of re-membering the dead within living communities became US America's newest holiday. The book thoughtfully records the voices of significant Chicanas/os whose traditional and non-traditional approaches initiated this transformation." -- David Avalos * Visual and Performing Arts Department, California State University San Marcos *“Regina Marchi has written the most historically and geographically comprehensive documentation of Día de los muertos. The second edition centers the voices of the Chicana/o/x artists and advocates who made this celebration into an international phenomenon and subsequently gained the attention of markets, museums, and the media.” -- Karen Mary Davalos * author of Chicana/o Remix: Art and Errata Since the Sixties *“Fifty years after the first Day of the Dead celebration was hosted in the United States, Marchi invites readers into a thriving world of the Día de los Muertos consumer culture. The book expands upon Marchi’s original historical and ethnographic research to foreground the role of consumer culture in the expression of ethno-racial identities within traditional practices of commemoration.” -- Rachel V. González-Martin * author of Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities *"Marchi provides a unique and valuable account of the rise of Day of the Dead celebrations in the U.S., demonstrating the complex dynamics of ethnic and cultural identity in the contemporary cultural economy, urban community, and media environment." -- Eric W. Rothenbuhler * author of Ritual Communication and co-editor of Media Anthropology *"What a difference a day (the Day of the Dead) makes! In the U.S. in the past generation, a Latin American family/religious ritual has been reinvented as a holiday of ethnic pride that builds bridges between new and settled immigrants, between Latinos and Anglos, and across cultural identity, consumerism, and political protest. Regina Marchi reveals all this in a marvelous work, a rare blend of charm, grace, attentive field work, and theoretical savvy." -- Michael Schudson * author of The Good Citizen: A History of American Public Life *"Regina Marchi speaks directly to all of those wondering how Mexico's tradition of re-membering the dead within living communities became US America's newest holiday. The book thoughtfully records the voices of significant Chicanas/os whose traditional and non-traditional approaches initiated this transformation." -- David Avalos * Visual and Performing Arts Department, California State University San Marcos *“Regina Marchi has written the most historically and geographically comprehensive documentation of Día de los muertos. The second edition centers the voices of the Chicana/o/x artists and advocates who made this celebration into an international phenomenon and subsequently gained the attention of markets, museums, and the media.” -- Karen Mary Davalos * author of Chicana/o Remix: Art and Errata Since the Sixties *“Fifty years after the first Day of the Dead celebration was hosted in the United States, Marchi invites readers into a thriving world of the Día de los Muertos consumer culture. The book expands upon Marchi’s original historical and ethnographic research to foreground the role of consumer culture in the expression of ethno-racial identities within traditional practices of commemoration.” -- Rachel V. González-Martin * author of Quinceañera Style: Social Belonging and Latinx Consumer Identities *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsNote on the TextGlossaryIntroduction An Ancient and Modern Festival Mexico’s Special Relationship with Day of the Dead Day of the Dead in the United States Ritual Communication and Community Building US Day of the Dead as Political Communication: A Moral Economy Day of the Dead in the US Media: The Celebration Goes Mainstream Appeal, Influence and Ownership The Commodification of Day of the Dead Conclusion: What We Can Learn from US Day of the Dead CelebrationsMethodological AppendixNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisAmid growing digital activism to address gender-based violence, institutional racism, and homophobia in U.S. society, Unruly Souls explores the intersectional feminist activism among young people within Islam and Evangelical Christianity. These religious misfits—marginalized from traditional religious spaces due to their sexuality, gender, or race—employ the creative tactics of digital media in their work to seek justice and to display their fundamental equality in the eyes of God. Through an analysis of various digital projects from hip-hop music videos and Instagram accounts to Twitter hashtags and podcasts, Kristin Peterson argues that the hybrid, flexible, playful, and sensory nature of digital media facilitate intersectional feminist activism within and beyond religious communities. Drawing on work from queer theory, decolonial theory, and Black feminist theory, this study explores how those who have been marginalized are able to effectively deploy their disregarded status along with digital media tactics to cultivate empathetic communities for those recovering from religious trauma. Trade Review“This book offers a compelling examination of how calls for gender equity, in concert with critiques of colonialism and empire, are playing out within contemporary Evangelical Christianity and American Muslim communities. With its focus on those who do not come from political or activist backgrounds yet find themselves engaging in feminist activism, the book will hold great interest to young women, especially those who have experienced religious trauma, who are similarly considering how best to act, perform, and express who they are in relation to their communities.”— Lynn Schofield Clark, author of Young People and the Future of News: Social Media and the Rise of Connective Journalism “This book is an inspiration for anyone interested in digital religion, the experiences of women in religious spaces, and how digital media can serve as a tool to resist sexual abuse, religious abuse, and fight patriarchal structures.”— Ruth Tsuria, co-editor of Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity "This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to gain an intersectional understanding of religion online. It moves away from essentialist framings to shed light on real, lived digital lives."— Rosemary Pennington, co-editor of On Islam: Muslims and the MediaTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Dismantling the Hierarchy of Souls Chapter 2: #KissShameBye: Textual Critiques of Evangelical Purity Culture Chapter 3: Bold and Beautiful: Images of Unruly Bodies Destabilize Pious Muslim Icon Chapter 4: A Seat at the Table: Podcasts Facilitate Dialogue for Marginalized Christian Perspectives Chapter 5: “We Them Barbarians”: Digital Videos Creatively Rearticulate Muslim Identity Conclusion: Convergences and Connections

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Book SynopsisAmid growing digital activism to address gender-based violence, institutional racism, and homophobia in U.S. society, Unruly Souls explores the intersectional feminist activism among young people within Islam and Evangelical Christianity. These religious misfits—marginalized from traditional religious spaces due to their sexuality, gender, or race—employ the creative tactics of digital media in their work to seek justice and to display their fundamental equality in the eyes of God. Through an analysis of various digital projects from hip-hop music videos and Instagram accounts to Twitter hashtags and podcasts, Kristin Peterson argues that the hybrid, flexible, playful, and sensory nature of digital media facilitate intersectional feminist activism within and beyond religious communities. Drawing on work from queer theory, decolonial theory, and Black feminist theory, this study explores how those who have been marginalized are able to effectively deploy their disregarded status along with digital media tactics to cultivate empathetic communities for those recovering from religious trauma. Trade Review“This book offers a compelling examination of how calls for gender equity, in concert with critiques of colonialism and empire, are playing out within contemporary Evangelical Christianity and American Muslim communities. With its focus on those who do not come from political or activist backgrounds yet find themselves engaging in feminist activism, the book will hold great interest to young women, especially those who have experienced religious trauma, who are similarly considering how best to act, perform, and express who they are in relation to their communities.” -- Lynn Schofield Clark * author of Young People and the Future of News: Social Media and the Rise of Connective Journalism *“This book is an inspiration for anyone interested in digital religion, the experiences of women in religious spaces, and how digital media can serve as a tool to resist sexual abuse, religious abuse, and fight patriarchal structures.” -- Ruth Tsuria * co-editor of Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity *"This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to gain an intersectional understanding of religion online. It moves away from essentialist framings to shed light on real, lived digital lives." -- Rosemary Pennington * co-editor of On Islam: Muslims and the Media *“This book offers a compelling examination of how calls for gender equity, in concert with critiques of colonialism and empire, are playing out within contemporary Evangelical Christianity and American Muslim communities. With its focus on those who do not come from political or activist backgrounds yet find themselves engaging in feminist activism, the book will hold great interest to young women, especially those who have experienced religious trauma, who are similarly considering how best to act, perform, and express who they are in relation to their communities.” -- Lynn Schofield Clark * author of Young People and the Future of News: Social Media and the Rise of Connective Journalism *“This book is an inspiration for anyone interested in digital religion, the experiences of women in religious spaces, and how digital media can serve as a tool to resist sexual abuse, religious abuse, and fight patriarchal structures.” -- Ruth Tsuria * co-editor of Media and Power in International Contexts: Perspectives on Agency and Identity *"This book is essential reading for anyone who wants to gain an intersectional understanding of religion online. It moves away from essentialist framings to shed light on real, lived digital lives." -- Rosemary Pennington * co-editor of On Islam: Muslims and the Media *Table of ContentsIntroductionChapter 1: Dismantling the Hierarchy of SoulsChapter 2: #KissShameBye: Textual Critiques of Evangelical Purity CultureChapter 3: Bold and Beautiful: Images of Unruly Bodies Destabilize Pious Muslim IconChapter 4: A Seat at the Table: Podcasts Facilitate Dialogue for Marginalized Christian PerspectivesChapter 5: “We Them Barbarians”: Digital Videos Creatively Rearticulate Muslim Identity Conclusion: Convergences and Connections

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Book SynopsisThe Counterfeit Coin argues that games and related entertainment media have become almost inseparable from fantasy. In turn, these media are making fantasy itself visible in new ways. Though apparently asocial and egocentric—an internal mental image expressing the fulfillment of some wish—fantasy has become a key term in social contestations of the emerging medium. At issue is whose fantasies are catered to, who feels powerful and gets their way, and who is left out. This book seeks to undo the monolith of commercial gaming by locating multiplicity and difference within fantasy itself. It introduces and tracks three broad fantasy traditions that dynamically connect apparently distinct strata of a game (story and play), that join games to other media, and that encircle players in pleasurable loops as they follow these connections.Trade Review“Christopher Goetz’s The Counterfeit Coin: Videogames and Fantasies of Empowerment is a triumphant theoretical leap forward for game studies. The Counterfeit Coin invites readers to go on an adventure in game and media studies by unlocking how games and media let us play through our fantasies, whether those fantasies are what tether us into a safe spot, let us exceed and transcend bodily limitations, or just accrue more and more loot. Reading across a wide range of games, film, anime and television series, Goetz’s The Counterfeit Coin illuminates how and why players find comfort, transcendence, and accomplishment in the routine and familiar ways we play." -- Sheila C. Murphy * author of How Television Invented New Media *Table of Contents Introduction: Feeling Powerful and Getting Your Way   1  The Fantasy of Bodily Transcendence    2  The Fantasy of Bodily Transcendence in Narrative Media    3  The Tether Fantasy    4  The Fantasy of Accretions     Conclusion: Surface Narratives and the Contrivance of Fantasy     Acknowledgments     Notes     Works Cited     Index  

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Book SynopsisThe Counterfeit Coin argues that games and related entertainment media have become almost inseparable from fantasy. In turn, these media are making fantasy itself visible in new ways. Though apparently asocial and egocentric—an internal mental image expressing the fulfillment of some wish—fantasy has become a key term in social contestations of the emerging medium. At issue is whose fantasies are catered to, who feels powerful and gets their way, and who is left out. This book seeks to undo the monolith of commercial gaming by locating multiplicity and difference within fantasy itself. It introduces and tracks three broad fantasy traditions that dynamically connect apparently distinct strata of a game (story and play), that join games to other media, and that encircle players in pleasurable loops as they follow these connections.Trade Review“Christopher Goetz’s The Counterfeit Coin: Videogames and Fantasies of Empowerment is a triumphant theoretical leap forward for game studies. The Counterfeit Coin invites readers to go on an adventure in game and media studies by unlocking how games and media let us play through our fantasies, whether those fantasies are what tether us into a safe spot, let us exceed and transcend bodily limitations, or just accrue more and more loot. Reading across a wide range of games, film, anime and television series, Goetz’s The Counterfeit Coin illuminates how and why players find comfort, transcendence, and accomplishment in the routine and familiar ways we play."— Sheila C. Murphy, author of How Television Invented New MediaTable of ContentsIntroduction: Feeling Powerful and Getting Your Way   1  The Fantasy of Bodily Transcendence    2  The Fantasy of Bodily Transcendence in Narrative Media    3  The Tether Fantasy    4  The Fantasy of Accretions     Conclusion: Surface Narratives and the Contrivance of Fantasy     Acknowledgments     Notes     Works Cited     Index  

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Book SynopsisPleasure refers to the freedom to pursue a desire, deliberately sought in order to satisfy the self. Putting pleasure first is liberating. During their extraordinary lives, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley, Yolande DuBois, and Memphis Minnie enjoyed pleasure as they gave pleasure to both those in their lives and to the public at large. They were Black women who, despite their public profiles, whether through Black society or through the world of entertainment, discovered ways to enjoy pleasure.They left home, undertook careers they loved, and did what they wanted, despite perhaps not meeting the standards for respectability in the interwar era. See Me Naked looks at these women as representative of other Black women of the time, who were watched, criticized, and judged by their families, peers, and, in some cases, the government, yet still managed to enjoy themselves. Among the voyeurs of Black women was Langston Hughes, whose novel Not Without Laughter was clearly a work of fiction inspired by women he observed in public and knew personally, including Black clubwomen, blues performers, and his mother. How did these complicated women wrest loose from the voyeurs to define their own sense of themselves? At very young ages, they found and celebrated aspects of themselves. Using examples from these women’s lives, Green explores their challenges and achievements.Trade Review"Whatever you think you know about the project of 'respectability politics' in Black life, letters and history will be upended in See Me Naked. A bold feminist examination of pleasure in the Interwar Period through some of our most enduring feminist legends – Ma Rainey and Moms Mabley among others – Green’s astute and captivating assessment here will open doors for new imaginings of blackness." -- Sharon P. Holland * author of The Erotic Life of Racism *"In her careful engagement with Nina Yolande Du Bois Williams, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley and Memphis Minnie, Tara T. Green’s See Me Naked offers a groundbreaking exploration of black women’s pursuit of pleasure during the interwar years. Her careful exploration of pleasure’s fundamental relationship to black women’s self-making offers a necessary intervention into the fields of black studies, feminist studies, and sexuality studies." -- Jennifer C. Nash * author of Birthing Black Mothers *Tara T. Green in The Black Writer's Studio * The Black Writer's Studio *"Whatever you think you know about the project of 'respectability politics' in Black life, letters and history will be upended in See Me Naked. A bold feminist examination of pleasure in the Interwar Period through some of our most enduring feminist legends – Ma Rainey and Moms Mabley among others – Green’s astute and captivating assessment here will open doors for new imaginings of blackness." -- Sharon P. Holland * author of The Erotic Life of Racism *"In her careful engagement with Nina Yolande Du Bois Williams, Lena Horne, Moms Mabley and Memphis Minnie, Tara T. Green’s See Me Naked offers a groundbreaking exploration of black women’s pursuit of pleasure during the interwar years. Her careful exploration of pleasure’s fundamental relationship to black women’s self-making offers a necessary intervention into the fields of black studies, feminist studies, and sexuality studies." -- Jennifer C. Nash * author of Birthing Black Mothers *Tara T. Green in The Black Writer's Studio * The Black Writer's Studio *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Pleasure Is All Mine 1. Finding Yolande Du Bois’s Pleasure 2. Lena Horne and Respectable Pleasure 3. Moms Mabley and the Art of Pleasure 4. Memphis Minnie and Songs of Pleasure 5. Pleasurable Resistance in Langston Hughes’s Not Without Laughter Conclusion: Black Feminist Musings from Nature, The Context of Pleasure in 2020 Acknowledgements Bibliography Index

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

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Book SynopsisIn the late 2010s, the United States experienced a period of widespread silencing. Protests of unsafe drinking water have been met with tear gas; national park employees, environmentalists, and scientists have been ordered to stop communicating publicly. Advocates for gun control are silenced even as mass shootings continue. Expressed dissent to political power is labeled as “fake news.” DREAMers, Muslims, Trans military members, women, black bodies, the LGBTQI+ community, Latina/o/x communities, rape survivors, sex workers, and immigrants have all been systematically silenced. During this difficult time and despite such restrictions, advocates and allies persist and resist, forming dialogues that call to repel inequality in its many forms. Addressing the oppression of women of color, white women, women with (dis)abilities, and LBTQI+ individuals across cultures and contexts remains a central posit of feminist struggle and requires “a distinctly feminist politics of recognition.” However, as second wave debates about feminism have revealed, there is no single way to express a feminist politic. Rather, living feminist politics requires individual interpretation and struggle, collective discussion and disagreement, and recognizing difference among women as well as points of convergence in feminist struggle. Badass Feminist Politics includes a diverse range of engaging feminist political projects to not only analyze the work being done on the ground but provide an overview for action that can be taken on by those seeking to engage in feminist activism in their own communities. Contributors included here are working for equality and equity and resisting violent, racist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, and sexist language and action during this tension-filled political moment. Collectively, the book explores what it means to live and communicate feminist politics in everyday choices and actions, and how we can facilitate learning by analyzing these examples. Taking up current issues and new theoretical perspectives, the authors offer novel perspectives into what it means to live feminist politics. This book is a testament to resilience, resistance, communication, and forward thinking about what these themes all mean for new feminist agendas. Learning how to resist oppressive structures through words and actions is particularly important for students. Badass Feminist Politics features scholars from non-dominant groups taking up issues of marginalization and oppression, which can help people accomplish their social justice goals of inclusivity on the ground and in the classroom. Trade Review"If ever there was a time for a badass feminist communication declaration, that time is now! Blithe and Bauer have carefully crafted a collection where perspectives, passions, voices, and views not only fill a gap in research, but carve a new path. The brilliance of the contributors is reflected in an affirmation of social identities across contexts representing 'what feminism looks like' for the next generation of badass feminist scholars aiming to right wrongs, ignite change, and sustain transformative practices in everyday lived experiences." -- Karla D. Scott * author of The Language of Strong Black Womanhood: Myths, Models, Messages and a New Mandate for Self-Care *"Sarah Jane Blithe and Janell C. Bauer have curated a must read edited collection for anyone interested in feminisms, communication, and identity justice. This is an important and timely resource for feminist scholar-teachers that engages critical questions about gender, race, and intersectionality in communication research and pedagogy by centering black feminist voices throughout." -- Stephanie Norander * Executive Director of Communication Across the Curriculum, UNC Charlotte *"If ever there was a time for a badass feminist communication declaration, that time is now! Blithe and Bauer have carefully crafted a collection where perspectives, passions, voices, and views not only fill a gap in research, but carve a new path. The brilliance of the contributors is reflected in an affirmation of social identities across contexts representing 'what feminism looks like' for the next generation of badass feminist scholars aiming to right wrongs, ignite change, and sustain transformative practices in everyday lived experiences." -- Karla D. Scott * author of The Language of Strong Black Womanhood: Myths, Models, Messages and a New Mandate for Self *"Sarah Jane Blithe and Janell C. Bauer have curated a must read edited collection for anyone interested in feminisms, communication, and identity justice. This is an important and timely resource for feminist scholar-teachers that engages critical questions about gender, race, and intersectionality in communication research and pedagogy by centering black feminist voices throughout." -- Stephanie Norander * Executive Director of Communication Across the Curriculum, UNC Charlotte *Table of Contents1 IntroductionSARAH JANE BLITHE AND JANELL C. BAUER2 Badass Activities for Threading Together Theory, Pedagogy, and ActivismJANELL C. BAUER AND SARAH JANE BLITHEPart I Black Lives Matter: Research and Reflections3 Being Black in the Ivory: Telling Our Truth and Taking Up SpaceANGELA N. GIST-MACKEY, ASHLEY R. HALL, AND SHARDÉ M. DAVIS4 #BlackIndigenousStoriesMatterANITA MIXON5 Your Black Friends Are TiredANDREA EWING6 Inciting Change with My Keyboard: Leveraging Hashtag Activism to Fight Anti-Black Racism during COVID-19SHARDÉ M. DAVIS7 The Reality of Our Dreams: Black Lives’ FearsPRISCA S. NGONDO8 Black Women in Black Lives Matter: Navigating Being Both Engaged and DismissedCERISE L. GLENN9 Antiracist Holistic Change in “STEM” Higher EducationMELANIE DUCKWORTH AND KELLY J. CROSS10 Fighting for Black Studies: An Essay about Educational EmpowermentIDRISSA N. SNIDER11 When You Can’t Call the Cops: Intimate Partner Violence and #BlackLivesMatterREBECCA MERCADO JONES AND JAYNA MARIE JONES12 Discovering Your Social Justice Gift amid the Distraction of Systemic RacismSIOBHAN E. SMITH-JONES AND JOHNNY JONES13 Sexuality in My Reality: An Autoethnography of a Black Woman’s Resistance of Sexual StereotypesSAVAUGHN WILLIAMS14 The Forgotten Ones (for Those Who Survive Black Death)ROBIN M. BOYLORN15 Performative Activism: Inauthentic Allyship in the Midst of a Racial PandemicTINA M. HARRISPart II Narrating the Material Body16 Nevertheless, She Feels Pretty: A Critical Co-constructed Autoethnography on Fat Persistence and ResistanceCASSIDY D. ELLIS AND SARAH GONZALEZ NOVEIRI17 Visual Activism, Persistence, and Identity: Ostomy Selfies as a Form of Resistance to Dominant Body IdeologiesRUTH J. BEERMAN AND MICHAEL S. MARTIN18 The Silence of LaughterLYDIA HUERTA MORENOPart III Living Feminist Politics in Mediated Environments19 Mónica Robles: (De?)colonizing Mexican Womanhood through the Power of MemesANA GOMEZ PARGA20 Smart Talk: Feminist Communication Questions for Artificial IntelligenceMAUREEN EBBEN AND CHERIS KRAMARAE21 The Silencing of Elizabeth Warren: A Case of Digital PersistenceKATHLEEN RUSHFORTHPart IV New Feminist Theorizing22 Social Justice Organizing through the Closet MetaphorJAMES McDONALD AND SARA DeTURK23 Disrupting the Ratchet-Respectable Binary: Explorations of Ratchet Feminism and Ratchet Respectability in Daily and Popular LifeDANETTE M. PUGH- PATTON AND ANTONIO L. SPIKES24 Afrofuturist Lessons in PersistenceJENNA N. HANCHEYAcknowledgmentsNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisCritical studies of the graphic novel have often employed methodologies taken from film theory and art criticism. Yet, as graphic novels from Maus to Watchmen have entered the literary canon, perhaps the time has come to develop theories for interpreting and evaluating graphic novels that are drawn from classic models of literary theory and criticism. Using the methodology of Georg Lukács and his detailed defense of literary realism as a socially embedded practice, Litcomix tackles difficult questions about reading graphic novels as literature. What critical standards should we use to measure the quality of a graphic novel? How does the genre contribute to our understanding of ourselves and the world? What qualities distinguish it from other forms of literature? LitComix hones its theoretical approach through case studies taken from across the diverse world of comics, from Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s groundbreaking manga to the Hernandez Brothers’ influential alt-comix. Whether looking at graphic novel adaptations of Proust or considering how Jack Kirby’s use of intertextuality makes him the Balzac of comics, this study offers fresh perspectives on how we might appreciate graphic novels as literature. Trade Review"The authors want comics to 'be treated with the seriousness of so-called proper literature.' In this spirit, their book introduces readers to comics makers who should be celebrated for their significant contributions to expanding the horizons of the pleasures of reading." — Shiamin Kwa, author of Perfect Copies: Reproduction and the Contemporary Comic "Growing up in the UK during the 1960s, to me, Kirby was "The Comics." Kirby created his own genre whose influence is felt to this very day. It's rare to read something so well thought out on my pet subject. Litcomix is a great read!" — Shaky Kane, comic artist, 2000 AD, The Bulletproof Coffin, The Beef "Reflecting upon central elements of Marxist literary theorist and philosopher Georg Lukács, this admirable volume adds momentum to the speed at which we are recognizing the proper value of the comics art form. Insightful and provocative, once I finished reading this book I wanted to pick it up again and start over.” — Jeff McLaughlin, editor of Comics as Philosophy "As a fellow true believer in comics as a high voltage energy conductor, I recommend Geczy and McBurnie's book, one which highlights and categorizes some of the vibrant new methods and genres of cartooning-art power with a well-researched and passionate curation of contemporary gems as examples. May the kaleidoscopic galaxy of comics continue to unfurl!" — Lale Westvind, cartoonist "Litcomix, an original, extremely interesting book, argues that we should treat graphic novels as serious literature, applying to them the theories that are usually reserved for discussion of ‘serious’ literature. In a most timely account, Geczy and McBurnie present fascinating and instructive examples."— David Carrier, author of Philosophical Skepticism as the Subject of Art: Maria Bussmann’s Drawings "Litcomix frames the notion that comics are long overdue for serious attention, and then delivers that attention in the most informed possible manner. For too long, comics have had the boot of cultural bias on its neck. This book supplants that boot and puts the graphic novel on even footing with the best of literature." — Christopher Sperandio, cartoonist and academicTable of ContentsIntroduction Introduction Part I Theories 1 Literary Theory: The Relevant and the Real 2 Recuperating Realism: Lukács 3 Classic Novels, Classic Comics 4 Was Wertham Right? Comics as Antisocial and Subversive 5 The Balzac of Comics: Jack Kirby, World Building, and the Kirbyesque 6 Figurative Pseudonyms: Biography and Confession Part II Case Studies 7 Josh Bayer 8 Nina Bunjevac 9 Simon Hanselmann 10 The Hernandez Brothers 11 Tommi Parrish 12 Yos hihiro Tatsumi Conclusion: Our New Urizens Acknowledgments Notes Index

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