Description
Book SynopsisHow is terrorism transformed into media entertainment? What is the connection between affirmative action and narcissism? Why has pathos become an endangered-perhaps an extinct-species in the contemporary American psyche? In American Affect in the Postmodern Era: A Primer, Steven Carter addresses these and other questions that have helped to define American popular culture since the nineteen-sixties. Cover painting: Kyle Margiotta, Baja, 1999. Oil on canvas.
Trade ReviewFor me, the joy of reading Steven Carter is the joy of recognizing that the borders and horizons of our national life, from lifeless shopping malls that denature the meaning of time, to the trivial infinitude of TV channels, need not circumscribe our everyday existence. Taken as a whole, Carter's cultural criticism provides a marvelous perspective from which to seize upon the soul-restoring recognition that, mirabile dictu, we may yet find a way to refashion, or even remake, the better angels of our nature. -- Arthur J. Spring PhD, St. John's University * From The Foreword *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Foreword by Arthur J. Spring Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Author's Note to the Reader Chapter 4 Loomings Chapter 5 Technology and Time Chapter 6 Narcissism I Chapter 7 Narcissism II Chapter 8 TV, Terror, Entertainment Chapter 9 Intermission: The Ethos of Cool vs. the Ethos of Chill Chapter 10 Newspapers, or: The Grief of Tisha Rae Garza Chapter 11 Play Chapter 12 Teddy Bears, Balloons, Ba Ya Chapter 13 Pathos Chapter 14 Miss Lonelyhearts Redux
