Description
Book SynopsisIn this comprehensive analysis of the TV series
Mad Men, scholars explore the groundbreaking drama in relation to fashion, history, architecture, civil rights, feminism, consumerism, art, cinema, and the serial format.
Trade Review“
Mad Men, Mad World's brilliance is that it analyzes storylines and characters from completely unexpected angles. . . . These are deeply considered pieces that truly spark intellectual discussion. It's a mad world, indeed, but this book helps to bring some order to the chaos.” -- Natalie Papailiou * Shelf Awareness for Readers *
"I read this collection with enormous pleasure. The essays are smart, creative, and original. Writing on matters from TV technology to the history of advertising, and from the early civil rights movement to analogies between Jews and nineteenth-century dandies, the contributors illuminate what turns out to be a very rich and charismatic cultural object. I think that
Mad Men, Mad World will make a real splash."—
Bruce Robbins, author of
Perpetual War: Cosmopolitanism from the Viewpoint of Violence“Just as
Mad Men charms its viewers by using sex, drugs, snappy banter, and pretty people to make heavy topics (sexism, racism, dreams diffused) palatable, the editors of
Mad Men, Mad World trust that some TV glamour will get readers interested in digesting academic theories. It's not wrong. Full of dense, fascinating writing,
Mad Men, Mad World, from Duke University Press, takes stock of ‘sex, politics, style & the 1960s’ in a series of essays by academics, theorizing about
Mad Men.” -- Diana Clarke * Village Voice *
“An interesting conversation.” -- Candace Opper * Bitch *
“There is much else in the book that I found interesting and useful in thinking about
Mad Men, and I think it will be stimulating to readers outside the ranks of aca fandom.” -- Scott McLemee * Inside Higher Ed *
“Throughout the book are intelligent discussions dissecting the central themes addressed in the show, such as masculinity and feminism, identity, and race relations and representations. . . . [It] accomplishes the admirable feat of offering considerable critique and examination from a standpoint of admiration and fandom.” * Publishers Weekly *
“A lot is packed into this volume, and nobody is likely to reach the end feeling shortchanged. . . . This is no giddy fanzine, to be sure, but for folks who take their
Mad Men seriously it opens worthwhile paths of inquiry.” -- James M. Keller * Santa Fe New Mexican *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Introduction / Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Lilya Kaganovsky, Robert A. Rushing 1
Part I. Mad Worlds
1. Maddening Times:
Mad Men in Its History / Dana Polan 35
2. Mad Space / Dianne Harris 53
3. Representing the
Mad Margins of the Early 1960s: Northern Civil Rights and the Blues Idiom / Clarence Lange 73
4. After the Sex, What? A Feminist Reading of Reproductive History in
Mad Men / Leslie J. Reagan 92
5. The Writer as Producer; or, The Hip Figure after HBO / Michael Szalay 111
Part II.Mad Aesthetics
6. The Shock of the Banal:
Mad Men's Progressive Realism / Caroline Levine 133
7. Mod Men / Jim Hansen 145
8. Swing Skirts and Swinging Singles:
Mad Men, Fashion, and Cultural Memory / Mabel Rosenheck 161
9. Against Depth: Looking at Surface through the Kodak Carousel / Irene V. Small 181
10. "It Will Shock You How Much This Never Happened": Antonioni and
Mad Men / Robert A. Rushing 192
Part III. Made Men
11. Media Madness: Multiple Identity (Dis)Orders in
Mad Men / Lynne Joyrich 213
12. "Maidenform": Masculinity as Masquerade / Lilya Kaganovsky 238
13. History Gets in Your Eyes:
Mad Men, Misrecognition, and the Masculine Mystique / Jeremy Varon 257
14. The Homosexual and the Single Girl / Alexander Doty 279
15.
Mad Men's Postracial Figuration of a Racial Past / Kent Ono 300
16. The
Mad Men in the Attic: Seriality and Identity in the Modern Bablyon / Lauren M. E. Goodlad 320
Afterword. A Change Is Gonna Come, Same as It Ever Was / Michael Bérubé 345
Appendix A. A Conversation with Phil Abraham, Director and Cinematographer / Lauren M. E. Goodlad, Jeremy Varon, and Carl Lehnen 361
Appendix B. List of
Mad Men Episodes 381
Contributors 411
Index 415
