{"product_id":"the-culture-and-politics-of-contemporary-street-gang-memoirs-9781617032813","title":"The Culture and Politics of Contemporary Street","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe publication of Sanyika Shakur's \u003cem\u003eMonster: The Autobiography of an L.A. Gang Membe\u003c\/em\u003er in 1993 generated a huge amount of excitement in literary circles--\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e book critic Michiko Kakutani deemed it a \"\"shocking and galvanic book\"\"--and set off a new publishing trend of gang memoirs in the 1990s. The memoirs showcased tales of violent confrontation and territorial belonging but also offered many of the first journalistic and autobiographical accounts of the much-mythologized gang subculture.In \u003cem\u003eThe Culture and Politics of Contemporary Street Gang Memoirs\u003c\/em\u003e, Josephine Metcalf focuses on three of these memoirs--Shakur's \u003cem\u003eMonster\u003c\/em\u003e; Luis J. Rodriguez's \u003cem\u003eAlways Running: La Vida Loca: Gang Days in L.A.\u003c\/em\u003e; and Stanley \"\"Tookie\"\" Williams's \u003cem\u003eBlue Rage, Black Redemption\u003c\/em\u003e--as key representatives of the gang autobiography. Metcalf examines the conflict among violence, thrilling sensationalism, and the authorial desire to instruct and warn competing within these works. The narrative arcs of the memoirs themselves rest on the process of conversion from brutal, young gang bangers to nonviolent, enlightened citizens.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMetcalf analyzes the emergence, production, marketing, and reception of gang memoirs. Through interviews with Rodriguez, Shakur, and Barbara Cottman Becnel (Williams's editor), Metcalf reveals both the writing and publishing processes. This book analyzes key narrative conventions, specifically how diction, dialogue, and narrative arcs shape the works. The book also explores how the memoirs are consumed. This interdisciplinary study--fusing literary criticism, sociology, ethnography, reader-response study, and editorial theory--brings scholarly attention to a popular, much-discussed, but understudied modern expression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University Press of Mississippi","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50095390359895,"sku":"9781617032813","price":46.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781617032813.jpg?v=1740905892","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/the-culture-and-politics-of-contemporary-street-gang-memoirs-9781617032813","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}