Description
Book SynopsisIn this, the first academic text devoted to The Smiths, writers from a range of perspectives set out to consider the cultural significance and enduring appeal of one of the most influential and controversial bands of recent decades. -- .
Trade Review"This book as a whole conveys how the band drew from canonized literature as credibly as they did from what popular culture's own bourgeoisie have more recently called 'guilty' pleasures. Each chapter differently suggests how to listen to The Smiths is to listen to a sublimely subjective history of culture itself, in which supposed distinctions between 'high' and 'popular' are unostentatiously rejected. The essays thus work superbly as a collection, displaying how, via The Smiths, Sandie Shaw meets Oscar Wilde, Guy Fawkes joins T. Rex, Andy Warhol enters Coronation Street and George Formby harmonises with Kazem Al Saher."
It's incredible to think a band that only existed for five years could have such a phenomenal impact. This book, from Manchester University Press, is the first critical study of why they're as important as ever.
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Table of Contents1 Why Pamper Life’s Complexities? An Introduction to the Book. Sean Campbell & Colin Coulter
2 Has The World Changed Or Have I Changed? The Smiths and the Challenge of Thatcherism. Joe Brooker
3 ‘Irish Blood, English Heart’: Ambivalence, Unease and The Smiths. Sean Campbell
4 Heaven Knows We’ll Soon Be Dust: Catholicism and Devotion in The Smiths. Eoin Devereux
5 Sing Me to Sleep: Suicide, Philosophy, and The Smiths. Kieran Cashell
6 ‘A Boy in the Bush’: Childhood, Sexuality and The Smiths. Sheila Whiteley
7 ‘This Way and That Way’: Towards A Musical Poetics of The Smiths. Jonathan Hiam
8 I Don’t Owe You Anything: The Smiths and Kitchen-Sink Cinema. Cecilia Mello
9 ‘A Double Bed and a Stalwart Lover For Sure’: The Smiths, the Death of Pop and the Not So Hidden Injuries of Class. Colin Coulter
10 Last Night We Dreamt That Somebody Loved Us: Smiths Fans (and Me) in the Late 1980s. Karl Maton
11 ‘When we’re in your scholarly room’: the Media, Academia, and The Smiths. Fergus Campbell
12 ‘So Much To Answer For’: What Do The Smiths Mean to Manchester? Julian Stringer
13 ‘Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty’: Englishness, Pop and The Smiths. Kari Kallioniemi
14 Guantánamo, Here We Come: Out Of Place With The Smiths. Nabeel Zuberi
Index
