This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of Commentary magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern ...
Here, Jay Ruby - a founder of visual anthropology - distills his 30-year exploration of the relationship of film and anthropology. Spurred by a conviction that the ideal of an anthropological cinema has not even remotely begun to be realized, Ruby argues that ethnographic filmmakers should generate a set of critical standards analogous to those ...
The headlong rush, the rapid montage, the soaring superhero, the plunging roller coaster - "Matters of Gravity" focuses on the experience of technological spectacle in American popular culture over the past century. In these essays, leading media and cultural theorist Scott Bukatman reveals how popular culture tames the threats posed by technology ...
Representations of Joan of Arc have been used in the United States for the past 200 years, appearing in advertizing, cartoons, popular song, art, criticism and propaganda. The presence of the 15th-century French heroine in the cinema is particularly intriguing in relation to the role of women during wartime. Robin Blaetz argues that a mythic Joan ...
The ethical and ideological implications of cross-cultural image-making continue to stir debate among anthropologists, film scholars, and museum professionals. This innovative book focuses on the precursors and contexts of ethnographic film from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, vividly depicting the dynamic visual culture of the period as ...
"Politics and Film" explores the meaning of film within a societal context. In examining the political role of films we become real time cultural anthropologists, sifting through the artifacts of modern society to determine what our culture really is all about. Common sense tells us that if filmmakers want to make a profit, they have to be ...
It may be said that every trauma is two traumas or ten thousand - depending on the number of people involved. How one experiences and reacts to an event is unique and depends largely on one's direct or indirect positioning, personal psychic history, and individual memories. But equally important to the experience of trauma are the broader ...
In "Pretend We're Dead", Annalee Newitz argues that the slimy zombies and gore-soaked murderers who have stormed through American film and literature over the past century embody the violent contradictions of capitalism. Ravaged by overwork, alienated by corporate conformity, and mutilated by the unfettered lust for profit, fictional monsters act ...
Biskind chronicles the cause and courses of Hollywood over the last three decades--the superfreaks, lowlifes, charlatans, and occasional geniuses who have left their bite mark on American culture.
"Multiple Modernities" explores the cultural terrain of East Asia. Arguing that becoming modern happens differently in different places, the contributors examines popular culture most notable cinema and television to see how modernization, as both a response to the West and as a process that is unique in its own right in the region, operates on a ...
Movies and television don't just entertain us. They incorporate the ideals and flaws of our society. Heroes, Monsters, and Messiahs explains how, just as the ancients had an active mythology that guided their lives, the stories, characters, and ideals of movies and TV shows make up the mythology of American culture.Heroes, Monsters, and Messiahs ...
Since its maiden voyage and sinking in April 1912, Titanic has become a monumental icon of the 20th century and has inspired a wealth of interpretations across literature, art and media. This book offers a comprehensive discussion of the diverse representations of the connections and differences in the way generations of artists and audiences have ...
In "Screen Traffic", Charles R. Acland looks at how the commercial movie industry has altered conceptions of movie going both within the industry and among audiences. He shows how studios, in their increasing reliance on revenues from audiences around the world, have cultivated a global understanding of their products over the past fifteen to ...
As Americans flocked to the movies during the first part of the twentieth century, the guardians of culture grew worried about their diminishing influence on American art, education, and American identity itself. Meanwhile, Hollywood studio heads were eager to stabilize their industry, solidify their place in mainstream society, and expand their ...
Using the media coverage of the death of Diana Princess of Wales as a departing point, this book presents a critical assessment of the current state of movies - from the cult of celebrity, to the nature of public surveillance and the role of print and television media in shaping our shared consciousness - unveiling our fascination with disaster. ...
Breaking in to the Movies brings together Henry A. Giroux's best-known essays from the last twenty years, centering on important subjects on the cultural studies and pop culture agenda, including violence, race, class, gender, identity, politics, and children's culture. The volume charts his career as one of the most astute observers of the ...
Deriving its name from its American equivalent, Bollywood is the highly successful Indian movie industry predominantly based in Bombay and Madras. Every day more than 14 million people go to the cinema across India to watch films produced by this massive and powerful industry. In India, movies are not just a form of entertainment, they are ...
A film-goer accustomed to the typical Hollywood movie plot would feel uneasy watching an Indonesian movie. Contrary to expectations, good guys do not win, bad guys are not punished, and individuals do not reach a new self-awareness. Instead, by the end of the movie order is restored, bad guys are converted, and families are reunited. Like American ...
With the Civil Rights movement of the sixties fresh in their perspective, movie producers of the early 1970s began to make films aimed toward the underserved African American audience. Over the next five years or so, a number of cheaply made, so-called blaxploitation movies featured African American actresses in roles which broke traditional molds ...
A collection of essays exploring the vast changes in the film industry--the ways in which films have merged into the great publicity spectacle that has become our culture.
Images of African Americans abound in United States' culture - on television, in films, on the radio and in newsprint. Whether in works by African Americans - most notably popular music, film and now television programmes - or works about African Americans, from documentaries to news coverage, strong images pervade our public consciousness. ...
Long popular with students who have used it, "Popping Culture "presents a compilation of articles dealing with current issues in popular culture, including media violence, sexuality, social inequality, racism, and war. Some of the leading theorists in cultural studies today, including Stuart Ewen, Mark Crispin Miller, William Hoynes, and Henry ...
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