Pop Culture And The Dark Side Of The American Dream

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Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream

Paul A. Cantor
Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream Book PDF

Author : Paul A. Cantor
Publisher : University Press of Kentucky
Page : 224 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 2019-05-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813177328

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Pop Culture and the Dark Side of the American Dream by Paul A. Cantor Pdf

The many con men, gangsters, and drug lords portrayed in popular culture are examples of the dark side of the American dream. Viewers are fascinated by these twisted versions of heroic American archetypes, like the self-made man and the entrepreneur. Applying the critical skills he developed as a Shakespeare scholar, Paul A. Cantor finds new depth in familiar landmarks of popular culture. He invokes Shakespearean models to show that the concept of the tragic hero can help us understand why we are both repelled by and drawn to figures such as Vito and Michael Corleone or Walter White. Beginning with Huckleberry Finn and ending with The Walking Dead, Cantor also uncovers the link between the American dream and frontier life. In imaginative variants of a Wild West setting, popular culture has served up disturbing—and yet strangely compelling—images of what happens when people move beyond the borders of law and order. Cantor demonstrates that, at its best, popular culture raises thoughtful questions about the validity and viability of the American dream, thus deepening our understanding of America itself.

The American Dream

Lawrence R. Samuel
The American Dream Book PDF

Author : Lawrence R. Samuel
Publisher : Syracuse University Press
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2012-08-27
Category : History
ISBN : 9780815651871

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The American Dream by Lawrence R. Samuel Pdf

There is no better way to understand America than by understanding the cultural history of the American Dream. Rather than just a powerful philosophy or ideology, the Dream is thoroughly woven into the fabric of everyday life, playing a vital role in who we are, what we do, and why we do it. No other idea or mythology has as much influence on our individual and collective lives. Tracing the history of the phrase in popular culture, Samuel gives readers a field guide to the evolution of our national identity over the last eighty years. Samuel tells the story chronologically, revealing that there have been six major eras of the mythology since the phrase was coined in 1931. Relying mainly on period magazines and newspapers as his primary source material, the author demonstrates that journalists serving on the front lines of the scene represent our most valuable resource to recover unfiltered stories of the Dream. The problem, however, is that it does not exist, the Dream is just that, a product of our imagination. That it is not real ultimately turns out to be the most significant finding about the Ameri­can Drea, and what makes the story most compelling.

Encountering Pennywise

Whitney S. May
Encountering Pennywise Book PDF

Author : Whitney S. May
Publisher : Univ. Press of Mississippi
Page : 151 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2022-09-20
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781496842244

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Encountering Pennywise by Whitney S. May Pdf

Contributions by Amylou Ahava, Jeff Ambrose, Daniel P. Compora, Penny Crofts, Keith Currie, Erin Giannini, Whitney S. May, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns, Diganta Roy, Hannah Lina Schneeberger, Shannon S. Shaw, Maria Wiegel, and Margaret J. Yankovich First published in 1986, Stephen King’s novel IT forever changed the legacy of the literary clown. The subject of a TV miniseries and a two-part film adaptation and the inspiration for a resurgence of the evil clown figure in popular culture, IT's influence is undeniable, yet scholarship to date is almost exclusively devoted to the adaptations rather than the novel itself. Encountering Pennywise: Critical Perspectives on Stephen King’s “IT” considers the pronounced cultural fluctuations of IT's legacies by centering the novel within the theoretical frameworks that animate it and ensure its literary and cultural persistence. The collection explores the ways the novel, so like its antagonist, replicates (or disavows) the icons of various canons and categories in order to accomplish specific psychological and cultural work. Gathering the work of scholars from diverse professional and disciplinary vantage points, editor Whitney S. May has curated an anthology that spans discussions of American surveillance culture, intergenerational conflict, the legacies of settler colonialism and Native American representation, serial-killer fanaticism, and more. In this volume, we read the protagonists’ constellations of countermoves against Pennywise as productive outlines of critique effectuated by the richness of the clown’s reflective power. The essays are therefore thematically arranged into a series of four categories of “counter”—countercurrents, countercultures, counterclaims, and counterfeits—where each supplies a specific critical lens through which to view Pennywise’s disruptions of both culture and cultural critique.

William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership

Kristin M.S. Bezio,Anthony P. Russell
William Shakespeare and 21st Century Culture Politics and Leadership Book PDF

Author : Kristin M.S. Bezio,Anthony P. Russell
Publisher : Edward Elgar Publishing
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-04-30
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9781839106422

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William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership by Kristin M.S. Bezio,Anthony P. Russell Pdf

William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership examines problems, challenges, and crises in our contemporary world through the lens of William Shakespeare’s plays, one of the best-known, most admired, and often controversial authors of the last half-millennium.

Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture

William Irwin,David Kyle Johnson
Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture Book PDF

Author : William Irwin,David Kyle Johnson
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 436 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2022-04-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781119757177

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Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture by William Irwin,David Kyle Johnson Pdf

Can Wonder Woman help us understand feminist philosophy? How Does Wakandan technology transcend anti-Blackness? What can Star Trek teach us about the true nature of reality? Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture makes important philosophical concepts and the work of major philosophers relevant, fun, and exciting. Using engaging examples from film and television, this easy-to-read book covers everything from basic metaphysics and epistemology to abstract and complex philosophical ideas about ethics and the meaning of life. You don’t have to be a pop culture expert to benefit from this book—even a general awareness of cultural icons like Superman or Harry Potter will be more than enough for you to learn about a wide range of philosophical notions, thinkers, and movements. The expanded second edition offers timely coverage of important topics such as race, gender, personal identity, social justice, and environmental ethics. New essays explore the philosophical underpinnings of The Good Place, Game of Thrones, Black Panther, Star Wars, The Avengers, South Park, The Lego Movie, The Big Bang Theory, and more. This edition is supported by a new website with links to primary philosophical texts, information about all the popular culture discussed, and additional resources for teachers, students, and general readers alike. Features a selection of key essays from the bestselling Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series Draws on examples from popular media including The Matrix, Lost, Doctor Strange, The Hobbit, Westworld, and Star Trek Explains philosophical concepts such as relativism, skepticism, existentialist ethics, logic, social contract theory, utilitarianism, and mind-body dualism Discusses the ideas of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Descartes, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Marx, Mill, Kierkegaard, and other important thinkers Introducing Philosophy Through Pop Culture is an excellent supplementary textbook for introductory philos for introductory philosophy courses and a valuable resource for general readers wanting to learn about philosophy and its connections with pop culture.

Criminality and the Modern

Stephen Brauer
Criminality and the Modern Book PDF

Author : Stephen Brauer
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2022-01-28
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781793608451

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Criminality and the Modern by Stephen Brauer Pdf

The emergence of the social sciences, established in the mid to late nineteenth-century, had a substantial bearing on how researchers, academics, and eventually the general public thought about criminal behavior. Using Modernism as a lens, Stephen Brauer, examines how these disciplines shaped Americans’ understanding of criminality in the twentieth-century and how it provides a new way to think about culture, social norms, and ultimately, laws. In theory, laws act as articulations and codifications of a community’s beliefs, values, and principles. By breaking laws, criminals help us reinforce social norms by providing the opportunity to affirm what is believed to be right. By operating outside the bounds of acceptable behavior, the criminal serves as a useful figure to understand what is at stake in the culture, what the central issues of that culture might be, and what the fears and anxieties are. Criminality serves as a lens through which we can read ourselves and how the criminal operates as a cultural figure signifies the things we are negotiating in our lives and in our communities. Brauer focuses on two main concepts, central to the very concept of Modernism, to explore criminality: contingency, the idea that the individual might not be in control of their own deviance, and agency, the notion that the criminal makes a conscious choice to use crime as a means of economic success. The figure of the criminal is a powerful one and is key to exploring American twentieth-century culture. This book would be of interest to students and scholars in criminology, sociology, cultural studies, literary studies, history, and many others.

Colson Whitehead

Kimberly Fain
Colson Whitehead Book PDF

Author : Kimberly Fain
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2015-05-07
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781442250147

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Colson Whitehead by Kimberly Fain Pdf

From his first novel, The Intuitionist, in 1999, Colson Whitehead has produced fiction that brilliantly blurs genre and cultural lines to demonstrate the universal angst and integral bonds shared by all Americans. By neglecting to mention a character’s racial heritage, Whitehead challenges the cultural assumptions of his readers. His African American protagonists are well educated and upwardly mobile and thus lack some of the social angst that is imposed by racial stratification. Despite the critical acclaim and literary awards Whitehead has received, there have been few in-depth examinations of his work. In Colson Whitehead: The Postracial Voice of Contemporary Literature, Kimberly Fain explores the work of this literary trailblazer, discussing how his novels reconstruct the American identity to be inclusive rather than exclusive and thus broaden the scope of who is considered an American. Whitehead attempts this feat by including African Americans among the class of people who may achieve the American Dream, assuming they are educated and economically mobile. While the conflicts faced by his characters are symptoms of the universal human condition, they assimilate at the expense of cultural alienation and emotional emptiness. In addition to The Intuitionist, Fain also examines John Henry Days, Apex Hides the Hurt, The Colossus of New York, Sag Harbor, and Zone One, demonstrating how they bend genre tropes and approach literary motifs from a postracial perspective. Comparing the author to his African American and American literary forebears, as well as examining his literary ambivalence between post-blackness and postracialism, Colson Whitehead offers readers a unique insight to one of the most important authors of the twenty-first century. As such, this book will be of interest to scholars of African American literature, American literature, African American studies, American studies, multicultural studies, gender studies, and literary theory.

A Dark California

Katarzyna Nowak-McNeice,Agata Zarzycka
A Dark California Book PDF

Author : Katarzyna Nowak-McNeice,Agata Zarzycka
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 216 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2018-01-31
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 9781476667836

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A Dark California by Katarzyna Nowak-McNeice,Agata Zarzycka Pdf

Focusing on portrayals of California in popular culture, this collection of new essays traces a central theme of darkness through literature (Toby Barlow, Angela Carter, Joan Didion, Thomas Pynchon, and Claire Vaye Watkins), video games (L.A. Noire), music (Death Grips, Lana Del Rey, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers), TV (True Detective and American Horror Story), and film (Starry Eyes, Southland Tales and A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night). Providing insight into the significance of Californian icons, the contributors explore the interplay between positive stereotypes connected to the myth of the Golden State and ambivalent responses to the myth based on social and political power, the consequences of consumerism, transformations of the landscape and the dominance of hyperreality.

Speak My Name

Don Belton
Speak My Name Book PDF

Author : Don Belton
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 55,9 Mb
Release : 1997-06-30
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 0807009377

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Speak My Name by Don Belton Pdf

Including the work of Derrick Bell, Trey Ellis, Haki Madhubuti, Clarence Major, Walter Mosley, Quincy Troupe, John Edgar Wideman, and August Wilson, among others, Speak My Name explores the intimate territory behind the myths about black masculinity.

Perpetual Adolescence

Sally Porterfield,Keith Polette,Tita French Baumlin
Perpetual Adolescence Book PDF

Author : Sally Porterfield,Keith Polette,Tita French Baumlin
Publisher : State University of New York Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2015-05-11
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781438428031

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Perpetual Adolescence by Sally Porterfield,Keith Polette,Tita French Baumlin Pdf

Arguing that American culture appeals to and is populated by children and adolescents who merely appear to be adult men and women, the essays in Perpetual Adolescence examine the Jungian archetype of the "eternal youth"—the puer aeternus—as it is manifested in the arrested development of American culture. From the infantilization of the American psyche and the lionization of teenaged celebrities and bodies, to fanatical conformity, and puerile entertainment, the contributors probe the various ways that American television, music, film, print, Internet, education, and social movements work to nourish and sustain this child archetype. Offering analytic psychology as an instrument of social analysis and critique, they point to the need for dialogue over the causes and effects of our puer-fixations, which have become, in large part, both a creation and a creator of the American zeitgeist.

An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture

Dominic Strinati
An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture Book PDF

Author : Dominic Strinati
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2014-04-04
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781136207457

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An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture by Dominic Strinati Pdf

How can we study popular culture? What makes 'popular culture' popular? Is popular culture important? What influence does it have? An Introduction to Studying Popular Culture provides a clear and comprehensive answer to these questions. It presents a critical assessment of the major ways in which popular culture has been interpreted, and suggests how it may be more usefully studied. Dominic Strinati uses the examples of cinema and television to show how we can understand popular culture from sociological and historical perspectives.

Fabricating the Absolute Fake

Jaap Kooijman
Fabricating the Absolute Fake Book PDF

Author : Jaap Kooijman
Publisher : Amsterdam University Press
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9789053564929

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Fabricating the Absolute Fake by Jaap Kooijman Pdf

A fascinating exploration of how global cultures struggle to create their own "America" within a post-9/11 media culture, Fabricating the Absolute Fake reflects on what it might mean to truly take part in American pop culture.

The Lure of the Dark Side

Christopher H. Partridge,Eric S. Christianson
The Lure of the Dark Side Book PDF

Author : Christopher H. Partridge,Eric S. Christianson
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 256 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2014-12-18
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317490791

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The Lure of the Dark Side by Christopher H. Partridge,Eric S. Christianson Pdf

Demons, devils, spirits and vampires are present throughout popular Western culture in film, music and literature. Their religious significance has only recently begun to be explored. 'The Lure of the Darkside' brings together the work of some of the most important and creative scholars in the field of Biblical and Religious Studies. The essays explore demonology in popular culture from a range of perspectives: Satanism within contemporary music; the relationship between hymn and horror film; the career of Hannibal Lecter; the portrayal of Satan in films about Christ; and spiritual perversion in the Harry Potter Stories. This fresh and ground-breaking volume will be of interest to students of religious studies and theology, as well as literary and popular culture.

Gilligan Unbound

Paul Arthur Cantor
Gilligan Unbound Book PDF

Author : Paul Arthur Cantor
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2003
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0742507793

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Gilligan Unbound by Paul Arthur Cantor Pdf

"Cantor demonstrates how, during the 1960s, Gilligan's Island and Star Trek reflected America's faith in liberal democracy and our willingness to project it universally. Gilligan's Island, Cantor argues, is based on the premise that a representative group of Americans could literally be dumped in the middle of nowhere and still prevail under the worst of circumstances. Star Trek took American optimism even further by trying to make the entire galaxy safe for democracy. Despite the famous Prime Directive, Captain Kirk and his crew remade planet after planet in the image of an idealized 1960s America."--BOOK JACKET.

Bugsy Siegel

Michael Shnayerson
Bugsy Siegel Book PDF

Author : Michael Shnayerson
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Biography & Autobiography
ISBN : 9780300226195

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Bugsy Siegel by Michael Shnayerson Pdf

The story of the notorious Jewish gangster who ascended from impoverished beginnings to the glittering Las Vegas strip "[A] brisk-reading chronicle of Siegel’s life and crimes."—Tom Nolan, Wall Street Journal "Fast-paced and absorbing. . . . With a keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing detail, [Shnayerson] enlivens the traditional rise-and-fall narrative."—Jenna Weissman Joselit, New York Times Book Review In a brief life that led to a violent end, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel (1906–1947) rose from desperate poverty to ill‑gotten riches, from an early‑twentieth‑century family of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side to a kingdom of his own making in Las Vegas. In this captivating portrait, author Michael Shnayerson sets out not to absolve Bugsy Siegel but rather to understand him in all his complexity. Through the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s, Bugsy Siegel and his longtime partner in crime Meyer Lansky engaged in innumerable acts of violence. As World War II came to an end, Siegel saw the potential for a huge, elegant casino resort in the sands of Las Vegas. Jewish gangsters built nearly all of the Vegas casinos that followed. Then, one by one, they disappeared. Siegel’s story laces through a larger, generational story of eastern European Jewish immigrants in the early‑ to mid‑twentieth century.