Download or read book The Goddess Myth in Contemporary Literature and Popular Culture written by Mary J. Magoulick and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2022-02-04 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Honorable Mention for the 2022 Elli Köngäs-Maranda Prize awarded by the Women's Section of the American Folklore Society Goddess characters are revered as feminist heroes in the popular media of many cultures. However, these goddess characters often prove to be less promising and more regressive than most people initially perceive. Goddesses in film, television, and fiction project worldviews and messages that reflect mostly patriarchal culture (included essentialized gender assumptions), in contrast to the feminist, empowering levels many fans and critics observe. Building on critiques of other skeptical scholars, this feminist, folkloristic approach deepens how our remythologizing of the ancient past reflects a contemporary worldview and rhetoric. Structures of contemporary goddess myths often fit typical extremes as either vilified, destructive, dark, and chaotic (typical in film or television); or romanticized, positive, even utopian (typical in women’s speculative fiction). This goddess spectrum persistently essentializes gender, stereotyping women as emotional, intuitive, sexual, motherly beings (good or bad), precluded from complex potential and fuller natures. Within apparent good-over-evil, pop-culture narrative frames, these goddesses all suffer significantly. However, a few recent intersectional writers, like N. K. Jemisin, break through these dark reflections of contemporary power dynamics to offer complex characters who evince “hopepunk.” They resist typical simplified, reductionist absolutes to offer messages that resonate with potential for today’s world. Mythic narratives featuring goddesses often do, but need not, serve merely as ideological mirrors of our culture’s still problematically reductionist approach to women and all humanity.
Download or read book An Introduction to Popular Culture in the US written by Jenn Brandt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first introductory textbook to situate popular culture studies in the United States as an academic discipline with its own history and approach to examining American culture, its rituals, beliefs, and the objects that shape its existence.
Download or read book What a Man s Gotta Do written by Antony Easthope and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although images of women in the mass media have been widely discussed ln recent years, there is no equivalent analysis of men. Once again masculinity seems to have succeeded in passing itself off as universal and invisible. In this book, Antony Easthope argues that, far from being universal, the main tradition of masculinity in the West is both specific and peculiar. What is masculinity? Drawing up psychoanalysis and an understanding of ideology, Easthope shows how the masculine myth forces men to try to be masculine and only masculine, denying their feminine side. In an original contribution to the understanding of gender he analyzes masculinity as it is represented in a wide range of mass media--films, television, newspapers, pop music, and pulp novels. Why are two men in a John Wayne western more concerned with each other than with the women in their lives? Is aggressive male banter a sign that men hate or love each other? Why does a jealous man always have to see his rival? Written in lively, witty, and accessible style, this book is certain to become controversial but essential reading for a wide range of courses in popular culture, mass media, and cultural studies, as well as those in film study, literature, and sociology.--From back cover.
Download or read book The Myth of Popular Culture written by Perry Meisel and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-12-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Myth of Popular Culture from Dante to Dylan is afascinating examination of the cultural traditions of the Americannovel, Hollywood, and British and American rock music which leadsus to redefine our concept of the division between "high" and "low"culture. A stimulating history of high and low culture from DanteAlighieri to Bob Dylan, providing a controversial defence ofpopular culture Seeks to rebut the durable belief that only high culture is‘dialectical’ and popular culture is not by turningTheodor Adorno’s theories on ‘pop’ againstthemselves Presents a critical analysis of three popular traditions: theAmerican novel, Hollywood, and British and American rock music Offers an original account of Bob Dylan as an example of howthe distinction between high and low culture is highlyproblematic A provocative book for any student, scholar or general reader,who is interested in popular culture
Download or read book Goddesses and Monsters written by Jane Caputi and published by Popular Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The essays focus upon popular culture as it is informed by ancient and current mythic images, narratives, personalities, icons and archetypes. Topics include: the cult status of the serial sex killer; sexual murder as a contemporary form of religious sacrifice; pornography as an everyday narrative underlying not only sexism, but also racism, homophobia, and militarism; the relation of incest to nuclearism; pornography and the sacred; cyborg myth; and subtextual presence of ancient goddess figures in contemporary narratives, including that of Princess Diana.
Download or read book Understanding Popular Culture written by John Fiske and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2010-10-08 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed as a companion to Reading the Popular, Understanding Popular Culture presents a radically different theory of what it means for culture to be popular: that it is, literally, of the people.
Download or read book Law and Popular Culture written by Michael Asimow and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2004 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the interface between law and popular culture, two subjects of enormous current importance and influence. Exploring how they affect each other, each chapter discusses a legally themed film or television show, such as Philadelphia or Dead Man Walking, and treats it as both a cultural and a legal text, illustrating how popular culture both constructs our perceptions of law, and changes the way that players in the legal system behave. Written without theoretical jargon, Law and Popular Culture: A Course Book is intended for use in undergraduate or graduate courses and can be taught by anyone who enjoys pop culture and is interested in law.
Download or read book Mental Illness in Popular Culture written by Sharon Packer MD and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-05-24 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Being crazy" is generally a negative characterization today, yet many celebrated artists, leaders, and successful individuals have achieved greatness despite suffering from mental illness. This book explores the many different representations of mental illness that exist—and sometimes persist—in both traditional and new media across eras. Mental health professionals and advocates typically point a finger at pop culture for sensationalizing and stigmatizing mental illness, perpetuating stereotypes, and capitalizing on the increased anxiety that invariably follows mass shootings at schools, military bases, or workplaces; on public transportation; or at large public gatherings. While drugs or street gangs were once most often blamed for public violence, the upswing of psychotic perpetrators casts a harsher light on mental illness and commands media's attention. What aspects of popular culture could play a role in mental health across the nation? How accurate and influential are the various media representations of mental illness? Or are there unsung positive portrayals of mental illness? This standout work on the intersections of pop culture and mental illness brings informed perspectives and necessary context to the myriad topics within these important, timely, and controversial issues. Divided into five sections, the book covers movies; television; popular literature, encompassing novels, poetry, and memoirs; the visual arts, such as fine art, video games, comics, and graphic novels; and popular music, addressing lyrics and musicians' lives. Some of the essays reference multiple media, such as a filmic adaptation of a memoir or a video game adaptation of a story or characters that were originally in comics. With roughly 20 percent of U.S. citizens taking psychotropic prescriptions or carrying a psychiatric diagnosis, this timely topic is relevant to far more individuals than many people would admit.
Download or read book Religion and Popular Culture in America Third Edition written by Bruce David Forbes and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2017-03-01 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The connection between popular culture and religion is an enduring part of American life. With seventy-five percent new content, the third edition of this multifaceted and popular collection has been revised and updated throughout to provide greater religious diversity in its topics and address critical developments in the study of religion and popular culture. Ideal for classroom use, this expanded volume gives increased attention to the implications of digital culture and the increasingly interactive quality of popular culture provides a framework to help students understand and appreciate the work in diverse fields, methods, and perspectives contains an updated introduction, discussion questions, and other instructional tools
Download or read book Popular Culture written by Marcel Danesi and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2012 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives seeks to define pop culture by exploring the ways that it fulfills our human desire for meaning.The second edition investigates current contexts for popular culture, including the rise of the digital global village through new technology and offers up-to-date examples that connect with today's students."
Download or read book Enterprising Women written by Camille Bacon-Smith and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1992 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having ninety percent of its members who are women, this is a study of the worldwide community of fans of "Star Trek" and other genre television series who create and distribute fiction and art based on their favorite series. This community includes people from various walks of life - housewives, librarians, and professors of medieval literature
Download or read book Receptions of the Ancient Near East in Popular Culture and Beyond written by Agnes Garcia-Ventura and published by Lockwood Press. This book was released on 2020-03-01 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is an enthusiastic celebration of the ways in which popular culture has consumed aspects of the ancient Near East to construct new realities. The editors have brought together an impressive line-up of scholars-archaeologists, philologists, historians, and art historians-to reflect on how objects, ideas, and interpretations of the ancient Near East have been remembered, constructed, reimagined, mythologized, or indeed forgotten within our shared cultural memories. The exploration of cultural memories has revealed how they inform the values, structures, and daily life of societies over time. This is therefore not a collection of essays about the deep past but rather about the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves.
Download or read book Jonathan Swift and Popular Culture Myth Media and the Man written by A. Kelly and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-07-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ann Kelly's provocative book breaks the mold of Swift studies. Twentieth century Swift scholars have tended to assess Jonathan Swift as a pillar of the eighteenth-century 'republic of letter', a conservative, even reactionary voice upholding classical values against the welling tide of popularization in literature. Kelly looks at Swift instead as a practical exponent of the popular and impressario of the literary image. She argues that Swift turned his back on the elite to write for a popular audience, and that he annexed scandals to his fictionalized print alter ego, creating a continual demand for works by or about this self-mythologized figure. A fascinating look at print culture, the commodification of the author, and the history of popular culture, this book should provoke lots of discussion.
Download or read book The Myths That Made America written by Heike Paul and published by transcript Verlag. This book was released on 2014-08-31 with total page 451 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This essential introduction to American studies examines the core foundational myths upon which the nation is based and which still determine discussions of US-American identities today. These myths include the myth of »discovery,« the Pocahontas myth, the myth of the Promised Land, the myth of the Founding Fathers, the melting pot myth, the myth of the West, and the myth of the self-made man. The chapters provide extended analyses of each of these myths, using examples from popular culture, literature, memorial culture, school books, and every-day life. Including visual material as well as study questions, this book will be of interest to any student of American studies and will foster an understanding of the United States of America as an imagined community by analyzing the foundational role of myths in the process of nation building.
Download or read book Myth Meaning and Performance written by Ronald Eyerman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-12-03 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The cultural and performative turns in social theory have enlivened sociology. For the first time these new developments are fully integrated into new approaches to the sociology of the arts in this important new book. Building on the established research into art worlds, what is interesting for the new sociology of the arts, understood in the broad sense to include popular culture as well the classical focus on music, painting, and literature, is the relationship between art works and meaning, myth, and performance. Also reflected in these rich essays, which range from Beethoven to John Lennon to Chinese avant garde artists, is the lived experience of the artist and its impact on the process of creation and innovation.
Download or read book The Southern Hospitality Myth written by Anthony Szczesiul and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hospitality as a cultural trait has been associated with the South for well over two centuries, but the origins of this association and the reasons for its perseverance often seem unclear. Anthony Szczesiul looks at how and why we have taken something so particular as the social habit of hospitality—which is exercised among diverse individuals and is widely varied in its particular practices—and so generalized it as to make it a cultural trait of an entire region of the country. Historians have offered a variety of explanations of the origins and cultural practices of hospitality in the antebellum South. Economic historians have at times portrayed southern hospitality as evidence of conspicuous consumption and competition among wealthy planters, while cultural historians have treated it peripherally as a symptomatic expression of the southern code of honor. Although historians have offered different theories, they generally agree that the mythic dimensions of southern hospitality eventually outstripped its actual practices. Szczesiul examines why we have chosen to remember and valorize this particular aspect of the South, and he raises fundamental ethical questions that underlie both the concept of hospitality and the cultural work of American memory, particularly in light of the region’s historical legacy of slavery and segregation.
Download or read book Against Meritocracy written by Jo Littler and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-08-16 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Meritocracy today involves the idea that whatever your social position at birth, society ought to offer enough opportunity and mobility for ‘talent’ to combine with ‘effort’ in order to ‘rise to the top’. This idea is one of the most prevalent social and cultural tropes of our time, as palpable in the speeches of politicians as in popular culture. In this book Jo Littler argues that meritocracy is the key cultural means of legitimation for contemporary neoliberal culture – and that whilst it promises opportunity, it in fact creates new forms of social division. Against Meritocracy is split into two parts. Part I explores the genealogies of meritocracy within social theory, political discourse and working cultures. It traces the dramatic U-turn in meritocracy’s meaning, from socialist slur to a contemporary ideal of how a society should be organised. Part II uses a series of case studies to analyse the cultural pull of popular ‘parables of progress’, from reality TV to the super-rich and celebrity CEOs, from social media controversies to the rise of the ‘mumpreneur’. Paying special attention to the role of gender, ‘race’ and class, this book provides new conceptualisations of the meaning of meritocracy in contemporary culture and society.
