Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture

Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture PDF Author: Sheila Whiteley
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748631879
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
How do we understand Christmas? What does it mean? This book is a lively introduction to the study of popular culture through one central case study. It explores the cultural, social and historical contexts of Christmas in the UK, USA and Australia, covering such topics as fiction, film, television, art, newspapers and magazines, war, popular music and carols. Chapters explore the ways in which the production of meaning is mediated by the social and cultural activities surrounding Christmas (watching Christmas films, television, listening or engaging with popular music and carols), its relationship to a set of basic values (the idealised construct of the family), social relationships (community), and the ways in which ideological discourses are used and mobilised, not least in times of conflict, terrorism and war.

Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture

Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture PDF Author: Sheila Whiteley
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 0748631879
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book Here

Book Description
How do we understand Christmas? What does it mean? This book is a lively introduction to the study of popular culture through one central case study. It explores the cultural, social and historical contexts of Christmas in the UK, USA and Australia, covering such topics as fiction, film, television, art, newspapers and magazines, war, popular music and carols. Chapters explore the ways in which the production of meaning is mediated by the social and cultural activities surrounding Christmas (watching Christmas films, television, listening or engaging with popular music and carols), its relationship to a set of basic values (the idealised construct of the family), social relationships (community), and the ways in which ideological discourses are used and mobilised, not least in times of conflict, terrorism and war.

Under the Mistletoe

Under the Mistletoe PDF Author: Liz W. Faber
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476653828
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
When you think of holiday romance in popular culture, you probably imagine the formulaic made-for-TV movies we all love to watch: a career gal moves from the big city to a small town, where she finds the love of her life and the true meaning of Christmas. Yet, as with so much of the romance genre, our favorite holiday movies, books, TV episodes, and plays are so much richer than the oft-derided formula. The 22 essays in this volume turn a scholarly eye to one of our most beloved and under-examined subgenres, offering celebrations and criticisms alike of Christmas, New Year, Hanukkah, and Diwali romances. This work includes voices from global scholars across an impressive breadth of disciplines: literature, history, theater, media, gender and sexuality studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology, law, and victim studies. Readers will delight in celebrations of old classics like Christmas in Connecticut, new favorites like A Holly Jolly Diwali, and everything in between.

Analyzing Christmas in Film

Analyzing Christmas in Film PDF Author: Lauren Rosewarne
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498541828
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 559

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Book Description
Film plays a vital role in the celebration of Christmas. For decades, it has taught audiences about what the celebration of the season looks like – from the decorations to the costumes and to the expected snowy weather – as well as mirrors our own festivities back to us. Films like It’s a Wonderful Life and Home Alone have come to play key roles in real-life domestic celebrations: watching such titles has become, for many families, every bit as important as tree-trimming and leaving cookies out for Santa. These films have exported the American take on the holiday far and wide and helped us conjure an image of the perfect holiday. Rather than settling the ‘what is a Christmas film?’ debate – indeed, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon are discussed within – Analyzing Christmas in Film: Santa to the Supernatural focuses on the how Christmas is presented on the deluge of occasions when it appears. While most Christmas films are secular, religion makes many cameos, appearing through Nativity references, storylines involving spiritual rebirth, the framing of Santa as a Christ-like figure and the all-importance of family, be it the Holy family or just those gathered around the dining table. Also explored are popular narratives involving battles with stress and melancholy, single parents and Christmas martyrs, visits from ghosts and angels, big cities and small towns, break-ups and make-ups and the ticking clock of mortality. Nearly 1000 films are analyzed in this volume to determine what the portrayal of Christmas reveals about culture, society and faith as well as sex roles, consumerism, aesthetics and aspiration.

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture

Cultural Theory and Popular Culture PDF Author: John Storey
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351851403
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 331

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Book Description
In this eighth edition of his award-winning Cultural Theory and Popular Culture: An Introduction, John Storey presents a clear and critical survey of competing theories of and various approaches to popular culture. Its breadth and theoretical unity, exemplified through popular culture, means that it can be flexibly and relevantly applied across a number of disciplines. Retaining the accessible approach of previous editions, and using appropriate examples from the texts and practices of popular culture, this new edition remains a key introduction to the area. New to this edition: revised, rewritten and updated throughout brand new chapter on class and popular culture updated student resources at www.routledge.com/cw/storey. The new edition remains essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of cultural studies, media studies, communication studies, the sociology of culture, popular culture and other related subjects.

Organizing Christmas

Organizing Christmas PDF Author: Philip Hancock
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317269608
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 213

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Book Description
Organizing Christmas is an exploration of the organizational character of Christmas. Taking as its starting point the view that Christmas initially achieved popularity due to its potential to promote social cohesion and political stability, this book both charts and scrutinizes its global emergence as the year's preeminent economic and organizational event. Combining historical narrative, original interviews, and social scientific research and theories, it tells the story of how Christmas has come to dominate the festival landscape and how it emerged as an integral component of the global evolution of contemporary social and economic relations. From the pre-Christian celebrations and politics of the turning of the calendar year, through the power games of Elizabethan England and the wily reinvention of the season by industrious Victorians, to today’s huge economic and logistical exercise that relies on everything from global supply chains to the domestic division of labour, Organizing Christmas demonstrates how the season exemplifies the spirit and practices of industrial, and now post-industrial, modernity. As well as documenting this fact, however, Organizing Christmas also critically interrogates what has become a vast festive-industrial complex. From low-paid factory workers in Yiwu to Santa Claus performers in Kingston, readers are given a chance to consider what the cost of this global festival might be and whether it is a price worth paying. Drawing on intellectual resources ranging from Adorno and Horkheimer’s classic critique of the culture industry, thorough Böhme’s analysis of the sociomaterial production of atmospheres, to Bloch’s ‘principle of hope’, it paints a picture of Christmas as a profoundly important, if deeply contested historical, cultural and, most significantly, organizational phenomenon. Aimed at students and academics in Organization Studies, Cultural Studies, and the Sociology of Work and Employment, as well as the general reader interested in the festive season, Organizing Christmas offers a differing perspective on a subject so familiar and yet so often overlooked.

Merry Christmas! Celebrating AmericaÕs Greatest Holiday

Merry Christmas! Celebrating AmericaÕs Greatest Holiday PDF Author: Karal Ann Marling
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674040625
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 470

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Book Description
It wouldn't be Christmas without the "things." How they came to mean so much, and to play such a prominent role in America's central holiday, is the tale told in this delightful and edifying book. In a style characteristically engaging and erudite, Karal Ann Marling, one of our most trenchant observers of American culture, describes the outsize spectacle that Christmas has become.

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas

The Oxford Handbook of Christmas PDF Author: Timothy Larsen
Publisher: Oxford Handbooks
ISBN: 0198831463
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 657

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Book Description
"The origins of Christmas lie in an Egyptian festival on 6 January, which spread to much of the Christian world as a celebration of the birth and/or baptism of Christ and known as the Epiphany or Theophany. The church at Rome did not adopt this festival but later instituted a celebration of the nativity of Christ on 25 December, which gradually supplanted its observance on 6 January in other churches, leaving this latter occasion as a commemoration of Christ's baptism alone, or of the visit of the Magi in those churches like Rome that had not observed that date previously. This essay traces that evolution and examines the merits of the two competing scholarly theories that have sought to explain the original choice of these particular dates"--

Christmas as Religion

Christmas as Religion PDF Author: Christopher Deacy
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198754566
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This work develops critical links between modern representations of Christmas and the category of religion.

Christmas with Elvis

Christmas with Elvis PDF Author: Robert K. Elder
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762469773
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Celebrate Christmas with the King of Rock n' Roll! For Elvis, Christmas at Graceland was a time for family and friends, a respite from the road and the recording studio. It was a time to sing gospel songs around the piano and give out extravagant gifts. In this spirit, Christmas with Elvis is designed like a Christmas party Elvis himself would have liked. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at the iconic music and songs Elvis sang and recorded for his bestselling holiday albums, alongside favorite stories, trivia, and Yuletide cocktails and munchies—all wrapped up with a merry Christmas twist fit for the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. ELVIS™ and ELVIS PRESLEY™ are trademarks of ABG EPE IP LLC Rights of Publicity and Persona Rights: Elvis Presley Enterprises, LLC © 2021 ABG EPE IP LLC elvis.com

Christmas

Christmas PDF Author: Tara Moore
Publisher: Reaktion Books
ISBN: 1780233876
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Black Friday. The War on Christmas. Miracle on 34th Street and Elf. From shopping malls and Fox News to movie theaters, Christmas no longer solely celebrates to the birth of Christ. Considering the holiday in its global context, Christmas journeys from its historical origins to its modern incarnation as a global commercial event, stopping along the way to look at the controversies and traditions of the celebratory day. Delving into the long story of this unifying but also divisive holiday, Tara Moore describes the evolution of Christmas and the deep traditions that bind a culture to its version of it. She probes the debates that have long accompanied the season—from questions of the actual date of Christ’s birth to frictions between the sacred and the secular—and discusses the characters associated with the holiday’s celebration, including Saint Nicholas, the Magi, Scrooge, and Krampus. She also explores how customs such as Christmas trees, feasting, and gift giving first emerged and became central facets of the holiday, while also examining how Christmas has been portrayed in culture—from the literary works of Charles Dickens to the yearly bout of holiday films, television specials, traditional carols, and modern tracks. Ultimately, Moore reveals, Christmas’s longevity has depended on its ability to evolve. Packed with illustrations, Christmas is a fascinating look at the holiday we only think we know.