Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture

Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture PDF Author: Marc Leverette
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN: 9780773466258
Category : Wrestling
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
According to Leverette, a student of media studies at Rutgers University who teaches courses in media and popular culture, this study of professional wrestling seeks "(1) to explore how popular culture has been evaluated and understood in the modern world by looking at various 'schools' of criticism, (2) to establish the existence of myth and ritual in the modern, technological world, and illustrate its function as sociological propaganda, (3) to explore the narratives of professional wrestling to elucidate how stories continually present a thematic myth of America." Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture

Professional Wrestling, the Myth, the Mat, and American Popular Culture PDF Author: Marc Leverette
Publisher: Edwin Mellen Press
ISBN: 9780773466258
Category : Wrestling
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
According to Leverette, a student of media studies at Rutgers University who teaches courses in media and popular culture, this study of professional wrestling seeks "(1) to explore how popular culture has been evaluated and understood in the modern world by looking at various 'schools' of criticism, (2) to establish the existence of myth and ritual in the modern, technological world, and illustrate its function as sociological propaganda, (3) to explore the narratives of professional wrestling to elucidate how stories continually present a thematic myth of America." Annotation (c)2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

Professional Wrestling as Ritual Drama in American Popular Culture

Professional Wrestling as Ritual Drama in American Popular Culture PDF Author: Michael R. Ball
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Popular culture
Languages : en
Pages : 185

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Book Description


Ringside

Ringside PDF Author: Scott Beekman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313026785
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
Despite its status as one of the oldest and most enduringly popular sports in history, wrestling has been pushed to the background of the current American sports scene. Most people today would have a hard time even considering wrestling (with some of its modern theatrics) in the same terms as track and field or boxing. But until the 1920s, wrestling stood as a legitimate professional sport in this country, and a widely practiced amateur one as well. Its past respectability may not have endured, but the advent of cable television in the 1980s offered the sport a renewed opportunity to play a determining role in American popular culture. This opportunity was not wasted, and wrestlers now assume places in politics and film at the highest levels. Ringside, the first work to fully examine the history of professional wrestling in this country, provides an illuminating and colorful account of all of the various athletes, entertainers, businessmen, and national outlooks that have determined wrestling's erratic route through American history. This chronological work begins with a brief account of wrestling's global history, and then proceeds to investigate the sport's growth as a specifically American institution. Wrestling has continued to survive in the face of technological developments, scandals, public ridicule, and a lack of centralized control, and today this supremely adaptable entertainment form represents, in sum, an international industry capable of attracting enormous television and pay-per-view audiences, along with massive amounts of advertising and merchandizing revenue. Ringside focuses on the business of wrestling as well as on the performers and their in-ring antics, and offers readers a fully nuanced examination of the development of professional wrestling in America.

It's Not TV

It's Not TV PDF Author: Marc Leverette
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135902747
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This collection brings together scholars from fields such as media studies, journalism, popular culture, communication studies, urban studies, political science, visual studies, and women’s studies who have examined the phenomenon of HBO in one way or another from within their specific disciplines. Additionally, the collection is international in both focus and contribution with authors from the United States, Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

Convergent Wrestling

Convergent Wrestling PDF Author: CarrieLynn D. Reinhard
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351233963
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
This book examines how the current era of "convergence" has affected, and is reflected in, the world of professional wrestling, which combines several different genres, including drama, action, comedy, horror, science fiction, and even romance. Professional wrestling’s business practices exist at the intersection of bottom-up fan-centric strategies and strict top-down corporate control. Meanwhile, the wrestlers themselves combine aspects of carnival hucksters, actors/actresses, comedians, superheroes, martial artists, or stuntmen, and the narratives consist of everything from social critique to geopolitical allegories, and from soap opera melodramas to stereotyped exploitation. Bringing together the latest scholarship in the field, Convergent Wrestling analyzes various texts, business practices, and fan activities to explore the commonalities that define professional wrestling and consider how it exists in today’s new media ecology. In addition, the book considers the professional wrestling industry from several different angles, from massive multinational conglomerate World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) to local indie federations. As such, it will appeal to scholars with interests in popular culture, media and cultural studies, and fan practices.

Zombie Culture

Zombie Culture PDF Author: Shawn McIntosh
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461664365
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Why have zombies resonated so pervasively in the popular imagination and in media, especially films? Why have they proved to be one of the most versatile and popular monster types in the growing video game industry? What makes zombies such widespread symbols of horror and dread, and how have portrayals of zombies in movies changed and evolved to fit contemporary fears, anxieties, and social issues? Zombies have held a unique place in film and popular culture throughout most of the 20th century. Rare in that this enduring monster type originated in non-European folk culture rather than the Gothic tradition from which monsters like vampires and werewolves have emerged, zombies have in many ways superseded these Gothic monsters in popular entertainment and the public imagination and have increasingly been used in discussions ranging from the philosophy of mind to computer lingo to the business press. Zombie Culture brings together scholars from a variety of fields, including cinema studies, popular culture, and video game studies, who have examined the living dead through a variety of lenses. By looking at how portrayals of zombies have evolved from their folkloric roots and entered popular culture, readers will gain deeper insights into what zombies mean in terms of the public psyche, how they represent societal fears, and how their evolving portrayals continue to reflect underlying beliefs of The Other, contagion, and death.

Mosh the Polls

Mosh the Polls PDF Author: Tony Kelso
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9780739122310
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This timely, highly readable edited collection undertakes an interdisciplinary analysis of the innovative ways in which both the political process and the entertainment industry appeal to voters under the age of 30 and how the intended audience receives these endeavors. Along the way, contributors shed light on the state of the modern American political system and its relationship to entertainment and popular culture. By integrating academic investigations with a 'real-world' point of view, the essays in this collection present information in an engaging, accessible manner that will show readers how the articulation of youth culture has influenced the political engagement of young voters.

The Squared Circle

The Squared Circle PDF Author: David Shoemaker
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1592408818
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 401

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Book Description
A breakthrough examination of the professional wrestling, its history, its fans, and its wider cultural impact The Squared Circle grows out of David Shoemaker’s writing for Deadspin, where he started the column “Dead Wrestler of the Week” (which boasts more than 1 million page views)—a feature on the many wrestling superstars who died too young because of the abuse they subject their bodies to—and his writing for Grantland, where he covers the pro wrestling world, and its place in the pop culture mainstream. Shoemaker’s sportswriting has since struck a nerve with generations of wrestling fans who—like him—grew up worshipping a sport often derided as “fake” in the wider culture. To them, these professional wrestling superstars are not just heroes but an emotional outlet and the lens through which they learned to see the world. Starting in the early 1900s and exploring the path of pro wrestling in America through the present day, The Squared Circle is the first book to acknowledge both the sport’s broader significance and wrestling fans’ keen intellect and sense of irony. Divided into eras, each section offers a snapshot of the wrestling world, profiles some of the period’s preeminent wrestlers, and the sport’s influence on our broader culture. Through the brawling, bombast, and bloodletting, Shoemaker argues that pro wrestling can teach us about the nature of performance, audience, and, yes, art. Full of unknown history, humor, and self-deprecating reminiscence—but also offering a compelling look at the sport’s rightful place in pop culture—The Squared Circle is the book that legions of wrestling fans have been waiting for. In it, Shoemaker teaches us to look past the spandex and body slams to see an art form that can explain the world.

Sporting Rhetoric

Sporting Rhetoric PDF Author: Barry Brummett
Publisher: Peter Lang
ISBN: 9781433104282
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
Millions of people around the world are engaged in sports and games. This volume studies the ways in which engagement is performed in popular culture. We do not just watch football - we perform by being a fan. NBA players do not simply run up and down the court. Instead, on and off the court they perform certain roles, many informed by hip hop culture. Such performances are rhetorical: they manage attitudes, behaviors, and predispositions, influencing the distribution of power. Competitive hot dog eaters, bull riding, and Mexican wrestlers are some of the other sports and games covered by the contributors. The book is unique in bringing together the three themes of sports and games, performance, and the rhetoric of popular culture, and is relevant for both scholarly use and classroom adoption in courses ranging from sport and society, rhetoric, composition, persuasion and argument, and popular culture.

Pro Wrestling FAQ

Pro Wrestling FAQ PDF Author: Brian Solomon
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1617136271
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
(FAQ Pop Culture). Sport? Entertainment? Art form? Perhaps a bit of all three, with a certain intangible extra something thrown in for good measure, making professional wrestling a truly unique entity unto itself. From its origins in carnivals and sideshow attractions of the 19th century, right up to the multimillion-dollar, multimedia industry of the present day, and all the bizarre, wild, and woolly points in between, Pro Wrestling FAQ delves into the entire history and broad scope of one of popular culture's most enduring yet ever-changing spectacles. With chapters devoted to the many fascinating eras in the history of the business, as well as capsule biographies of some its most memorable and important figures, this book will serve as the ultimate one-volume reference guide for both long-time wrestling nuts and initiates to the grappling phenomenon. Revisit the legendary 1911 "Match of the Century" pitting World Champion Frank Gotch against archrival George Hackenschmidt, "the Russian Lion"; experience wrestling's TV golden age in the 1950s, a time of such colorful personages as Gorgeous George and Antonino Rocca; relive the glory days of Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, when WWF impresario Vince McMahon took the business mainstream; and get the lowdown on recent favorites, such as John Cena, CM Punk, and others who have taken the business boldly into the 21st century.