The Lonely Nineties

The Lonely Nineties PDF Author: Paul Arras
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331993094X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.

The Lonely Nineties

The Lonely Nineties PDF Author: Paul Arras
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331993094X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 238

Get Book

Book Description
This book examines the most popular American television shows of the nineties—a decade at the last gasp of network television’s cultural dominance. At a time when American culture seemed increasingly fragmented, television still offered something close to a site of national consensus. The Lonely Nineties focuses on a different set of popular nineties television shows in each chapter and provides an in-depth reading of scenes, characters or episodes that articulate the overarching “ideology” of each series. It ultimately argues that television shows such as Seinfeld, Friends, Law & Order and The Simpsons helped to shape the ways Americans thought about themselves in relation to their friends, families, localities, and nation. It demonstrates how these shows engaged with a variety of problems in American civic life, responded to the social isolation of the age, and occasionally imagined improvements for community in America.

Duke

Duke PDF Author: Ronald L. Davis
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806186461
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Almost two decades after his death, John Wayne is still America’s favorite movie star. More than an actor, Wayne is a cultural icon whose stature seems to grow with the passage of time. In this illuminating biography, Ronald L. Davis focuses on Wayne’s human side, portraying a complex personality defined by frailty and insecurity as well as by courage and strength. Davis traces Wayne’s story from its beginnings in Winterset, Iowa, to his death in 1979. This is not a story of instant fame: only after a decade in budget westerns did Wayne receive serious consideration, for his performance in John Ford’s 1939 film Stagecoach. From that point on, his skills and popularity grew as he appeared in such classics as Fort Apache, Red River, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searches, The Man who Shot Liberty Valance, and True Grit. A man’s ideal more than a woman’s, Wayne earned his popularity without becoming either a great actor or a sex symbol. In all his films, whatever the character, John Wayne portrayed John Wayne, a persona he created for himself: the tough, gritty loner whose mission was to uphold the frontier’s--and the nation’s--traditional values. To depict the different facets of Wayne’s life and career, Davis draws on a range of primary and secondary sources, most notably exclusive interviews with the people who knew Wayne well, including the actor’s costar Maureen O’Hara and his widow, Pilar Wayne. The result is a well-balanced, highly engaging portrait of a man whose private identity was eventually overshadowed by his screen persona--until he came to represent America itself.

Seinfeld

Seinfeld PDF Author: Paul Arras
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1538126885
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 257

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Book Description
Since coming to an end at the pinnacle of its popularity, Seinfeld’s story continues. The show’s enduring appeal has helped earn its creators billions of dollars and counting. Many of the most popular and acclaimed comedy series of the twenty-first century are direct descendants of Seinfeld’s style, and the show’s ideas are now woven into the ways people think and behave. The greatest sitcom of the final years of the broadcast era, Seinfeld broke the rules, changed both television and America forever, and remains a living part of American culture. Seinfeld: A Cultural History explores the show’s history with an engaging look at the show’s legendary co-creators, its supporters (and skeptics) at NBC, and its award-winning cast. By all the traditional rules of television, Seinfeld never should have made it to the air. Paul Arras pays close attention to the writers and writing of the show, offering a fresh look at the episodes themselves and assessing its broader cultural impact. Throughout he also dissects the show’s main quartet and the other memorable characters that foursome interacted with over the show’s eight seasons. With deep perception and good humor, this book considers what the adventures of Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine reveal about the nineties and what messages they pass along to twenty-first century viewers. Seinfeld: A Cultural History will lead any fan of the show back to the series to re-watch old episodes with new insights and observations. Readable and illuminating, the book’s well-researched discussion of the show’s background and legacy is an essential guide for Seinfeld viewers and scholars alike. Most of all, Seinfeld: A Cultural History is an enjoyable way to engage, or reengage, with one of the funniest shows of all time!

The X-Files The Truth is Still Out There

The X-Files The Truth is Still Out There PDF Author: Bethan Jones
Publisher: Fayetteville Mafia Press
ISBN: 1949024512
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
In September 1993, a TV show like no other appeared on our screens, asking us to consider the essence of truth and belief, to think about the nature and roles of science and humanity, and to question what we were told by those in power. Combining horror, science fiction, drama, crime, and comedy with cinematic filmmaking, The X-Files transported the paranoia of the sixties and seventies to the technologically savvy nineties as it followed two iconic characters, FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, in their labyrinthine pursuit of truth. Further, The X-Files reversed conventional television gender roles: Mulder was our believer in the paranormal, chasing down clues in search of his abducted sister; Scully was the skeptic, a scientist preaching rationality and objective truth. Now, thirty years later, the nature of conspiracy theories may have changed, but the anxiety surrounding them has not. In an era in which Watergate has been replaced by Gamergate and conspiracy theorists blindly embrace the myth of a stolen election and maintain that an all-powerful cabal of Satanic Democrats—defeatable by only one man—is preying on children, The X-Files remains as relevant as ever, if not more so. Conspiracy theorists are no longer on the fringes of society; they sit in halls of fame, in corridors of schools and universities, and at the heart of government, and The X-Files reflects these apprehensions back at us. Part love letter, part history, part analysis, The Truth Is Still Out There: Thirty Years of The X-Files examines the social, cultural, and technological impact of the show. Using big ideas from philosophy, sociology, and cultural studies and topical issues such as #MeToo, QAnon, and artificial intelligence, the book highlights how and why The X-Files became a global phenomenon. Drawing on both her own fandom and her academic research, Bethan Jones analyzes the original nine seasons as well as the two feature films and the revival series to explore how the show helps us think about the most provocative questions of our time.

Sisters in Hate

Sisters in Hate PDF Author: Seyward Darby
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316487791
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
WITH A NEW FOREWARD Journalist Seyward Darby's "masterfully reported and incisive" (Nell Irvin Painter) exposé pulls back the curtain on modern racial and political extremism in America telling the "eye-opening and unforgettable" (Ibram X. Kendi) account of three women immersed in the white nationalist movement. After the election of Donald J. Trump, journalist Seyward Darby went looking for the women of the so-called "alt-right" -- really just white nationalism with a new label. The mainstream media depicted the alt-right as a bastion of angry white men, but was it? As women headlined resistance to the Trump administration's bigotry and sexism, most notably at the Women's Marches, Darby wanted to know why others were joining a movement espousing racism and anti-feminism. Who were these women, and what did their activism reveal about America's past, present, and future? Darby researched dozens of women across the country before settling on three -- Corinna Olsen, Ayla Stewart, and Lana Lokteff. Each was born in 1979, and became a white nationalist in the post-9/11 era. Their respective stories of radicalization upend much of what we assume about women, politics, and political extremism. Corinna, a professional embalmer who was once a body builder, found community in white nationalism before it was the alt-right, while she was grieving the death of her brother and the end of hermarriage. For Corinna, hate was more than just personal animus -- it could also bring people together. Eventually, she decided to leave the movement and served as an informant for the FBI. Ayla, a devoutly Christian mother of six, underwent a personal transformation from self-professed feminist to far-right online personality. Her identification with the burgeoning "tradwife" movement reveals how white nationalism traffics in society's preferred, retrograde ways of seeing women. Lana, who runs a right-wing media company with her husband, enjoys greater fame and notoriety than many of her sisters in hate. Her work disseminating and monetizing far-right dogma is a testament to the power of disinformation. With acute psychological insight and eye-opening reporting, Darby steps inside the contemporary hate movement and draws connections to precursors like the Ku Klux Klan. Far more than mere helpmeets, women like Corinna, Ayla, and Lana have been sustaining features of white nationalism. Sisters in Hate shows how the work women do to normalize and propagate racist extremism has consequences well beyond the hate movement.

Afro-American Literary Study in the 1990s

Afro-American Literary Study in the 1990s PDF Author: Houston A. Baker (Jr.)
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226035376
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Featuring the work of the most distinguished scholars in the field, this volume assesses the state of Afro-American literary study and projects a vision of that study for the 1990s. "A rich and rewarding collection."—Choice. "This diverse and inspired collection . . . testifies to the Afro-Am academy's extraordinary vitality."—Voice Literary Supplement

As Mirrors Are Lonely

As Mirrors Are Lonely PDF Author: Peter Guy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 144386899X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
The Irish novel has demonstrated an ability to sample other forms and influences, to improvise and evolve in the light of changing circumstances. Peter Guy’s new study helps investigate the way in which Irish writers since the sixties have responded to these influences, re-examining their work through the theory of the French theorist Jacques Lacan. Focusing on the novelists John McGahern, Brian Moore and John Broderick in a simultaneous reading, and applying a psychoanalytical theory which centers in particular on gender and family relations, this new study also covers a number of other complex issues, issues which span the claustrophobic and repressive atmosphere of the 1950s to the secular ahistorical Ireland of today.

Love in Vienna

Love in Vienna PDF Author: Barry G. Gale
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1440842213
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
For many decades, critics and supporters of Freudian theory have debated the exact nature of Freud's relationship with his sister-in-law. This book examines the arguments pro and con in light of recently exposed evidence—the first study to do so in depth. For many decades, controversy has surrounded the exact nature of famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's relationship with Minna Bernays, his sister-in-law. Why did Freud and Bernays travel alone together on many occasions? Why did she seem to be so much closer to Freud than his own wife, Martha? The idea that Freud and Minna Bernays had a long-standing affair—an allegation that Freudians typically deny—was first mentioned by Carl Gustav Jung, an early supporter of Freud's and later a critic. Love in Vienna: The Sigmund Freud–Minna Bernays Affair provides the first comprehensive look at the relationship and offers conclusions as to its nature and the implications for Freud's life and work. Organized logically, the book provides background information regarding the two chief antagonists in the story, Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. It then presents and critically analyzes arguments for and against there having been an affair. Finally, it looks closely at Freud's relationships with both Minna Bernays and his wife Martha, Minna's sister, and offers conclusions as to the exact nature of Freud's relationship with Bernays. Beyond fascinating those studying Freud or his theories, this work's subject matter and insights will appeal to readers interested in the history of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry; the intellectual history of Europe; the history of sex and manners; the history of ideas; the fin de siècle period in Vienna; and the history of medicine.

Freud

Freud PDF Author: Frederick Crews
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
ISBN: 1627797173
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 768

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Book Description
An assessment of psychoanalysis and the views of its creator reveals Sigmund Freud's blunders with patients, his misunderstandings about the psychological controversies of his time, and how he advanced his career on the appropriated findings of others.

Quick Fixes

Quick Fixes PDF Author: Benjamin Y. Fong
Publisher: Verso Books
ISBN: 1804290203
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
Drugs are ubiquitous in the past and present of capitalist society. What can they tell us about our society and economy? Americans are in the midst of a world-historic drug binge. Opiates, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, marijuana, antidepressants, antipsychotics—across the board, consumption has shot up in the 21st century. At the same time, the United States is home to the largest prison system in the world, justified in part by a now zombified “war” on drugs. How did we get here? Quick Fixes is a look at American society through the lens of its pharmacological crutches. Though particularly acute in recent decades, the contradiction between America’s passionate love and intense hatred for drugs has been one of its defining characteristics for over a century. Through nine chapters, each devoted to the modern history of a drug or class of drugs, Fong examines Americans’ fraught relationship with psychoactive substances. As society changes it produces different forms of stress, isolation, and alienation. These changes, in turn, shape the sorts of drugs society chooses. By laying out the histories, functions, and experiences of our chemical comforts, the hope is to help answer that ever perplexing question: what does it mean to be an American?