Author: Jamey Heit
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786458453
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
What is evil? How do we understand it in our culture? The thirteen essays in this critical volume explore the different ways in which evil is portrayed in popular culture, particularly film and novels. Iconic figures of evil are considered, as is the repeated use of classic themes within our intellectual tradition. Topics covered include serial killers in film, the Twilight series, the Harry Potter series, Star Wars, and more. Collectively, these essays suggest how vital the notion of evil is to our culture, which in turn suggest a need to reflect on what it means to value what is good.
Vader, Voldemort and Other Villains
Author: Jamey Heit
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786458453
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
What is evil? How do we understand it in our culture? The thirteen essays in this critical volume explore the different ways in which evil is portrayed in popular culture, particularly film and novels. Iconic figures of evil are considered, as is the repeated use of classic themes within our intellectual tradition. Topics covered include serial killers in film, the Twilight series, the Harry Potter series, Star Wars, and more. Collectively, these essays suggest how vital the notion of evil is to our culture, which in turn suggest a need to reflect on what it means to value what is good.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786458453
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 235
Book Description
What is evil? How do we understand it in our culture? The thirteen essays in this critical volume explore the different ways in which evil is portrayed in popular culture, particularly film and novels. Iconic figures of evil are considered, as is the repeated use of classic themes within our intellectual tradition. Topics covered include serial killers in film, the Twilight series, the Harry Potter series, Star Wars, and more. Collectively, these essays suggest how vital the notion of evil is to our culture, which in turn suggest a need to reflect on what it means to value what is good.
The American Villain
Author: Richard A. Hall
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 303
Book Description
The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to provide one go-to reference for the study of the most popular and iconic villains in American popular culture. Since the 1980s, pop culture has focused on what makes a villain a villain. The Joker, Darth Vader, and Hannibal Lecter have all been placed under the microscope to get to the origins of their villainy. Additionally, such bad guys as Angelus from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows have emphasized the desire for redemption—in even the darkest of villains. Various incarnations of Lucifer/Satan have even gone so far as to explore the very foundations of what we consider "evil." The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to collect all of those stories into one comprehensive volume. The volume opens with essays about villains in popular culture, followed by 100 A–Z entries on the most notorious bad guys in film, comics, and more. Sidebars highlight ancillary points of interest, such as authors, creators, and tropes that illuminate the motives of various villains. A glossary of key terms and a bibliography provide students with resources to continue their study of what makes the "baddest" among us so bad.
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 303
Book Description
The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to provide one go-to reference for the study of the most popular and iconic villains in American popular culture. Since the 1980s, pop culture has focused on what makes a villain a villain. The Joker, Darth Vader, and Hannibal Lecter have all been placed under the microscope to get to the origins of their villainy. Additionally, such bad guys as Angelus from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Barnabas Collins from Dark Shadows have emphasized the desire for redemption—in even the darkest of villains. Various incarnations of Lucifer/Satan have even gone so far as to explore the very foundations of what we consider "evil." The American Villain: Encyclopedia of Bad Guys in Comics, Film, and Television seeks to collect all of those stories into one comprehensive volume. The volume opens with essays about villains in popular culture, followed by 100 A–Z entries on the most notorious bad guys in film, comics, and more. Sidebars highlight ancillary points of interest, such as authors, creators, and tropes that illuminate the motives of various villains. A glossary of key terms and a bibliography provide students with resources to continue their study of what makes the "baddest" among us so bad.
A Vindication of the Redhead
Author: Brenda Ayres
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030835154
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
A Vindication of the Redhead investigates red hair in literature, art, television, and film throughout Eastern and Western cultures. This study examines red hair as a signifier, perpetuated through stereotypes, myths, legends, and literary and visual representations. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier provide a history of attitudes held by hegemonic populations toward red-haired individuals, groups, and genders from antiquity to the present. Ayres and Maier explore such diverse topics as Judeo-Christian narratives of red hair, redheads in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, red hair and gender identity, famous literary redheads such as Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, contemporary and Neo-Victorian representations of redheads from the Black Widow to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and more. This book illuminates the symbolic significance and related ideologies of red hair constructed in mythic, religious, literary, and visual cultural discourse.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030835154
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 299
Book Description
A Vindication of the Redhead investigates red hair in literature, art, television, and film throughout Eastern and Western cultures. This study examines red hair as a signifier, perpetuated through stereotypes, myths, legends, and literary and visual representations. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier provide a history of attitudes held by hegemonic populations toward red-haired individuals, groups, and genders from antiquity to the present. Ayres and Maier explore such diverse topics as Judeo-Christian narratives of red hair, redheads in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, red hair and gender identity, famous literary redheads such as Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, contemporary and Neo-Victorian representations of redheads from the Black Widow to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and more. This book illuminates the symbolic significance and related ideologies of red hair constructed in mythic, religious, literary, and visual cultural discourse.
How Superheroes Model Community
Author: Nathan Miczo
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498516815
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 173
Book Description
From the perspectives of positive psychology and positive communication, superheroes are often depicted as possessing virtues and serving as inspirational exemplars. However, many of the virtues enumerated as characterizing the superhero (e.g., courage, teamwork, creativity) could just as easily be applied to heroes of other genres. To understand what is unique to the superhero genre, How Superheroes Model Community: Philosophically, Communicatively, Relationally looks not only to the virtues that animate them, but also to the underlying moral framework that gives meaning to those virtues. The key to understanding their character is that often they save strangers, and they do so in the public sphere. The superhero’s moral framework, therefore, must encompass both the motivation to act to benefit others rather than themselves (especially people to whom they have no relational obligation) and to preserve the public sphere against those who would disrupt it. Given such a framework, Nathan Miczo argues that superheroes are not, and could not, be loners. They constantly form team-ups, super teams, alliances, partnerships, take on mentorship roles, and create sidekicks. Social constructionist approaches in the communication field argue that communication, in part, works to shape and create our social reality. Through this lens, Miczo proposes that superheroes maintain themselves as a community through the communicative practices they engage in.
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 1498516815
Category : Comics & Graphic Novels
Languages : en
Pages : 173
Book Description
From the perspectives of positive psychology and positive communication, superheroes are often depicted as possessing virtues and serving as inspirational exemplars. However, many of the virtues enumerated as characterizing the superhero (e.g., courage, teamwork, creativity) could just as easily be applied to heroes of other genres. To understand what is unique to the superhero genre, How Superheroes Model Community: Philosophically, Communicatively, Relationally looks not only to the virtues that animate them, but also to the underlying moral framework that gives meaning to those virtues. The key to understanding their character is that often they save strangers, and they do so in the public sphere. The superhero’s moral framework, therefore, must encompass both the motivation to act to benefit others rather than themselves (especially people to whom they have no relational obligation) and to preserve the public sphere against those who would disrupt it. Given such a framework, Nathan Miczo argues that superheroes are not, and could not, be loners. They constantly form team-ups, super teams, alliances, partnerships, take on mentorship roles, and create sidekicks. Social constructionist approaches in the communication field argue that communication, in part, works to shape and create our social reality. Through this lens, Miczo proposes that superheroes maintain themselves as a community through the communicative practices they engage in.
Space, Identity and Discourse in Anglophone Studies
Author: Attila Dósa
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 152757685X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 553
Book Description
This book explores the dynamic intersections where cultures, languages and spaces converge, shaping identities and creating new forms of expression. The authors attempt to unravel the complexity of narrative and imaginative spaces by examining cultural identities in global contexts. The essays on literary representations consider abstract border crossings through rewriting and reappropriation in various genres, while also looking at immigrant fiction, post-Anthropocene narratives and hybrid spaces through a postcolonial lens. The essays on history and politics critically examine identity conflicts in the United States, while the contributions on applied linguistics and language pedagogy offer insights into online teaching experiences during COVID-19, sociocultural aspects of language use and the formation of bilingual identities. Employing innovative methods in reinterpreting literary works, political narratives and different types of discourse, past and present, this collection contributes to ongoing scholarly dialogues on the multifaceted challenges associated with identity construction through border crossings.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 152757685X
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 553
Book Description
This book explores the dynamic intersections where cultures, languages and spaces converge, shaping identities and creating new forms of expression. The authors attempt to unravel the complexity of narrative and imaginative spaces by examining cultural identities in global contexts. The essays on literary representations consider abstract border crossings through rewriting and reappropriation in various genres, while also looking at immigrant fiction, post-Anthropocene narratives and hybrid spaces through a postcolonial lens. The essays on history and politics critically examine identity conflicts in the United States, while the contributions on applied linguistics and language pedagogy offer insights into online teaching experiences during COVID-19, sociocultural aspects of language use and the formation of bilingual identities. Employing innovative methods in reinterpreting literary works, political narratives and different types of discourse, past and present, this collection contributes to ongoing scholarly dialogues on the multifaceted challenges associated with identity construction through border crossings.
Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11
Author: Aaron Kerner
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813564042
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Saw, Hostel, The Devil’s Rejects: this wave of horror movies has been classed under the disparaging label “torture porn.” Since David Edelstein coined the term for a New York magazine article a few years after 9/11, many critics have speculated that these movies simply reflect iconic images, anxieties, and sadistic fantasies that have emerged from the War on Terror. In this timely new study, Aaron Kerner challenges that interpretation, arguing that “torture porn” must be understood in a much broader context, as part of a phenomenon that spans multiple media genres and is rooted in a long tradition of American violence. Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 tackles a series of tough philosophical, historical, and aesthetic questions: What does it mean to call a film “sadistic,” and how has this term been used to shut down critical debate? In what sense does torture porn respond to current events, and in what ways does it draw from much older tropes? How has torture porn been influenced by earlier horror film cycles, from slasher movies to J-horror? And in what ways has the torture porn aesthetic gone mainstream, popping up in everything from the television thriller Dexter to the reality show Hell’s Kitchen? Reflecting a deep knowledge and appreciation for the genre, Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 is sure to resonate with horror fans. Yet Kerner’s arguments should also strike a chord in anyone with an interest in the history of American violence and its current and future ramifications for the War on Terror.
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813564042
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 269
Book Description
Saw, Hostel, The Devil’s Rejects: this wave of horror movies has been classed under the disparaging label “torture porn.” Since David Edelstein coined the term for a New York magazine article a few years after 9/11, many critics have speculated that these movies simply reflect iconic images, anxieties, and sadistic fantasies that have emerged from the War on Terror. In this timely new study, Aaron Kerner challenges that interpretation, arguing that “torture porn” must be understood in a much broader context, as part of a phenomenon that spans multiple media genres and is rooted in a long tradition of American violence. Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 tackles a series of tough philosophical, historical, and aesthetic questions: What does it mean to call a film “sadistic,” and how has this term been used to shut down critical debate? In what sense does torture porn respond to current events, and in what ways does it draw from much older tropes? How has torture porn been influenced by earlier horror film cycles, from slasher movies to J-horror? And in what ways has the torture porn aesthetic gone mainstream, popping up in everything from the television thriller Dexter to the reality show Hell’s Kitchen? Reflecting a deep knowledge and appreciation for the genre, Torture Porn in the Wake of 9/11 is sure to resonate with horror fans. Yet Kerner’s arguments should also strike a chord in anyone with an interest in the history of American violence and its current and future ramifications for the War on Terror.
A Quest of Her Own
Author: Lori M. Campbell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476617635
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
This collection of new essays seeks to define the unique qualities of female heroism in literary fantasy from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s through the present. Building upon traditional definitions of the hero in myth and folklore as the root genres of modern fantasy, the essays provide a multi-faceted view of an important fantasy character type who begins to demonstrate a significant presence only in the latter 20th century. The essays contribute to the empowerment and development of the female hero as an archetype in her own right.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476617635
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 301
Book Description
This collection of new essays seeks to define the unique qualities of female heroism in literary fantasy from Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s through the present. Building upon traditional definitions of the hero in myth and folklore as the root genres of modern fantasy, the essays provide a multi-faceted view of an important fantasy character type who begins to demonstrate a significant presence only in the latter 20th century. The essays contribute to the empowerment and development of the female hero as an archetype in her own right.
Science, Technology and Magic in The Witcher
Author: Kristine Larsen
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476683859
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
As Andrzej Sapkowski was fleshing out his character Geralt of Rivia for a writing contest, he did not set out to write a science textbook--or even a work of science fiction. However, the world that Sapkowski created in his series The Witcher resulted in a valuable reflection of real-world developments in science and technology. As the Witcher books have been published across decades, the sorcery in the series acts as an extension of the modern science it grows alongside. This book explores the fascinating entanglement of science and magic that lies at the heart of Sapkowski's novel series and its widely popular video game and television adaptations. This is the first English-language book-length treatment of magic and science in the Witcher universe. These are examined through the lenses of politics, religion, history and mythology. Sapkowski's richly detailed universe investigates the sociology of science and ponders some of the most pressing modern technological issues, such as genetic engineering, climate change, weapons of mass destruction, sexism, speciesism and environmentalism. Chapters explore the unsettling realization that the greatest monsters are frequently human, and their heinous acts often involve the unwitting hand of science.
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476683859
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 291
Book Description
As Andrzej Sapkowski was fleshing out his character Geralt of Rivia for a writing contest, he did not set out to write a science textbook--or even a work of science fiction. However, the world that Sapkowski created in his series The Witcher resulted in a valuable reflection of real-world developments in science and technology. As the Witcher books have been published across decades, the sorcery in the series acts as an extension of the modern science it grows alongside. This book explores the fascinating entanglement of science and magic that lies at the heart of Sapkowski's novel series and its widely popular video game and television adaptations. This is the first English-language book-length treatment of magic and science in the Witcher universe. These are examined through the lenses of politics, religion, history and mythology. Sapkowski's richly detailed universe investigates the sociology of science and ponders some of the most pressing modern technological issues, such as genetic engineering, climate change, weapons of mass destruction, sexism, speciesism and environmentalism. Chapters explore the unsettling realization that the greatest monsters are frequently human, and their heinous acts often involve the unwitting hand of science.
Superheroes and Masculinity
Author: Sean Parson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498591507
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
Superheroes and Masculinity: Unmasking the Gender Performance of Heroism explores how heteropatriarchal representations of gender are portrayed within superhero comics, film, and television. The contributors examine how hegemonic masculinity has been continually perpetuated and reinforced within the superhero genre and unpack concise critiques of specific superhero representations, the industry, and the fan base at large. However, Superheroes and Masculinity also argues that possibilities of resistance and change are embedded within these problematic portrayals. To this end, several chapters explore alternative portrayals of queerness within superhero representations and read the hegemonic masculinity of various characters against the grain to produce queer possibilities. Ultimately, this collection argues that the quest to unmask how gender operates within superheroes is a crucial one.
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498591507
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 154
Book Description
Superheroes and Masculinity: Unmasking the Gender Performance of Heroism explores how heteropatriarchal representations of gender are portrayed within superhero comics, film, and television. The contributors examine how hegemonic masculinity has been continually perpetuated and reinforced within the superhero genre and unpack concise critiques of specific superhero representations, the industry, and the fan base at large. However, Superheroes and Masculinity also argues that possibilities of resistance and change are embedded within these problematic portrayals. To this end, several chapters explore alternative portrayals of queerness within superhero representations and read the hegemonic masculinity of various characters against the grain to produce queer possibilities. Ultimately, this collection argues that the quest to unmask how gender operates within superheroes is a crucial one.
Peace and Resistance in Youth Cultures
Author: Siobhan McEvoy-Levy
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137498714
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
This book offers a rationale for and ways of reading popular culture for peace. It argues that we can improve peacebuilding theory and practice through examining popular culture’s youth revolutionaries and their outcomes - from their digital and plastic renderings to their living embodiments in local struggles for justice. The study combines insights from post-structural, post-colonial, feminist, youth studies and peace and conflict studies theories to analyze the literary themes, political uses, and cultural impacts of two hit book series – Harry Potter and The Hunger Games – tracing how these works have been transformed into visible political practices, including social justice advocacy and government propaganda in the War on Terror. Pop culture production and consumption help maintain global hierarchies of inequality and structural violence but can also connect people across divisions through fandom participation. Including chapters on fan activism, fan fiction, Guantanamo Bay detention center, youth as a discursive construct in IR, and the merchandizing and tourism opportunities connected with The Hunger Games, the book argues that through taking youth-oriented pop culture seriously, we can better understand the local, global and transnational spaces, discourses, and the relations of power, within which meanings and practices of peace are known, negotiated, encoded and obstructed.
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137498714
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 426
Book Description
This book offers a rationale for and ways of reading popular culture for peace. It argues that we can improve peacebuilding theory and practice through examining popular culture’s youth revolutionaries and their outcomes - from their digital and plastic renderings to their living embodiments in local struggles for justice. The study combines insights from post-structural, post-colonial, feminist, youth studies and peace and conflict studies theories to analyze the literary themes, political uses, and cultural impacts of two hit book series – Harry Potter and The Hunger Games – tracing how these works have been transformed into visible political practices, including social justice advocacy and government propaganda in the War on Terror. Pop culture production and consumption help maintain global hierarchies of inequality and structural violence but can also connect people across divisions through fandom participation. Including chapters on fan activism, fan fiction, Guantanamo Bay detention center, youth as a discursive construct in IR, and the merchandizing and tourism opportunities connected with The Hunger Games, the book argues that through taking youth-oriented pop culture seriously, we can better understand the local, global and transnational spaces, discourses, and the relations of power, within which meanings and practices of peace are known, negotiated, encoded and obstructed.