This thought-provoking study of paranormal phenomena traces the impact of supernatural beliefs on popular culture and, conversely, examines the influence of new communication technologies on research being conducted in the field. Did you know that interest in UFO research increased during the 1960s as a result of the Kennedy assassination? Or that America experienced a Satanic Panic in the 1980s that culminated with the longest, most expensive court trial in American history? This book reviews the history, economy, and community of paranormal research in this country, and considers the deeper meaning behind the philosophies and theories surrounding the industry. Paranormal Nation: Why America Needs Ghosts, UFOs, and Bigfoot explores the events that have defined paranormal belief systems today. From the birth of religious doctrine, to European witch hunts, to the increasing popularity of the supernatural in American television programming, the author examines the past and present conditions that have fueled interest in the unexplained and considers what this trend means for modern-day America.

There has been a significant growth in initiatives involving theatre, drama and performance within a science communication context. Yet there is little scholarship exploring this phenomenon from a science communication perspective. Weitkamp and Almeida draw on their distinct experiences with theatre in the context of science communication to delve into initiatives created through dialogue between the arts and the sciences for the purpose of public engagement. Entering into the space where museums, universities and research centres operate, as well as the space of theatre practitioners, they explore the richness and plurality of this universe, combining theory and practice, as well as presenting context, knowledge gaps and new data. Acknowledging that the place of drama, theatre and performance within science communication is one which is uniquely influenced by local cultural practices, discourses and expectations, the authors take a global perspective. Firstly by analysing data from an international survey of practitioners and secondly by curating a collection of case studies on science-theatre projects undertaken around the world. The chapters illustrate the diversity of forms and content that comprises contemporary science-theatre in this context and characterise theatre produced within the scope of science communication, placing it more precisely in the broader context of science-theatre.

Winner of the 2018 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism A New York Times Notable Book From Zadie Smith, one of the most beloved authors of her generation, a new collection of essays Since she burst spectacularly into view with her debut novel almost two decades ago, Zadie Smith has established herself not just as one of the world's preeminent fiction writers, but also a brilliant and singular essayist. She contributes regularly to The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books on a range of subjects, and each piece of hers is a literary event in its own right. Arranged into five sections--In the World, In the Audience, In the Gallery, On the Bookshelf, and Feel Free--this new collection poses questions we immediately recognize. What is The Social Network--and Facebook itself--really about? "It's a cruel portrait of us: 500 million sentient people entrapped in the recent careless thoughts of a Harvard sophomore." Why do we love libraries? "Well-run libraries are filled with people because what a good library offers cannot be easily found elsewhere: an indoor public space in which you do not have to buy anything in order to stay." What will we tell our granddaughters about our collective failure to address global warming? "So I might say to her, look: the thing you have to appreciate is that we'd just been through a century of relativism and deconstruction, in which we were informed that most of our fondest-held principles were either uncertain or simple wishful thinking, and in many areas of our lives we had already been asked to accept that nothing is essential and everything changes--and this had taken the fight out of us somewhat." Gathering in one place for the first time previously unpublished work, as well as already classic essays, such as, "Joy," and, "Find Your Beach," Feel Free offers a survey of important recent events in culture and politics, as well as Smith's own life. Equally at home in the world of good books and bad politics, Brooklyn-born rappers and the work of Swiss novelists, she is by turns wry, heartfelt, indignant, and incisive--and never any less than perfect company. This is literary journalism at its zenith. Zadie Smith's new book, Grand Union, is on sale 10/8/2019.

This highly original study opens up a new dimension to Joseph Conrad by revealing his lifelong fascination with the popular culture of his day. Drawing on original archival materials and treating subjects as diverse as Bovril advertising, spirit photography, sea shanties, global tourism, and the new sport of speed-walking, it shows how Conrad's fiction makes a sustained response to early-twentieth-century popular culture and will be of interest to all students, scholars and enthusiasts of Conrad.

Abortion in Popular Culture: A Call to Action brings together scholars who examine depictions of abortion in film, television, literature, and social media. By examining texts ranging from medical dramas of the 1960s and recent films such as Never Rarely Sometimes Always and Unpregnant to dystopian novels and social-media campaigns, the essays analyze a range of narrative styles, rhetorical strategies, and cinematic techniques, all of which shape cultural attitudes toward abortion. They also analyze cultural shifts, including the willingness or reluctance of networks and cable channels to acknowledge medication abortion and the role that abortion plays in family planning. As a whole, however, the essays argue that popular culture can play a significant role in destigmatizing abortion by including a wider range of narratives and doing so with nuance and empathy. With reproductive rights under attack in the United States, each essay is a call to action for writers, producers, directors, showrunners, authors, and musicians to use their platforms to tell more positive and accurate stories about abortion.

This indispensable collection offers 51 chapters, each focused on a distinct American independent film. Screening American Independent Film presents these films chronologically, addressing works from across more than a century (1915-2020), emphasizing the breadth and long duration of American Independent Cinema. The collection includes canonical examples as well as films that push against and expand the definitions of "independence." The titles run from micro-budget films through marketing-friendly indiewood projects, from auteur-driven films and festival darlings to B-movies, genre pics, and exploitation films. The chapters introduce students to different approaches within film studies from historical and contextual framing, industrial and institutional analysis, politics and ideology, genre and authorship, representation, film analysis, exhibition and reception, and technology. Written by leading international scholars and emerging talents in film studies, this volume is the first of its kind. Paying particular attention to issues of diversity and inclusion for both the participating scholars and the content and themes within the selected films, Screening American Independent Film is an essential resource for anyone teaching or studying American cinema.

This indispensable collection offers 51 chapters, each focused on a distinct American independent film. Screening American Independent Film presents these films chronologically, addressing works from across more than a century (1915-2020), emphasizing the breadth and long duration of American Independent Cinema. The collection includes canonical examples as well as films that push against and expand the definitions of "independence." The titles run from micro-budget films through marketing-friendly indiewood projects, from auteur-driven films and festival darlings to B-movies, genre pics, and exploitation films. The chapters introduce students to different approaches within film studies from historical and contextual framing, industrial and institutional analysis, politics and ideology, genre and authorship, representation, film analysis, exhibition and reception, and technology. Written by leading international scholars and emerging talents in film studies, this volume is the first of its kind. Paying particular attention to issues of diversity and inclusion for both the participating scholars and the content and themes within the selected films, Screening American Independent Film is an essential resource for anyone teaching or studying American cinema.

Diversity in the United States: A Cultural History of the Past Century is a cultural history of diversity in the United States over the past one hundred years. Diversity-defined here as Americans of different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds-is currently very much in the national conversation. The book explores diversity in a historical context, bringing a much-needed perspective on what is a passionate theme in contemporary American society. Told chronologically and divided into five twenty-year eras, the book sheds new light on the important role that diversity has played in our national identity. The subject is parsed through the voices of intellectuals and journalists who have weighed in on its many different dimensions. The primary argument of the work is that the concept of diversity has functioned as a key site of both congruence and division in the United States for the past one hundred years, providing a sense of who we are as a people while at the same time exposing inequities based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Both an academic audience and the many readers of non-fiction will find the book to be a valuable and insightful resource.

Diversity in the United States: A Cultural History of the Past Century is a cultural history of diversity in the United States over the past one hundred years. Diversity-defined here as Americans of different racial, ethnic, and religious backgrounds-is currently very much in the national conversation. The book explores diversity in a historical context, bringing a much-needed perspective on what is a passionate theme in contemporary American society. Told chronologically and divided into five twenty-year eras, the book sheds new light on the important role that diversity has played in our national identity. The subject is parsed through the voices of intellectuals and journalists who have weighed in on its many different dimensions. The primary argument of the work is that the concept of diversity has functioned as a key site of both congruence and division in the United States for the past one hundred years, providing a sense of who we are as a people while at the same time exposing inequities based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Both an academic audience and the many readers of non-fiction will find the book to be a valuable and insightful resource.

This collection aims to map a diversity of approaches to the artform by creating a 360° view on the circus. Three sections of the book, Aesthetics, Practice, Culture, approach aesthetic developments, issues of artistic practice, and the circus’ role within society. This book consists of a collection of articles from renowned circus researchers, junior researchers, and artists. It also provides the core statements and discussions of the conference UpSideDown—Circus and Space in a graphic recording format. Hence, it allows a clear entry into the field of circus research and emphasizes the diversity of approaches that are well balanced between theoretical and artistic point of views. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of circus studies, emerging disciples of circus and performance.

This fully updated second edition of Gender and Popular Culture examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. It draws on a wide range of cultural forms - including popular music, social media, television and magazines - to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented, used and consumed. Blending primary and secondary research, Milestone and Meyer introduce key theories and concepts in gender studies and popular culture, which are made accessible and interesting through their application to topical examples such as the #MeToo campaign, intensive mothering and social media, discourses about women and binge drinking, and gender and popular music. Included in this revised edition is a new chapter on digital culture, examining the connection between digital platforms and gender identities, relations and activism, as well as a new chapter on cultural work in digital contexts. All chapters have been updated to acknowledge recent changes in gender images and relations as well as media culture. Additionally, there is new material on the Fourth Wave Women's Movement, audiences and prosumers, and the role of social media. Gender and Popular Culture is the go-to textbook for students of gender studies, media and communication, and popular culture.

This book explores why word of mouth is the most important determinant of a movie's success. Beginning with a discussion of the enduring appeal of movies, and why the box office has survived the disruption of television and will likely survive the disruption of streaming services, Owen Eagan goes on to discuss the unpredictable nature of movies and ways to mitigate their risk. His astute analysis sheds light on the role of film festivals, film critics, Oscar campaigns, and word of mouth in influencing a film's success. Eagan concludes with a summary of why word of mouth is the most influential among all the variables that affect a film's outcome. Expertly synthesizing quantitative analyses of box office data with illuminating insights from industry experts, this concise and engaging book presents findings with important implications for scholars, industry insiders and marketing professionals alike.

In this comprehensive study of The Stars My Destination, D. Harlan Wilson makes a case for the continued significance of Alfred Bester's SF masterwork, exploring its distinctive style, influences, intertextuality, affect, and innovation as well as its extensive metafictional properties. In Stars, Bester established himself as a son of the pulp-SF and high-modernist writers that preceded him and a forefather to the New Wave and cyberpunk movements that followed his lead. Wilson's study depicts Bester as an SF insider as much as an outlier, writing in the spirit of the genre but breaking with the fixation on hard science in favor of psychological interiority, literary experimentation, and adult themes. The book combines close-readings of the novel with broader concerns about contemporary media, technoculture, and the current state of SF itself. In Wilson's view, SF is a moribund artform, and Stars foresaw the inevitable science fictionalization of our benighted world. With scholarly lucidity and precision, Wilson shows us that Stars pointed the way to what we have (un)become.

This book argues that videogames address contemporary, middle-class anxieties about poverty in the United States. The early chapters consider gaming as a modern form of slumming and explore the ways in which titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and World of Warcraft thematize poverty. The argument turns to the field of literary studies to identify analytical frameworks for addressing and understanding these themes. Throughout, the book considers how the academic area of inquiry known as game studies has developed over time, and makes use of such scholarship to present, frame, and value its major claims and findings. In its conclusion, the book models how poverty themes might be identified and associated for the purpose of gaining greater insights into how games can shape, and also be shaped by, the player's economic expectations.

This book defines tojisha manga as Japan's autobiographical comics in which the author recounts the experience of a mental or neurological condition in a unique medium of text and image. Yoshiko Okuyama argues that tojisha manga illuminate otherwise "faceless" individuals and humanize their invisible tribulations because the first-person narrative makes their lived experience more authentic and relatable to the reader. Part I introduces the evolution of the term tojisha, the tojisha movements, and other relevant social phenomena and concepts. Part II analyzes five representative titles to demonstrate the humanizing power of tojisha manga, drawing on interviews with the authors of these manga and examining how psychological or brain-related symptoms are artistically depicted in approximately 40 drawings. This book is highly recommended to not only scholars of disability studies and comic studies but also global fans of manga who are interested in the graphic memoirs of serious social issues.

Celebrated musician and entertainer Lizzo wowed audiences and left many "feeling good as hell." Notwithstanding her collective-fat, Black female- identity she catapulted into mainstream success while redefining the social script for body size, race, and gender. This book explores a tale of two narratives: Lizzo's self-curated, fat-positive identity and the media's reaction to an unabashedly proud fat, Black woman. This critical analysis examines how Lizzo challenges fatphobia and reconstitutes fat stigmatization into self-empowerment through her strategic use of hyper-embodiment via social media, and the rhetorical distinctions between Lizzo's self-curated narrative via social media and those offered about her in print media. In part, Lizzo's bodily flaunting is argued as a significant rhetorical act that emancipates her identity of fatness and reframes the negative tropes of (fat) Black women typically curated in American culture.

While providing critical reflections on the work across generations of enthusiasts, this is the first book exclusively dedicated to John le Carre's 1974 novel and its adaptations in radio, TV, and film. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy stands among the most reproduced espionage tales of all time, with adaptations in television, radio, and film. Histories, Adaptations, and Legacies of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a collection of essays by international experts who each provides an account of the story's currency across generations of audiences and scholars. Fans of the late John le Carre and the espionage genre will find here a comprehensive guidebook to the novel and its adaptations. Scholars, students, and amateur investigators alike will discover important historical, thematic, and theoretical ideas to explore and interrogate. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a complex tale of the espionage trade and its crew of motley eccentrics. This collection decodes its puzzles, riddles, and enigmas regarding secrecy, betrayal, ethics, and survival in the context of the United Kingdom's place in the post-Second World War global order. A comprehensive guide for amateurs and an in-depth study of the novel's histories, legacies, and approaches for students and scholars.

Most documentaries deal with men, but what do they actually say about masculinity? In this groundbreaking volume Sara Martin analyses more than forty 21st century documentaries to explore how they represent American men and masculinity. From Jennifer Siebel Newsom's The Mask You Live In to Raoul Peck's I Am not Your Negro, this volume explores sixteen different faces of American masculinity: the good man, the activist, the politician, the whistleblower, the criminal, the sexual abuser, the wrongly accused, the dependent man, the soldier, the capitalist, the adventurer, the sportsman, the architect, the photographer, the musician, and the writer. The collective portrait drawn by the documentaries discloses a firm critical stance against the contradictions inherent in patriarchy, which makes American men promises of empowerment it cannot fulfill. The filmmakers' view of American masculinity emphasizes the vulnerability of disempowered men before the abuses of the patriarchal system run by hegemonic men and a loss of bearings about how to be a man after the impact of feminism, accompanied nonetheless by a celebration of resilient masculinity and of the good American man. Firmly positioning documentaries as an immensely flexible, relevant tool to understand 21st century American men and masculinity, their past, present, and future, this book will interest students and scholars of film studies, documentary film, American cultural studies, gender and masculinity.

Billy Joel has sold over 150 million records, produced thirty-three Top-40 hits, received six Grammy Awards, and been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Fans celebrate him, critics deride him, and scholars have all but ignored him. This first-of-its-kind collection of essays on the music of Billy Joel offers close analysis and careful insight into the ways his work has impacted popular music during the last fifty years. Using a diversity of approaches, including those not traditionally found within popular musicological studies, this volume serves as a model for how any scholar can approach the study of popular music, regardless of their methodological leanings. These chapters interrogate how popular music frames personal and collective experiences, participates in the construction of history and culture, and invites us to reflect on its importance in our daily lives.

'A major achievement.' CLAUDIA RANKINE 'Endlessly absorbing.' SINEAD GLEESON 'A probing tour of capitalism and class.' MAGGIE NELSON 'Exhilarating.' JENNY OFFILL A personal reckoning with the intricacies of money, class and capitalism from the New York Times bestselling author. Having just purchased her first home, Eula Biss embarks on a roguish and risky self-audit of the value system she has bought into. The result is Having and Being Had: a radical interrogation of work, leisure and capitalism. Playfully ranging from IKEA to Beyonce to Pokemon, across bars and laundromats and universities, she asks, of both herself and her class, 'In what have we invested? 'As a writer Eula Biss has two great gifts. The first is her ability to reveal to the reader what has, all along, been hidden in plain sight . . . Her other talent is for laying bare our submerged fears . . . In Having and Being Had, both gifts are on display . . . if you are not deeply discomfited by the time you finish reading On Having and Being Had, you have no conscience.' AMINATTA FORNA, GUARDIAN 'Calls on the controlled rush of poetry and turns experience into art.' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 'Nuanced . . . Biss' sentences have retained a poet's precision.' IRISH TIMES 'Eula Biss's prescient new book gave me new language for things I didn't know I felt . . . A brilliant, lacerating re-examination of our relationship to what we own and why, and who in turn might own us.' ALEXANDER CHEE 'No contemporary writer I know explores and confronts her own societal responsibilities better than Eula Biss.' ALEKSANDER HEMON 'A meditation on race, consumerism and the American caste system. And a wry, vivd assessment of our spiritual moment. It is no accident that Having and Being Had reads like the poems money would write if money wrote poems.' JEET THAYIL

This exciting book uniquely combines interviews with scholars and practitioners in theatre studies to look at what most people feel is a pivotal moment of British theatre--the 1990s. Featuring interviews with key names in the field (including Max Stafford-Clark, Mark Ravenhill, Michael Billington, Dan Rebellato and Aleks Sierz), and with a particular focus on "in-yer-face theatre," this volume will be essential reading for all students and scholars of contemporary British theatre, as well as theatregoers and practitioners.

- An accessible introduction to sports media that is intended for students. - Offers a specific definition of sports media and presents a corresponding (re)framing of the study of the topic that creates connections between initially disparate seeming areas within sport media. - Explores key contemporary topics such as athlete activism on Twitter, fantasy football fandom, gender in sports commentary, and more.

Pathologizing Black Bodies reconsiders the black body as a site of cultural and corporeal interchange; one involving violence and oppression, leaving memory and trauma sedimented in cultural conventions, political arrangements, social institutions and, most significantly, materially and symbolically engraved upon the body, with "the self" often deprived of agency and sovereignty. Consisting of three sections, this text focuses on works of the 20th and 21st century fiction and cultural narratives by mainly African American authors, aiming to highlight the different ways in which race has been pathologized in America and examine how the legacies of plantation ideology have been metaphorically inscribed on black bodies. The variety of analytical approaches and thematic foci with respect to theories and discourses surrounding race and the body allow us to delve into this thorny territory in the hope of gaining perspectives about how African-American lives are still shaped and haunted by the legacies of plantation slavery. Furthermore, this volume offers insights into the politics of eugenic corporeality in an illustrative dialogue with the lasting carceral and agricultural effects of life on a plantation. Tracing the degradation and suppression of the black body, both individual and social, this text includes analysis of the pseudo-scientific discourse of social Darwinism and eugenics; the practice of mass incarceration and the excessive punishment of black bodies; and food apartheid and USDA practices of depriving black farmers of individual autonomy and collective agency. Based on such an interplay of discourses, methodologies and perspectives, this volume aims to use literature to further examine the problematic relationship between race and the body and stress that black lives do indeed matter in the USA.

This book shows how twenty-first-century writing about Northern England imagines alternative democratic futures for the region and the English nation, signalling the growing awareness of England as a distinct and variegated political formation. The 2016 Brexit vote intensified ongoing constitutional tensions throughout the UK since the devolution of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland in 1997. At the same time, British devolution developed a distinctively cultural registration as a surrogate for parliamentary representation and an attempt to disrupt the status of London as Britain's cultural epicentre. Rewriting the North shifts this debate in a new direction, examining Northern literary preoccupation with devolution's constitutional implications. Through close readings of six contemporary authors - Sunjeev Sahota, Sarah Hall, Anthony Cartwright, Adam Thorpe, Fiona Mozley, and Sarah Moss - this book argues that literary engagement with the North emphasises the limits of devolution as regional political agency, calling instead for an urgent abandonment of the British centralised state form.

Dance on the American Musical Theatre Stage: A History chronicles the development of dance, with an emphasis on musicals and the Broadway stage, in the United States from its colonial beginnings to performances of the present day. This book explores the fascinating tug-and-pull between the European classical, folk and social dance imports and America's indigenous dance forms as they met and collided on the popular musical theatre stage. The historical background influenced a specific musical theatre movement vocabulary and a unique choreographic approach that is recognizable today as Broadway style dancing. Throughout the book, a cultural context is woven into the history to reveal how the competing values within American culture, and its attempts as a nation to define and redefine itself, played out through developments in dance on the musical theatre stage. This book is central to the conversation on how dance influences and reflects society, and will be of interest to students and scholars of Musical Theatre, Theatre Studies, Dance and Cultural History.