Communication As Culture: Essays on Media and Society by James W. CareyIn this classic text, James W. Carey maintains that communication is not merely the transmission of information; reminding the reader of the link between the words "communication" and "community," he broadens his definition to include the drawing-together of a people that is culture. In this context, Carey questions the American tradition of focusing only on mass communication's function as a means of social and political control, and makes a case for examining the content of a communication--the meaning of symbols, not only the motives that originate them or the purposes they serve. He seeks to recast the goal of communication studies, replacing the search for deterministic laws of behavior with a simpler, yet far more challenging mission: "to enlarge the human conversation by comprehending what others are saying." This new edition includes a new critical foreword by G. Stuart Adam that explains Carey's fundamental role in transforming the study of mass communication to include a cultural perspective and connects his classic essays with contemporary media issues and trends. This edition also adds a new, complete bibliography of all of Carey's writings.
See chapter 24: Postmodernism: Roots and Politics by Todd Gitlin
Cultural Studies by Cary Nelson (Editor)Featuring new essays by such prominent cultural theorists as Tony Bennett, Homi Bhabha, Donna Haraway, bell hooks, Constance Penley, Janice Radway, Andrew Ross, and Cornel West, Cultural Studies offers numerous specific cultural analyses while simultaneously defining and debating the common body of assumptions, questions, and concerns that have helped create the field.
Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation by Robert E. KapsisFrom the beginning of his career, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to be considered an artist. Although his thrillers were immensely popular, and Hitchcock himself courted reviewers, he was, for many years, regarded as no more than a master craftsman. By the 1960s, though, critics began calling him an artist of unique vision and gifts. What happened to make Hitchcock's reputation as a true innovator and singular talent? Through a close examination of Hitchcock's personal papers, scripts, production notes, publicity files, correspondence, and hundreds of British and American reviews, Robert Kapsis here traces Hitchcock's changing critical fortunes. Vertigo, for instance, was considered a flawed film when first released; today it is viewed by many as the signal achievement of a great director. According to Kapsis, this dramatic change occurred because the making of the Hitchcock legend was not solely dependent on the quality of his films. Rather, his elevation to artist was caused by a successful blending of self-promotion, sponsorship by prominent members of the film community, and, most important, changes in critical theory which for the first time allowed for the idea of director as auteur. Kapsis also examines the careers of several other filmmakers who, like Hitchcock, have managed to cross the line that separates craftsman from artist, and shows how Hitchcock's legacy and reputation shed light on the way contemporary reputations are made. In a chapter about Brian De Palma, the most reknowned thriller director since Hitchcock, Kapsis explores how Hitchcock's legacy has affected contemporary work in—and criticism of—the thriller genre. Filled with fascinating anecdotes and intriguing excerpts, and augmented by interviews with Hitchcock's associates, this thoroughly documented and engagingly written book will appeal to scholars and film enthusiasts alike. "Required reading for Hitchcock scholars...scrupulously researched, invaluable material for those who continue to ask: what made the master tick?"—Anthony Perkins
Jimmy Stewart: A Life in Film by Roy Pickard"Whether portraying the young idealist fighting corruption in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, the honest, struggling humanitarian in It's a Wonderful Life, or the patriarchal Virginia farmer in Shenandoah, Jimmy Stewart has embodied the virtues of the all-American hero and won the hearts of men and women alike. For over fifty years, Stewart's considerable range and subtlety have made him one of the most visible and beloved actors in Hollywood." "Drawing on the recollections of those who knew and worked with him, as well as personal observations from the actor himself, this revealing biography depicts the life and films of Jimmy Stewart during the most colorful, dramatic, and explosive years in Hollywood. Using Stewart's films as a backdrop, Pickard sketches the changes in the filmmaking industry from 1935 to the present day." "In this wonderfully lively and moving biography, Roy Pickard draws an intimate portrait of one of Hollywood's great actor-personalities, whose legendary life in film has been a part of American life for more than half a century."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780312088286
Publication Date: 1993
Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties by Steven CohanThe fifties marks the moment when a heterosexual/homosexual dualism came to dominate U.S. culture s thinking about masculinity. The films of this era record how gender and sexuality did not easily come together in a normative manhood common to American men. Instead these films demonstrate the widely held perception of a crises of masculinity. Masked Men documents how movies of the fifties represented masculinity as a multiple masquerade. Hollywood s star system positioned the male actor as a professional performer and as a body intended to solicit the erotic interest of male and female viewers alike. Drawing on publicity, poster art, fan magazines, and the popular press as a means of following the links between fifties stars, their films, and the social tensions of the period, Cohan juxtaposes Hollywood s narratives of masculinity against the personae of leading men like Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, William Holden, Montgomery Clift, Marlon Brando, and Rock Hudson. Masked Men focuses on the gender and sexual masquerades that organized their performances of masculinity on and off screen."
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780585026237
Publication Date: 1997-01-01
The Organization Man by William H. Whyte"Recognized as a benchmark, Whyte's book reveals the dilemmas at the heart of the group ethos that emerged in the corporate and social world of the postwar era."--Nathan Glazer
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780812209266
Publication Date: 2002
Pieces of Time: The Life of James Stewart by Gary FishgallAs the beloved hero of It's a Wonderful Life, and in scores of other roles, Jimmy Stewart, legendary star of Hollywood's Golden Era, has stolen his way into our hearts. Here, at last, as he nears ninety, is the definitive biography of this major American icon. Jimmy Stewart catapulted to stardom as everybody s favorite boy next door, his appeal emanating from his honest, affable persona. And he parlayed that appeal into a brilliant acting career spanning 79 films and nearly half a century. His unforgettable performances as the naive idealist fighting political corruption in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington...the delightful drunk whose companion is a six-foot rabbit in Harvey...and the flippant reporter caught between Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant in his Oscar "RM" winner, The Philadelphia Story, have made him a cultural icon, a symbol of the idealism and simple nobility of the average guy. Gary Fishgall, author of the well-received biography of Burr Lancaster Against Type, conducted thousands of hours of interviews for this book. Whether looking at Stewart's childhood, recalling the actor's fast-track dating days before his marri
Screening the Male: Exploring Masculinities in Hollywood Cinema by Steve Cohan (Editor)Screening the male re-examines the problematic status of masculinity both in Hollywood cinema and feminist film theory. Classical Hollywood cinema has been theoretically established as a vast pleasure machine, manufacturing an idealized viewer through its phallocentric ideological apparatus. Feminist criticism has shown how difficult it is for the female viewer to resist becoming implicated in this representational system. But the theroies have overlooked the significance of the problem itself - of the masuline motivation at the core of the system. The essays here explore those male characters, spectators, and performers who occupy positions conventionally encoded as "feminine" in Hollywood narrative and questions just how secure that orthodox male position is. Screening the Male brings together an impressive group of both established and emerging scholars from Britain, the United States and Australia unified by a concern with issues that film theorists have exclusively inked to the femninie and not the masculne: spectacle, masochism, passivity, masquerade and, most of all, the body as it signifies gendered, racial, class and generatonal differences.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781134900107
Publication Date: 1993
Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies by David Morley (Editor)Stuart Hall's work has been central to the formation and development of cultural studies as an international discipline. Stuart Hall: Critical Dialogues in Cultural Studies is an invaluable collection of writings by and about Stuart Hall. The book provides a representative selection of Hall's enormously influential writings on cultural studies and its concerns: the relationship with Marxism; postmodernism and 'New Times' in cultural and political thought; the development of cultural studies as an international and postcolonial phenomenon, and Hall's engagement with urgent and abiding questions of 'race', ethnicity and identity. In addition to presenting classic writings by Hall and new interviews with Hall in dialogue with Kuan-Hsing Chen, the collection, which includes work by Angela McRobbie, Kobena Mercer, John Fiske, Charlotte Brunsdon, Ien Ang and Isaac Julien, provides a detailed analysis of Hall's work and his contribution to the development of cultural studies by leading cultural critics and cultural practitioners. The book also includes a comprehensive bibliography of Stuart Hall's writings.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780415088039
Publication Date: 1996-03-05
Television: Technology and Cultural Form by Raymond WilliamsTelevision: Technology and Cultural Form was first published in 1974, long before the dawn of multi-channel TV, or the reality and celebrity shows that now pack the schedules. Yet Williams' analysis of television's history, its institutions, programmes and practices, and its future prospects, remains remarkably prescient. Williams stresses the importance of technology in shaping the cultural form of television, while always resisting the determinism of McLuhan's dictum that 'the medium is the message'. If the medium really is the message, Williams asks, what is left for us to do or say? Williams argues that, on the contrary, we as viewers have the power to disturb, disrupt and to distract the otherwise cold logic of history and technology - not just because television is part of the fabric of our daily lives, but because new technologies continue to offer opportunities, momentarily outside the sway of transnational corporations or the grasp of media moguls, for new forms of self and political expression.
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780203426647
Publication Date: 1975
Television Culture by John FiskeThis revised edition of a now classic text includes a new introduction by Henry Jenkins, explaining 'Why Fiske Still Matters' for today's students, followed by a discussion between former Fiske students Ron Becker, Aniko Bodroghkozy, Steve Classen, Elana Levine, Jason Mittell, Greg Smith and Pam Wilson on 'John Fiske and Television Culture'. Both underline the continuing relevance of this foundational text in the study of contemporary media and popular culture. Television is unique in its ability to produce so much pleasure and so many meanings for such a wide variety of people. In this book, John Fiske looks at television's role as an agent of popular culture, and goes on to consider the relationship between this cultural dimension and television's status as a commodity of the cultural industries that are deeply inscribed with capitalism. He makes use of detailed textual analysis and audience studies to show how television is absorbed into social experience, and thus made into popular culture. Audiences, Fiske argues, are productive, discriminating, and televisually literate. Television Culture provides a comprehensive introduction for students to an integral topic on all communication and media studies courses.