Revisiting and Revising the Fifties in Contemporary Us Popular Culture: Self-Reflexivity, Melodrama, and Nostalgia in Film and Television

ISBN-13: 9783662618738 / Angielski / Miękka / 2020 / 229 str.

Eleonora Ravizza

Opis

In this book, Eleonora Ravizza analyzes how contemporary American popular culture has represented and reproduced the fifties. By investigating the cultural work of films and TV series from the last two decades, the book uncovers the inherent limitations of a 'revisionist' take on the fifties. Ravizza argues that, due to the visual nature of the fifties-crystallized in American consciousness through the widespread influence of television-most contemporary attempts to rework and rewrite the regressive gender, queer, and racial politics fall short of such a revisionist reevaluation.

Spis treści

The Fifties: Constructing American Identity.- The Melodramatic Mode: Suffering Bodies and Troubled Minds.-  Fifties Self-Reflexivity: Pleasure, Media, and Cultural Politics.-
The Politics of Queer Nostalgia.

O autorze

Eleonora Ravizza works at the Institute for American Studies at Leipzig University as a lecturer. Her primary research interests include popular culture and literature, gender, queerness, genre, and psychoanalysis.
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Blurb

In this book, Eleonora Ravizza analyzes how contemporary American popular culture has represented and reproduced the fifties. By investigating the cultural work of films and TV series from the last two decades, the book uncovers the inherent limitations of a ‘revisionist’ take on the fifties. Ravizza argues that, due to the visual nature of the fifties—crystallized in American consciousness through the widespread influence of television—most contemporary attempts to rework and rewrite the regressive gender, queer, and racial politics fall short of such a revisionist reevaluation.

Contents

• The Fifties: Constructing American Identity
• The Melodramatic Mode: Suffering Bodies and Troubled Minds
• Fifties Self-Reflexivity: Pleasure, Media, and Cultural Politics
• The Politics of Queer Nostalgia

Target Groups

• Teachers, researchers, and students of American studies, cultural studies, media studies, and literary studies
• Professionals from fields such as film, TV and media as well as journalists and cultural critics

The Author
Eleonora Ravizza works at the Institute for American Studies at Leipzig University as a lecturer. Her primary research interests include popular culture and literature, gender, queerness, genre, and psychoanalysis.
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