A morbidly fascinating and articulate collection of essays, this book explores the grim underside of America's cult of the automobile and the disturbing, frequently conspiratorial, speculations that arise whenever the car becomes the cause or the site of human death. Through analysis of fatal celebrity car accidents and other examples of death by automobile, as well as through personal memoir and forensic reports, cultural critics ponder our very human fascination with the car crash. Topics include the roles and experiences of passengers and bystanders, car crash conspiracy theories, the...
A morbidly fascinating and articulate collection of essays, this book explores the grim underside of America's cult of the automobile and the disturbi...
Brottman offers up a study of movies so offensive, some are practically unwatchable. From the ever-popular Faces of Death movies to purported snuff films, from classic B-movies such as The Tingler, to more popular but no less controversial films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Brottman takes a wide-eyed look at movies most folks watch only through parted fingers. While most critics have been quick to dismiss such films as mere shock-fests (if they even bother to talk about them at all), Brottman argues that these movies tell us quite a bit about who we are as a...
Brottman offers up a study of movies so offensive, some are practically unwatchable. From the ever-popular Faces of Death movies to purported s...
Why are jokes funny? Why do we laugh? In Funny Peculiar, Mikita Brottman demurs from recent scholarship that takes laughter - and the broader domain of humor and the comical - as a liberating social force and an endearing aspect of self-expression. For Brottman, there is nothing funny about laughter, which is less connected to mirth and feelings of good will than to a nexus of darker emotions: fear, aggression, shame, anxiety. Brottman rethinks not only the mechanisms of humor but the relation of humor to the body and the senses. To this end, she provides an engrossing account of the life and...
Why are jokes funny? Why do we laugh? In Funny Peculiar, Mikita Brottman demurs from recent scholarship that takes laughter - and the broader domain o...
In High Theory/Low Culture, Brottman uses the tools of 'high' cultural theory to examine many areas of today's popular culture, including style magazines, sport, shopping, tabloid newspapers, horror movies and pornography. In doing so, she not only demonstrates the practical use of 'high' theory as it relates to our everyday world, but she also investigates the kinds of 'low' culture that are regularly dismissed by academic scholars. Through a close examination of these cultural forms, Brottman reveals how the kinds of popular culture that we usually take for granted are, in fact, far more...
In High Theory/Low Culture, Brottman uses the tools of 'high' cultural theory to examine many areas of today's popular culture, including style magazi...
In High Theory/Low Culture, Brottman uses the tools of 'high' cultural theory to examine many areas of today's popular culture, including style magazines, sport, shopping, tabloid newspapers, horror movies and pornography. In doing so, she not only demonstrates the practical use of 'high' theory as it relates to our everyday world, but she also investigates the kinds of 'low' culture that are regularly dismissed by academic scholars. Through a close examination of these cultural forms, Brottman reveals how the kinds of popular culture that we usually take for granted are, in fact, far more...
In High Theory/Low Culture, Brottman uses the tools of 'high' cultural theory to examine many areas of today's popular culture, including style magazi...
Mikita Brottman wonders, just why is reading so great? It's a solitary practice, one that takes away from time that could be spent developing important social networking skills. Reading's not required for health, happiness, or a loving family. And, if reading is so important, why are catchy slogans like "Reading Changes Lives" and "Champions Read" needed to hammer the point home? Fearlessly tackling the notion that nonreaders are doomed to lives of despair and mental decay, Brottman makes the case that the value of reading lies not in its ability to ward off Alzheimer's or that it's a...
Mikita Brottman wonders, just why is reading so great? It's a solitary practice, one that takes away from time that could be spent developing importan...
As Freud predicted, there has always been great anxiety about the place of psychoanalysis in contemporary life, particularly in relation to its ambiguous and complicated relationship to the realm of science. There is also a long history of widespread resistance, in both academia and medicine, to anything associated with the world of the supernatural; very few people, in their professional lives, at least, are willing to admit a serious interest in occult phenomena. As a result, paranormal traces have all but vanished from the psychoanalytic process--though not without leaving a residue. This...
As Freud predicted, there has always been great anxiety about the place of psychoanalysis in contemporary life, particularly in relation to its ambigu...
A scholar, psychoanalyst, and cultural critic explores the multifaceted role dogs play in our world in this charming bestiary of dogs from literature, lore, and life.
While gradually unveiling her eight-year love affair with her French bulldog, Grisby, Mikita Brottman ruminates on the singular bond between dogs and humans. Why do prevailing attitudes warn us against loving our pet "too much"? Is her relationship with Grisby nourishing or dysfunctional, commonplace or unique? Challenging the assumption that there's something repressed and neurotic about those deeply connected to a...
A scholar, psychoanalyst, and cultural critic explores the multifaceted role dogs play in our world in this charming bestiary of dogs from literatu...
