Studies in Entertainment: Critical Approaches to Mass Culture (Theories of Contemporary Culture)

"This is an important book for all students of literature and history." — American Studies International "... thoughtful and provocative.... the essays... grant complexity and contradiction to mass culture, while interrogating its objects from positions that — explicitly or implicitly — derive from the left and from feminism." — The Independent These innovative and politically engaged essays reflect the paradox inherent in taking a critical approach to mass culture. The contributors, in many cases pioneers in their particular area of inquiry, include: Tania Modleski, Raymond Williams (interviewed here by Stephen Heath and Gillian Skirrow), Bernard Gendron, Rick Altman, Margaret Morse, Patricia Mellencamp, Judith Williamson, Jean Franco, Kaja Silverman, Dana Polan, and Andreas Huyssen. These innovative and politically engaged essays reflect the paradox inherent in taking a critical approach to mass culture. Exploring various forms of contemporary mass art and culture, from rock-'n'-roll music to "slasher" films, from women's romances to "retro" fashion style, these innovative and politically engaged essays reflect the paradox inherent in taking a critical approach to mass culture. They draw on a variety of theories, including feminist theory, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, linguistic theory, and psychonalysis, to reveal the very complicated workings of popular texts, to make explicit the text's ideological effects on consumers, and to challenge the outmoded (and, as two contributors argue, misogynist) dichotomy between high art and mass culture. It offers a provactive array of essays explaining important facets of contemporary culture