Television Commons^™

Introduction: Rethinking Critical Theory And Maoism, Kang Liu

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, "Rethinking Critical Theory and Maoism," Kang Liu reviews the existing literature in English on the relationship of Critical Theory and Maoism and discusses the need to explore and reconstruct a genealogy of Critical Theory and Maoism within the global context of political, ideological, and intellectual currents and trends. The special issue will focus on three clusters of issues: first, the western invention of Maoism as a universal theory of revolution; second, the reception of Critical Theory in China and its relationship to Maoism; and third, the relevance of Maoism and Critical Theory today. Liu raises the question ...

Maoism In Culture: A “Glocalized” Or “Sinicized” Marxist Literary Theory, Ning Wang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his essay "Maoism in Culture," Ning Wang discusses the importance to literature and art of Mao's famous "Yan'an Talks" as one of his most representative works. Maoism, or Mao Zedong Thought as is generally called in China, is a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxism initiated and developed by Mao and his comrades in arms and successors in China. Wang argues that although Maoism is not a dogmatically "imported" Marxism from the West, it has indeed grasped some fundamental Marxist principles in combination with the concrete Chinese literary and critical practice. Thus a "glocalized" or "Sinicized" Marxist literary theory ...

Mao's "On Contradiction," Mao-Hegel/Mao-Deleuze, Kenneth Surin

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Mao Tse-Tung's famous 1937 essay "On Contradiction" is regarded as a significant attempt to redefine and reapply Marx's notion of a "dialectical contradiction" to the Chinese revolutionary conjuncture of Mao's time. I set out the principles outlined in Mao's essay, before arguing that the revolutionary conjuncture of his time no longer exists in the era of globalization and neoliberalism. I conclude that a new conception of "antagonism" is needed, and revise Mao's position with the aid of the philosophy of Deleuze and Guattari.

Mapping Out Chinese Modernity And Alternative Modernity, Song Li

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article, “Mapping Out Chinese Modernity and Alternative Modernity,” Song Li reviews the writings of Kang Liu, particularly his Aesthetics and Marxism. Kang Liu studies the intellectual trajectory of Chinese Marxism from its inception to its post-Mao phases of transformation by comparing it with the cultural and aesthetic thinking of Western Marxism. It provides not only a new perspective for the study of Marxism in general and Chinese Marxism in particular, but also opens up a new space for mapping out Chinese modernity and alternative modernity. Its 2012 Chinese translation makes it more accessible in China, and it will ...

The Political (Un)Conscious: Rethinking Aesthetics From A Cross-Cultural Perspective, Xiaohong Zhang

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article, "The Political (Un)conscious: Rethinking Aesthetics from a Cross-Cultural Perspective," Xiaohong Zhang adopts a cross-cultural perspective, examining the cultural-specific nuances of critical terms like race, class and gender, all of which have bearings on our perception and conception of aesthetics. Drawing on Emory Elliot's groundbreaking book, Aesthetics in a Multicultural Age (2002), the paper probes into the aesthetic experience whose primary effect is to depragmatize. Along this line of thinking, the author draws attention to the aesthetic impetus of two Nobel laureates, Mo Yan and Gao Xingjian, whose rewriting of Western classics demonstrates Chinese authors' shared ...

Satirical Politics And Late-Night Television Ratings, Tanner Johnson

Honors College Theses

Since the 2016 Presidential election, it has become increasingly difficult to turn on the television or log onto social media without being informed of everything happening at The White House. This includes late-night television. What once was meant for humorous jokes and celebrity interviews suitable for any pop culture follower has not gotten less funny, but nowadays, the jokes are not always jokes. Satirical news has been around for a long time with The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, but as of 2016, the line between fact and fiction cannot be as easily differentiated between as it used to ...

Casting A Wider Lasso: An Analysis Of The Cultural Dismissal Of Wonder Woman Through Her 1975-1979 Television Series, Ian Boucher

Faculty and Staff Publications By Year

“Every successful show has a multitude of fights, and that the shows are successful sometimes are because of those fights. And sometimes shows aren’t successful because those fights aren’t carried on long or hard enough.”
-Douglas S. Cramer

“And any civilization that does not recognize the female is doomed to destruction. Women are the wave of the future—and sisterhood is…stronger than anything.”
-Wonder Woman, The New Original Wonder Woman (7 Nov. 1975)

Live-action superhero films currently play a significant role at the box office, which means they also play a significant role in culture’s understandings ...

Won't You Be My Neighbor?, John C. Lyden

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018), directed by Morgan Neville.

Kathryn A. Kleppinger. Branding The 'Beur' Author: Minority Writing And The Media In France, 1983-2013. Liverpool: Liverpool Up, 2015., Christopher Ice

Studies in 20th & 21st Century Literature

Review of Kathryn A. Kleppinger. Branding the 'Beur' Author: Minority Writing and the Media in France, 1983-2013. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2015. xi + 271 pp.

Nasty Women: Television Portrayals Of Societal Anxieties Toward Female Leaders, Emily Sullivan

Honors Theses

Historically, women have been excluded from leadership positions around the world, while instead men occupy the highest positions of power in society. The lack of female leadership is especially prevalent in the United States, where there has never been a female president, and the majority of high political offices are still held by men. In a similar manner, women have also been excluded from the sphere of comedy throughout history. Women have constantly had to deal with the assertion that women are not funny. This double exclusion from both leadership and comedy has led to the development of my concept ...

From Middlemarch To The Da Vinci Code: Portrayals Of Religious Studies In Popular Culture, Brian Collins, Kristen Tobey

2018 Faculty Bibliography

No abstract provided.

The Buffered Slayer: A Search For Meaning In A Secular Age, Kari Willinger

Masters Theses

Charles Taylor, in A Secular Age, claims that over time, modernity has given way to a new secular age, and with this new era comes cultural shifts in our perception of ourselves and the world. Given Taylor’s notion of a world haunted by transcendence, we can notice this haunting throughout aspects of modernity, especially in literature and entertainment where we can see authors and creators deal with issues of identity and morality from a purely modern perspective. Specifically, Taylor’s concepts connect with Buffy the Vampire Slayer because the characters in Buffy align with Taylor’s understanding of the ...

Labor And Delivery: Television Performances By Pregnant Actresses From 1948-2016, Evleen Michelle Nasir

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Labor and Delivery: Television Actresses’ Pregnant Performances from 1948-2016, examines the labor of six pregnant actresses working on United States television. Mary Kay Stearns, Lucille Ball, Jane Leeves, Kerry Washington, and Katey Sagal all worked through pregnancies while filming their respective television shows. These women exemplify the multitude of actresses who maintained their careers and their pregnancies in the television industry. This is the first study of its kind to examine the labor of an actresses’ pregnant body on film while she performs a role other than herself. Previous examinations of pregnancy in performance are few but have largely focused ...

Is This Black Enough For You? A Comparative Analysis Of African-American Families Portrayed In Black Family Television Comedies Between 1980 And 2000, Joycelyn Jonas-Fowler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations Collection for Atlanta University & Clark Atlanta University

Research shows that black people watch more television than any other race of people, and, given that television is the most influential media tool, the content of what may affect an audience’s behavior and beliefs deserves analysis. This study examines the black family, alleged pathology, strengths that are specifically associated with them, its portrayal on television, and how television is used as a tool for socialization and influence. A content analysis of the top thirty black family shows that appeared on major network television between 1980 and 2000 was conducted to determine if the family framed was portrayed realistically ...

Cultural Imperialism, Tv And Children Spectatorship In Contemporary Ghana., Aba Micah

Master's Theses

A content and discourse analysis of television programs is performed to show that Ghanaians do enjoy their local programs but very little time is allocated for children’s content on both the public and private stations. Instead, foreign content has flooded the TV channels for both adult and children’s programs and this is concerning because culture is being lost amongst the new generation. Also, in an era where representation matters, African children should be represented in the media. This paper centers on cultural and media imperialism and representation of the African child in the media and we find that ...

Creating A Happy Ending For Socially Relevant Television, John Thomas Cunha

Senior Honors Projects

Television is accessible to millions from the comfort of their own homes and shapes the way we view the world. It has the power to bring people together, but often presents diversity with a strong emphasis on labels. Characters are defined by the one trait that, to the majority of viewers, is unrelatable. This maintains the separation of “us” and “them,” isolating those in the minority. Representation is essential for progress, but it’s more than just including diversity. Instead of dwelling on differences and indulging in stereotypes, characters should all treat each other equally.

The focal TV show of ...

Dolls Who Speak: Sex Robots, Cyborgs And The Image Of Woman, Victoria E. Pihl Sorensen

All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the emerging phenomenon of sex robots from a feminist materialist perspective. I explore the current scholarly and popular debates on sex robots, and suggest a reading of sex robots in their machinic, literary and cinematic expressions to move beyond the moral-ethical impasse that seems to dominate sex robot discussions. Employing Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Myth” on a methodological and theoretical level, I argue for an interdisciplinary approach to studying sex robots, which proceeds carefully so as to avoid contributing to sex panic, and which thinks critically about what it might mean to assess sex robots from a ...

Living In The Liminal: Representation Of Transgender And Nonbinary Identity In 'Steven Universe', Mads Bradley

Media and Communication Studies Honors Papers

An analysis of the children’s animated series Steven Universe, this research takes a semiotic approach to explore anti-essentialist messages of gender identity. Atypical within the mainstream media, the cartoon expresses dynamic messages about gender by representing nonbinary characters and gender fluid themes. By contextualizing the American history of cartoon production, queer representation, and audience reception, this analysis provides insight into the importance of inclusive depictions of transgender identity in children’s media. Through close textual analysis and focus group findings with straight cisgender and queer informants, the research examines how the show portrays liminal identities. By combining textual analysis ...

Inside The Mind Of Larry David: Navigating The Border Walls And Bizarre Social Customs Of "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Chris Mcvetta

Ray Browne Conference on Cultural and Critical Studies

Whether real, imagined, or otherwise, there is no denying Larry David lives in a world with and without borders. Whether it is in one of his past (“Seinfeld”) or current (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”) television lives, Larry David inhabits an alternative universe of his own making. From the coffee house to the country club, the world of Hollywood is his playground where he continually builds walls between himself and the rest of “normal” society. And while Larry David is a master of his domain and crossing the proverbial line, he is even more adept at tearing down the walls of traditional ...

Rwu First Amendment Blog: David Logan's Blog: Media Centralization Imperils Marketplace Of Ideas 04-05-2018, David A. Logan

Law School Blogs

No abstract provided.