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Full-Text Articles in American Popular Culture
Commodifying Scarcity: Society, Struggle, And Spectacle In World Of Warcraft, Kevin Moberly
Commodifying Scarcity: Society, Struggle, And Spectacle In World Of Warcraft, Kevin Moberly
English Faculty Publications
Overrun by monsters and tyrants, and ravaged by fanaticism, excess, and greed, World of Warcraft offers players a chance to struggle metaphorically against that which oppresses them: the excesses of late capitalism as they are represented by the game’s spectacular antagonisms. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, however, players must employ the very thing through which their oppression is manifested. Interpellated into the game as fetishized images, players must construct themselves and function in accordance with the limitations imposed upon them by the race and class of their characters. Players, as such, are incorporated into World of Warcraft’s …
Invisible Dread, From Twisted: The Dreadlock Chronicles, Bertram D. Ashe
Invisible Dread, From Twisted: The Dreadlock Chronicles, Bertram D. Ashe
English Faculty Publications
This excerpt traces the issues and process surrounding the dreadlocking of an African-American professor's hair. The personal history leading up to the decision to grow locks is briefly addressed, as is the experience of getting twisted for the first time and some reactions to the new hairstyle. Twisted discusses issues of cultural authenticity and academic nonconformity. It examines dreadlocks as a pathway to explore black identity, but in opposing ways: the act of locking ones hair does display unconventional blackness - but it also participates in a preexisting black style. To what extent, the excerpt asks, can the adoption of …