American Popular Culture Commons^™

The Role And Effect Of Advertising On Women During World War Ii, Laura Elizabeth Francis

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Advertising had an overwhelming effect on women during World War II; many women were influenced by advertising in the media to behave a certain way, buy certain products, and also support the war effort in a variety of ways. In the 1940s while many American women’s husbands, fiances, boyfriends, brothers, and sons were going off to fight in the War abroad, many women were fighting a war of their own on the home front. While men could prove they were active patriotic citizens by fighting in the military and taking government positions, female’s roles were re-written to show what they …

On Chris Lehmann's Revolt Of The Masscult, George Ciccariello Maher

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The good folks at Prickly Paradigm are certainly doing their job. Their stated objective is “publishing challenging and sometimes outrageous pamphlets,” and Lehmann's short piece fulfills this claim brilliantly, evoking intellectual mood swings that span from shouting for joy at a particularly lucid formulation to shouting angrily at the deftness with which Lehmann transforms his lucidity into suspiciously wrongheaded and reactionary assessments. The clinical bipolarity of this work, as we will see, is no coincidence: it is precisely the political entanglement of the subject of mass culture (“masscult”) that leads to both respect for one's opponents and suspicion …

On Lillian Robinson’S Wonder Women: Feminisms And Superheroes, Carlos Hernandez

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Sure, we all know that one of the primary functions of comic books is to titillate the proto-patriarchal penises of 12-year-old boys. But might this all-American art form have more to offer women than wedgie-prone bikini bottoms and cleavage from the Planet of the Fembots? According to Lillian Robinson’s Wonder Women, the answer is “Yes, but ....” The “Yes” part comes primarily, and foundationally, through the original Wonder Woman comics of the 40s, which told a story that to this day remains almost unheard-of in comic books: the story of a fully-realized female protagonist. For Robinson, the …

Mtv: Sounds Of A Generation, Amanda Evens

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Beyond 'Hot Lips' And 'Big Nurse': Creative Writing And Nursing, Sandra Young

English Faculty Publications

This essay describes a special topics creative writing course designed for nursing students, and argues that creative writing strategies work to improve nurses' compositional skills. Also discussed are other potential benefits from creatively writing patients' lives, notably, the blending of arts and sciences, and the ways in which medical schools are encouraging their students to study the humanities, especially literature and creative writing. The essay includes student creative writing samples.

The essay also discusses the depiction of nurses in popular culture. M*A*S*H*, Richard Hooker’s black comedy about the antics of doctors and nurses during the Korean War, gave us “Hot …

Contesting Identities: Sports In American Film [Book Review], Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

Aaron Baker's Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker's focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book's …

Reel Baseball: Essays And Interviews On The National Pastime, Hollywood And American Culture, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the "integral" place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the …

Professional Wrestling: From Sport To Sports Entertainment, Ryan Diesem

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Innovating Superheroes, Alvise Mattozzi

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[Introduction]

Superhero comics have changed. They have passed through a Golden Age and Silver Age, they have been transformed, cancelled, revived, killed, deconstructed, reconstructed, revisited, etc. My aim is to account for part of these changes and show how superhero comics have been innovated. In order to track these changes I chose to compare different versions of a few DC Comics series, such as Doom Patrol, Swamp Thing, Shade, that had been cancelled and then revived and are known to have introduced relevant changes between the earliest and the subsequent versions.

Before tackling the series mentioned, I …

Harper & Brothers’ Family And School District Libraries, 1830-1846., Robert S. Freeman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

In the 1830s, at the dawn of mass-market publishing, J. & J. Harper of New York began publishing several libraries, including Harper’s Family Library and Harper’s School District Library. A “library” in this sense is a series or set of uniformly bound and uniformly priced books issued by the same publisher. A leading publisher and a major force in the broad religious and social reform movements of the period, the Harper brothers helped to shape education in American homes and schools. As Methodists they were advocates of reading for moral improvement. As innovative publishers, they made full use of the …

Activist Desire, Cultural Criticism, And The Situationist International, David Banash

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

In the world of Anglo-American criticism, Situationism was once the province of hip theorists, progressive art historians, and a few scattered Marxists. No more, for the nineties saw Situationism come from obscure movement to the defiant avant of our cultural-critical-garde. Not only has the past decade seen the publication of a dozen books, countless articles, dissertations, and both academic and activist web-sites, the Situationists have moved right into the main line of pop-culture. Situationist graffiti turns up as the epigraph for gen-xer Elizabeth Wurtzel's Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women (1988), and, with Rolling Stone darling Greil Marcus's …

Why Do They Strike Us?, James Polchin

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

Over the past two years since the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming, the circumstances of his death have held a symbolic place in the story of violence against gay men and lesbians nationally. University of Wyoming Professor Beth Loffreda's book Losing Matt Shepard: Life and Politics in the Aftermath of Anti-Gay Murder is on the "Lambda Book Report" best-sellers list and MTV has recently premiered "Anatomy of a Hate Crime: The Matthew Shepard Story" that dramatized the events of October 6th, 1998. The telling and retelling of Shepard's murder in both academic books and popular culture suggests …

On The Jazz Musician's Love/Hate Relationship With The Audience, Bertram D. Ashe

English Faculty Publications

An assistant professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, Bertram D. Ashe discusses how the intersection of an African American cool style with a black vernacular tradition and multi-racial audiences complicates audience-performer relations. In the vernacular tradition, performers play not "to" but "with" an audience, drawing on the call-response patterns that characterize the black aesthetic. Ashe notes that the vernacular tradition is not racial but cultural, and class can be as important a marker as race in determining audience expectations. Differing cultural backgrounds create, in Ashe's words, "competing realities," distinct sets of expectations that can shape a …

An Activist's Guide To Lesbian History: A Companion To The Video Not Just Passing Through, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

This guide, designed to accompany the video Not Just Passing Through, contains guidelines for conducting oral history, forms for donating material to mainstream and community based archives, and lessons for engaging lesbian history with activism.

Gloria Patri, Gender, And The Gulf War: A Conversation With Mary Kelly, James Castonguay, Amelie Hastie, Lynne Joyrich, Christopher Lane, Kathleen Woodward

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Mary Kelly's gallery size installation, entitled Gloria Patri, was first shown at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, Cornell University in 1992. Gloria Patri focuses on the issues of heroism, mastery, and war within the context of a pathologized masculinity; that is, on the identification by both men and women with masculine ideals of mastery, domination, and control, and their simultaneous physical and psychological collapse. This crisis of masculine mastery is set against the backdrop of the Persian Gulf War.

Omnibus: Precursor Of Modern Television, Mary Beth Hinton

The Courier

"Omnibus" was, to use an expression current during the Golden Age of Television, a "window on the world", through which art, drama, music, dance, history, literature, science and technology, as well as athletics and comedy were brought into American homes by the gentlemanly and articulate host, Alistair Cooke. Between 1952 and 1961, "Omnibus", in seeking new ways to inform and to uplift, expanded the repertoire of television and stimulated the American public's appetite for 'cultural' programming.

In the early 1960s, Syracuse University unexpectedly acquired kinescope recordings of the "Omnibus" television series' first two seasons: 1952-53 and 1953-54. After the Ford …

To Tell The Truth: The Lesbian Herstory Archives: Chronicling A People And Fighting Invisibility Since 1974, Polly Thistlethwaite

Publications and Research

A portrait of the Lesbian Herstory Archives by a volunteer, describing the archive in its original home in Joan Nestle's Upper West Side New York City apartment that she shared with Mabel Hampton. Originally published in Out/Week Magazine.

Ua35/11 Student Honors Research Bulletin, Wku Honors Program

WKU Administration Documents

The WKU Student Honors Research Bulletin is dedicated to scholarly involvement and student research. These papers are representative of work done by students from throughout the university.

• Coates, Alan. Management's Attitude Toward Collective Bargaining
• Frew, Becky. The Effects of Personality Type and Social Support on Instances of Job Stress
• Green, Laura. Earth Sheltered Housing
• Gregory, Vicky. Fraud and Abuse by Medical Providers in Medicare and Medicaid
• Hignite, Susan. Japanese Students in Kentucky Classrooms
• Hodum, Martha. The Mathematically Gifted Child
• Jones, Rodney. Superman to Censorship: America's Romance with the Comic Book
• Marrs, Shawn. Romanticism and Unromanticism in Sir Gawain and the …

A Comparative Study Of Communication Style In Japan And The United States As Revealed Through Content Analysis Of Television Commercials, Noriko Huruse

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an empirical analysis of communication styles in Japan and the United States. In particular, the study deals with communication styles in Japanese and American television commercials as a reflection of human communication styles in the two countries.

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 52): May 9, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 51): May 2, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 50): April 25, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 49): April 18, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 48): April 11, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 47): April 4, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 46): March 28, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 45): March 21, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 44): March 14, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 43): March 7, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964

The Waterville Mail (Vol. 59, No. 42): February 28, 1906, The Mail Publishing Company

The Waterville Mail (Waterville, Maine)

Continues The Eastern Mail (July 1847-August 1863).
Published weekly, September 4, 1863 - May 9, 1906.
Publishers: Maxham & Wing (1863 - December 2,1885); Ephraim Maxham (December 1885); Wing & Wing (January 1886 - March 21, 1891); Charles G. Wing (March 21, 1891 - April 17, 1891); Prince & Wyman (April 17, 1891 - February 26, 1896); The Mail Publishing Company (February 26, 1896 - May 9, 1906).
See Gerould, W.G.: American newspapers, 1821-1836; Whittemore, E.C.: Centennial history of Waterville.
Colby Libraries catalog record (CBBcat): http://cbbcat.net/record=b1209701~S19
WorldCat record (OCLC): http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10486964