American Popular Culture Commons^™

Lawyers Not In Love, The Defenders And Sixties Tv, Steven Classen

Faculty Publications - Department of Communication and Cinematic Arts

This essay offers a social history and examination of The Defenders as a popular, criti- cally acclaimed television text that negotiated anxieties regarding crime, law, justice, lib- eralism, and masculinity in the 1960s and 1990s. Both The Defenders television series (1961–1965) and the Showtime motion picture series (1997–1998) by the same name rearticulated enduring tensions between law’s formalism and just desires for compassion and mercy, depicting defense attorneys as men who work both inside and outside of “law” to ensure justice and confront the lack of humanism in “the rule of law.” Such discourses are understood and appreciated in different …

Using The Novel To Teach Multiculturalism, Michelle Loris

English Faculty Publications

Description of a fourteen week course taught by Michelle Loris, professor of English at Sacred Heart University. The course, titled Recent Ethnic American Fictions, introduced students to several concepts from contemporary literary theory. The theories included New Criticism, Deconstruction, Cultural Studies, New Historicism, and Feminist Theory. The assumption was that these concepts would give students the tools to become critical readers, which would then provide them with a deeper understanding of these multicultural novels and their particular cultural contexts.

For a semester, reading and thinking about these multicultural novels engaged and challenged the students' assumptions about themselves and the …

Table Of Contents

The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard & Pulp Studies

Articles:

Introduction (The Dark Man V3n1) by Mark Hall

The Mysterious Isle by Patrice Louinet                 

Short Stories:

“The Isle of the Eons”, Draft a1 — circa July 1925, novelette by Robert E. Howard

“The Isle of the Eons”, Outline — circa April 1926, short fiction by Robert E. Howard

“The Isle of the Eons”, Draft a2 — circa April or May 1926, short story by Robert E. Howard

“The Isle of the Eons”, Draft a3 — circa spring 1928, short story by Robert E. Howard

“The Isle of the Eons”, Draft b1 — circa second half of 1929 , novelette …

The Rhetoric Of Crisis: How We Talk About The Vulnerability Of Youth, Casey Cramer

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The classical definition of rhetoric is generally understood to be the art of persuasion. Originating in ancient Greece, rhetoric was one of the three original liberal arts. It focused on effective use of language, most often in the arena of politics and public discourse (Brummett, 35). By mastering persuasive language, politicians were able to shape and sway public opinion in their favor. Conversely, by understanding the mechanics of rhetoric, citizens were able to recognize and interpret speech that was purposefully constructed. The prevalence of rhetoric in political speech made it an integral part of a democratic society - politicians needed …

Personalized Gravestones: Your Life's Passion For All To See And Hear, Peter A. Maresco, Ahmed U. Zafar

WCBT Faculty Publications

In the past several years, a trend has developed that in an earlier age would have seemed inappropriate and perhaps even morbid; the increased personalization of gravestones (memorials). What makes this trend interesting is the variety of shapes, designs, manufacturing processes, and types of personalization actually appearing on gravestones, including seven-inch LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) screens recessed into the face of memorials. This paper discusses gravestones (memorials) in a religious context. It examines the rapidly developing market for elaborately designed memorials both in their traditional forms, typically vertical and created out of granite with just a name and date of …

Mining The Meaning Of Collective Memory And Imagination: The Construction Of Identity In The Puerto Rican Diaspora, Courtney Hooper

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project illuminates the relationship between cultural resistance, cultural production, and cultural identity in the poetry of Puerto Ricans in New York (“Nuyoricans”). Through textual analysis, informal interviews, and participant observation conducted in the South Bronx, this project is interested in how the descriptions of the island as “home” are used to mediate a cultural or ethnic identity, particularly amongst a people who do not live there, or perhaps never have. While the construction of an ethnic identity and a conceptual homeland in a diasporic community has been studied in past research, the intention here is to elaborate upon the …

"Don't Believe The Hype": The Construction And Export Of African American Images In Hip-Hop Culture., John Ike Sewell Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines recurring motifs and personas in hip-hop.

Interviews with influential hip-hop scholars, writers and music industry personnel were conducted and analyzed using qualitative methods. Interview subjects were selected based on their insider knowledge as music critics, hip-hop scholars, ethnomusicologists, publicists, and music industry positions.

The vast majority of constructed imagery in hip-hop is based on a single persona, the gangsta. This qualitative analysis reveals why gangsta personas and motifs have become the de facto imagery of hip-hop. Gangsta imagery is repeatedly presented because it sells, it is the most readily-available role, and because of music industry pressures.

This …

Handling And Preventing Journalistic Fraud: Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, Kenneth Munson

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Fraud is a growing concern in the news business, especially in recent years where numerous journalism scandals rock its foundation. This paper examines the most prominent cases: Stephen Glass, the reporter for The New Republic newsmagazine who completely or partially fabricated 27 stories in the late ‘90s; Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who was found to have plagiarized or made up his supposedly on-thescene reporting in 2003; and Janet Cooke, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her Washington Post story about a child heroin addict who, in actuality, did not exist. This paper will examine flaws …

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 …

A Joint Rolled In Toilet Paper: Funkadelic’S Funky Soul, Joseph T. Thomas Jr.

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

Through an examination of Parliament-Funkadelic’s lyrics and music, this paper explores shit, dirt, and the funk, investigating their relationship to George Clinton and his band’s desire to darken the Humanistic project of Enlightenment, their desire to soil language, and thereby question conventional, bourgeois values. The author argues that Funkadelic participate in what Mikhail Bakhtin calls the “peculiar logic” of the carnivalesque, detourning status quo notions of culture and society, creating complex contortions through the blurring of the good and the bad, the cerebral and the carnal, the sublime and the mundane. In essence, Funkadelic are a musical carnival that exists …

Interview With Clem Haskins (Fa 202), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Clem Smith Haskins conducted by Lynne Ferguson for an oral history project titled "Campbellsville-Taylor County Oral History Project." Haskins discusses his family, education, farming, and information about growing up in Taylor County, Kentucky.

Nothing Personal : A Collection Of Nonfiction Essays Exposing The Perverted Experiences Of Life, Interactions, And Responses, Benjamin P. Taylor

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Nothing Personal is a collection of nonfiction essays playfully written in response to subtle misunderstandings. Such misunderstandings, in this creative thesis, are fueled by an unexplained divorce, alcoholism, the new absence of love, and the difference between the personal and the traditional church. The essays also expose the science of conversation and other lighter occurrences and happenings in an esteemed pursuit to live life more humorously.

Summer 2006, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format. "The WMPG 'Zine"

From ‘Sweet Mamas’ To ‘Bodacious’ Hillbillies: Billy Debeck’S Impact On American Culture, Anthony Harkins

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard & Pulp Studies

Articles:

Editorial Comments (The Dark Man V2n1/2), by Mark Hall

Robert E. Howard and Poetic Narrative: The Bardic Tradition and “Popular Modernities”, by Frank Coffman

Robert E. Howard: New Deal Heroic Fantasist, by Rusty Burke

Crash Go the Civilizations: Some Notes on Robert E. Howard’s Use of History and Anthropology, by Mark Hall

“Red Shadows” Through the Lens of Northrop Faye’s Archetypal Criticism, by Patrick R. Burger

Letters to the Editor (The Dark Man V2n1/2), by Mark Hall

Letter (The Dark Man V2n1/2), by Mark Finn

Letter (The Dark Man V2n1/2), by Jeffrey Kahan

Letter (The Dark Man V2n1/2), by …

"When A Killer Body Isn't Enough": Cross-Gender Identification In Action-Adventure Video Games, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

While sports games try to recreate the atmosphere of a stadium or of television broadcasts of games, role-playing and action adventure games attempt to duplicate cinematography through animation. For Tomb Raider, the virtual reality created by the cinematic animation of the game produces an environment for male-to-female cross-gender identification, a topic that has received little critical attention. The sense of identification intended in this chapter comes from psychoanalysts Jean Laplanche and Jean-Baptiste Pontalis, who describe identification as a "psychological process in which a subject assimilates an aspect, a property, a characteristic of another and transforms himself [or herself] totally or …

"It'll Pass": Nypd: Blue's Sipowicz And Mundane Masculinity, Marc Ouellette

English Faculty Publications

(First paragraph) The development of the character of Det. Andy Sipowicz, on the ABC drama, NYPD: Blue, effectively demonstrates that the obstinance of traditional forms of masculinity may ultimately be a key factor in their undoing. Rather than effecting a superficial change based on consumer choice, as concurrent characters do, Sipowicz undergoes a transformation of his social behavior. Sipowicz regularly behaves in a manner consistent with Robert Connell’s definition of “hegemonic masculinity”: he resorts to violence, he resists change and he resents women and minorities (131). His alcoholism and quick temper tend to hinder his ability to adapt. However, change …

At Home In The City: Urban Domesticity In American Literature And Culture, 1850-1930, By Betsy Klimasmith, Cara Erdheim

English Faculty Publications

Book review by Cara Erdheim.

Klimasmith, Betsy. At Home in the City: Urban Domesticity in American Literature and Culture, 1850-1930. Durham, New Hampshire: University of New Hampshire Press, 2005.

American Cultural Icons In Museums, Alana Cole-Faber

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

.

[Introduction To] Her Best Shot: Women And Guns In America, Laura Browder

Bookshelf

The gun-toting woman holds enormous symbolic significance in American culture. For over two centuries, women who pick up guns have disrupted the popular association of guns and masculinity, spurring debates about women's capabilities for violence as well as their capacity for full citizenship. In Her Best Shot, Laura Browder examines the relationship between women and guns and the ways in which the figure of the armed woman has served as a lightning rod for cultural issues.

Utilizing autobiographies, advertising, journalism, novels, and political tracts, among other sources, Browder traces appearances of the armed woman across a chronological spectrum from …

On Justine Larbalestier’S The Battle Of The Sexes In Science Fiction, Joe Bisz

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

Science Fiction, writes author Justine Larbalestier, has always told the tale of the battle between the sexes. The battle can be witnessed from afar, as in the grainy 1930’s letter columns in old sci-fi magazines like Astounding where quarrels over innate sexual differences were published and debated, or from up close in today’s literature. Larbalestier declares that the goal of her book is to illustrate how necessary and important this former, pre-70’s period of science fiction (1926 to 1973) is to contemporary feminist science fiction. The pre-70’s time period has been consistently ignored by critics, who fixate on …

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 …

Revelation And The Left Behind Novels, Craig R. Koester

Faculty Publications

The Left Behind novels appeal because they affirm God's control of history in the face of violence and moral decay. Our challenge is to be more biblical than Left Behind, not less biblical to hear Revelation's call to persevere in the face of evil and to trust in the final victory of God and the Lamb.

Summer 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Summer 2005

Mtv: Sounds Of A Generation, Amanda Evens

Honors Capstones

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

Spring 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format.

Fall/Winter 2005, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

The Hillbilly In The American Imagination, Anthony Harkins

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Hillbilly: A Cultural History Of An American Icon, Anthony Harkins

History Faculty Book Gallery

In this pioneering work of cultural history, historian Anthony Harkins argues that the hillbilly-in his various guises of "briar hopper," "brush ape," "ridge runner," and "white trash"-has been viewed by mainstream Americans simultaneously as a violent degenerate who threatens the modern order and as a keeper of traditional values of family, home, and physical production, and thus symbolic of a nostalgic past free of the problems of contemporary life. "Hillbilly" signifies both rugged individualism and stubborn backwardness, strong family and kin networks but also inbreeding and bloody feuds. Spanning film, literature, and the entire expanse of American popular culture, from …