American Popular Culture Commons^™

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 …

Summer 2001, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Hollywood Goes To Washington: Scandal, Politics, And Contemporary Media Culture, James Castonguay

Communication, Media & The Arts Faculty Publications

Hollywood has long been associated with scandal--with covering it up, with managing its effects, and, in some cases, with creating and directing it. In putting together Headline Hollywood, Adrienne McLean and David Cook approach the relationship between Hollywood and scandal from a fresh perspective. The contributors consider some of the famous transgressions that shocked Hollywood and its audiences during the last century, and explore the changing meaning of scandal over time by zeroing in on issues of power: Who decides what crimes and misdemeanors should be circulated for public consumption and titillation? What makes a Hollywood scandal scandalous? What are …

Table Of Contents

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

Editor's Welcome, by Frank Coffman

When Kull Rode the Range, by Fred Blosser

All Fled, All Done, by Rusty Burke

The Tower of the Elephant: A Modern Fable, by Gary Romeo

Escape from Eden: Genesis Subverted in the "Garden of Fear," by Charles Hoffman

James Allison's Incarnations, by Joe Marek

Soldiering for Fortune: Robert E. Howard's Kirby O'Donnell and "The Treasures of Tartary," by Dr. Gary Hoppenstand

Dating "Wolfshead," by Edward Waterman

"Ghor Kin-Slayer," review by Fred Blosser

The Cairn (Letters from Contributors), Introduced by Frank Coffman

Lock Box 313 (Letters from Contributors), Introduced by Frank Coffman

A Previously Unpublished …

"Hair Drama" On The Cover Of "Vibe" Magazine, Bertram D. Ashe

English Faculty Publications

This study consists of a cultural reading of the cover photograph of the June-July 1999 issue of Vibe magazine. It explores the relationship between Mase, an African-American male rap star, and the three anonymous African-American female models that surround him. The study interprets the cover through the long, straightened hair of the models, locating the models' hair in a historically-informed context of black hair theory and practice. The study argues that the models' presence on the cover, particularly their "bone straight and long" hair, "enhances" Mase in much the same way breast-augmented "trophy women" "enhance" their mates. Ultimately, the study …

Winter/Spring 2001, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format.

Summer 2000, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

No abstract provided.

Winter/Spring 2000, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Fall/Winter 2000, Wmpg 90.9 Fm

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Fall/Winter 2000

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

The Pitchman In Print: Oral Performance Art In Text And Context, Joseph Ugoretz

Publications and Research

Oral performance art, patterned performative speech for an audience, is perhaps the oldest and most ubiquitous human art form. Specific instances of this art include the performances of griots and guslars, troubadors and shamans, as well as rappers and riddlers, preachers and politicians. While this art form is by definition oral, it is also the case that, frequently, literary art has represented oral performance art. There is written art which depicts oral art, which describes it, appropriates it, criticizes and co‑opts it.

In this dissertation, I define oral performance art as constituting a separate and unique artistic genre, one which …

Consumed By Faith: The Development Of Christian Fundamentalism And Its Applications In Contemporary Society, Laura M. Gagne

Honors Theses

My research aims to understand how and why fundamentalists justify violence against people who do not fit their profile of "righteous" or "saved" persons, such as abortion doctors and clinic workers, gays and lesbians, and Jews. The first section of this paper travels through the history of fundamentalism since its origins in the British and American apocalipticism, or belief in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. However, my history of Protestant Fundamentalism in the United States will focus on the ways in which Fundamentalism developed in response to many changes in American social structure. I interpret Fundamentalism as an anti-modern …

Does "Gangsta Rap" Music Cross Good Judgment Lines And Decency Values?, Ajay Kumar Ojha

Masters Theses

There has been much controversy associated with "gangsta rap" music over the 1990's decade. This manuscript takes a closer look at "gangsta rap" music through a descriptive analysis, exploring these topics: social construction of reality, sexism, violence, community actions, and their possible negative influences on societal values. The positive and negative implications involving "gangsta rap" music are compared using lyrics from artists whose music has been in question in the past. Using a semantic differential survey and focus group interviews, "gangsta rap" music is analyzed, examining its exposure to people, possible promotion and communication of negative societal values. The study …

The Gendered World Of Disney: A Content Analysis Of Gender Themes In Full-Length Animated Disney Feature Films, Beth A. Wiersma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has focused on the gender messages portrayed in television programs, cartoons, advertisements, literature, picture books, and fairy tales. One venue that has not received as much attention in the research is the Disney 1 full-length animated feature films. This is a qualitative study of the gender themes and portrayal of gender roles in full-length animated feature films by The Walt Disney Company. The findings in this research indicate there has been little change in the stereotyped portrayals of Disney characters from the release of the first full-length animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 to …

Who Exactly Is Living La Vida Loca: The Legal And Political Consequences Of Latino-Latina Ethnic And Racial Stereotypes In Film And Other Media, Ediberto Román

Faculty Publications

This piece, however, will not simply expose the insidious stereotypes of Latinas and Latinos. It will undertake the more involved task of drawing a nexus between the societal prejudice which leads to the stereotyping and the legal and political consequences that result from it. Specifically, I argue that these media images, myths, metaphors, and stereotypes play a critical role in establishing society's vision of Latinas and Latinos. In other words, these stereotypes serve to reinforce both the characterizations of Latinas and Latinos from the perspectives of both the dominant and the dominated. These stereotypes, in turn, foster and perpetuate two …

Summer 1999, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format

Winter/Spring 1999, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

Newspaper format.

The Psychology Of Uncertainty: (Re)Inscribing Indeterminacy In Rudolph Fisher's The Conjure-Man Dies, Adrienne Gosselin

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

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 …

Consumer Brands As A Defining Medium For American Culture, Andrea J. Kasper

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Cummings Guest House Register Pages 097 And 098, Usm African American Collection

We Exist Series 4: Cummings Guest House Register Excerpts

This is a detail from the Cummings Guest House Register. You can see a digital version of the full text HERE.

Cummings Guest House Register Pages 099 And 100, Usm African American Collection

We Exist Series 4: Cummings Guest House Register Excerpts

This is a detail from the Cummings Guest House Register. You can see a digital version of the full text HERE.

Spring 1998, Wmpg 90.9 Fm

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Spring 1998

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

Racial Etiquette And The (White) Plot Of Passing:(Re) Inscribing" Place" In John Stahl's Imitation Of Life, Adrienne Gosselin

English Faculty Publications

Examines the machinations of racial etiquette and ways in which John Stahl's 1934 film `Imitation of Life' enforces the politics of the white plot of passing and place. Passing plot as utilized by American white and black writers of the period; Antimiscegenation film.

Martha Stewart Weekdays: A Symbolic Construction Of The Image Of Woman, Holly Lorraine Dent

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Today the American culture makes the claim that “image is everything.” Messages bombard the public with how to think, feel and look via the media. Programs on television that target women vary in topics from fitness, talk shows, movies, and home shopping to an endless array of soap operas. Television has provided a medium that visually and aurally appeals to viewers in a way that no other medium can. The messages of the ideal woman on television are often subtle and couched within the pretense of entertainment. Television has produced many ideal images of women through the years: June Cleaver, …

Fall 1998, 90.9 Wmpg Fm

WMPG Program Guides

No abstract provided.

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.

Brown, Bethany D. (Fa 174), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 174. "The Folklore in Cosmetic Advertising", a paper written by Bethany D. Brown for a WKU folk studies class. "Redbook" magazine is referenced.

Fall 1997, Wmpg 90.9

WMPG Program Guides

WMPG program guide for Fall 1997

Includes notes from Program Director, information on shows and events, and schedule.

Smith On Jenkins, 'Textual Poachers: Television Fans And Participatory Culture', Anne Collins Smith

Faculty Publications

Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins. New York: Routledge, 1992. viii + 343 pp. $95.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-415-90571-8; $38.95 (paper), ISBN 978-0-415-90572-5.

In Textual Poachers, Henry Jenkins examines the underground world of the media fandom, people who create fiction, artwork, and other forms of expression based on television shows. Drawing on a rich theoretical background with sources ranging from feminist literary criticism to cultural anthropology, Jenkins applies and adapts Michel de Certeau's model of "poaching," in which an audience appropriates a text for itself. Taking a stand against the stereotypical portrayal of fans as obsessive …

Table Of Contents

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

Articles

The Birth of Conan, by Patrice Louinet

The Origin of Cimmeria, by Rusty Burke

The Star Rover and the People of the Night, by Fred Blosser

Howard Publishing in Eastern Europe, by Glenn Lord

Conan & Robert E. Howard on the Internet, by Edward A. Waterman

Remembrances: Jim Neal, by Fred Blosser

Remembrances: Harold Preece, by Rusty Burke

Remembrances: Karl Edward Wagner, by Rusty Burke

Review of “The Whole Wide World” a movie directed by Dan Ireland, by David C. Smith

Reviews:

Cormac Mac Art by Robert E. Howard, review by Rusty Burke

Kull by Robert E. Howard, review …