Exploring various forms of contemporary mass art and culture, from rock-'n'-roll music to "slasher" films, from women's romances to "retro" fashion style, these innovative and politically engaged essays reflect the paradox inherent in taking a critical approach to mass culture. They draw on a variety of theories, including feminist theory, Frankfurt School Critical Theory, linguistic theory, and psychonalysis, to reveal the very complicated workings of popular texts, to make explicit the text's ideological effects on consumers, and to challenge the outmoded (and, as two contributors argue, misogynist) dichotomy between high art and mass culture. It offers a provactive array of essays explaining important facets of contemporary culture.
Foreword Introduction I. Traditions of Mass Culture Criticism 1. An Interview with Raymond Williams Stephen Heath and Gillian Skirrow 2. Theodor Adorno Meets the Cadillacs Bernard Gendron II. Studies in Television 3. Television/Sound Rick Altman 4. The Television News Personality and Credibility: Reflections on the News in Transition Margaret Morse 5. Situation Comedy, Feminism, and Freud: Discourses of Gracie and Lucy Patricia Mellencamp III. Feminist Studies in Entertainment 6. Woman Is an Island: Femininity and Colonization Judith Williamson 7. The Incorporation of Women: A Comparison of North American and Mexican Popular Narrative Jean Franco 8. Fragments of a Fashionable Discourse Kaja Silverman IV. Redrawing the Boundaries Between Art and Entertainment 9. The Terror of Pleasure: The Contemporary Horror Film and Postmodern Theory Tania Modleski 10. Brief Encounters: Mass Culture and the Evacuation of Sense Dana Polan 11. Mass Culture as Woman: ModernismOs Other Andreas Huyssen Contributors
