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In the last decade lifestyle television has become one of the most dominant television genres, with certain shows now global brands with formats exploited by producers all over the world. What unites these programmes is their belief that the human subject has a flexible, malleable identity that can be changed within television-friendly frameworks. In contrast to the talk shows of the eighties and nineties where modest transformation was discussed as an ideal, advances in technology, combined with changing tastes and demands of viewers, have created an appetite for dramatic transformations. This volume presents case studies from across the lifestyle genre, considering a variety of themes but with a shared understanding of the self as an evolving project, driven by enterprise. Written by an international team of scholars, the collection will appeal to sociologists of culture and consumption, as well as to scholars of media studies and media production throughout the world.
Based on the work of media historian, James Curran, Narrating Media History explores British media history as a series of competing narratives. This unique and timely collection brings together leading international media history scholars, not only to identify and contrast the various interrelationships between media histories, but also to encourage dialogue between different historical, political, and theoretical perspectives including: liberalism, feminism, populism, nationalism, libertarianism, radicalism and technological determinism. Essays by distinguished academics cover television, radio, newspaper press and advertising (among others) and illustrate the particularities, affinities, strengths and weaknesses within media history. Each section includes a brief introduction by the editor, with discussion topics and suggestions for further reading, making this an invaluable guide for students of media history.
British Fictions of the Sixties focuses on the major socio-political changes that marked the sixties in relationship to the development of literature over the decade. This book is the first critical study to acknowledge that the 1960s can only be understood if, next to its contemporary socio-political history, its fictions and mythologies are acknowledged as a vital constituent in the understanding of the decade. Groes uncovers a major epistemological shift, and presents a powerful meta-narrative about post-war literature in the UK, and beyond. British Fictions of the Sixties offers a re-examination of canonical writers such as Iris Murdoch, Angela Carter, Muriel Spark and John Fowles. It also pays critical attention to avant-garde writers including Ann Quinn, Bridget Brophy, Eva Figes, Christine Brooke-Rose, and J. G. Ballard, presenting a comprehensive insight into the continuing power the decade exerts on the contemporary imagination.
The nine empirical studies in New Narratives of Urban Space in Republican Chinese Cities, organized under the general framework of urban space, examine three critical dimensions of the great urban transformation in Republican China—social, legal and governance orders. Together these narratives suggest a new perception of this historical urbanism. While modern economic development was a major drive for Chinese urban transformation, this volume highlights the dimension of the multilayered forces that shape urban space by looking into that less quantifiable, but equally important cultural realm and by exposing the ways in which these forces created new urban narratives, which became themselves shapers of urban space and of our perception of the Republican urbanity.
Providing people with dementia with opportunities to engage in creative activity can play a crucial role in maintaining and enhancing communication, and in reinforcing personhood and identity. This thoughtful book describes how people with dementia, and the people who work with and care for them, can foster and develop a creative approach, and provides rich and varied ideas for creative activities. The authors explore the concept of creativity - what exactly it is, its particular relevance for people with dementia and how to get into the creative 'flow'. They introduce a range of creative art forms, including poetry and story-telling, collage, drama, music-making, photography, textiles and w...
This innovative book considers the evolution of the contemporary issues surrounding British citizenship, integrating the social aspects and ideas of identity and belonging alongside the legal elements. With contributions from renowned lawyers and academics, it challenges the view that there are immutable values and enduring rights associated with citizenship status.
This is the first academic monograph to focus exclusively on issues of race, ethnicity, whiteness and multiculture at the English seaside. The book calls for acknowledgement of the racialised nature of this environment, and proposes that its distinctive spaces, places, traditions and narratives should be included within broader analyses of race in contemporary Britain. Introducing the concept of ‘coastal liquidity’ to explain shifting ethno-racial demographics, migratory politics and spatial dynamics at the edge of the sea, along with the relative im/mobilities of the minority ethnic communities who move and reside there, the author provides a relational exploration of seaside experiences: both as a locus of racialised categorisation, exclusion and subjugation, and one of resistance, conviviality and intercultural exchange. Combining theoretical insight and empirical fieldwork, the book disrupts dominant thinking that fixes ontologically minority ethnic bodies to urban spaces, and overcomes their erasure and silencing from the seaside landscapes of the popular imagination.
Sound art has long been resistant to its own definition. Emerging from a liminal space between movements of thought and practice in the twentieth century, sound art has often been described in terms of the things that it is understood to have left behind: a space between music, fine art, and performance. The Oxford Handbook of Sound Art surveys the practices, politics, and emerging frameworks of thought that now define this previously amorphous area of study. Throughout the Handbook, artists and thinkers explore the uses of sound in contemporary arts practice. Imbued with global perspectives, chapters are organized in six overarching themes of Space, Time, Things, Fabric, Senses and Relationality. Each theme represents a key area of development in the visual arts and music during the second half of the twentieth century from which sound art emerged. By offering a set of thematic frameworks through which to understand these themes, this Handbook situates constellations of disparate thought and practice into recognized centers of activity.
With his signature bullwhip and fedora, the rousing sounds of his orchestral anthem, and his eventful explorations into the arcana of world religions, Indiana Jones--archeologist, adventurer, and ophidiophobe--has become one of the most recognizable heroes of the big screen. Since his debut in the 1981 film Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones has gone on to anchor several sequels, and a fifth film is currently in development. At the same time, the character has spilled out into multiple multimedia manifestations and has become a familiar icon within the collective cultural imagination. Despite the longevity and popularity of the Indiana Jones franchise, however, it has rarely been the focus of sustained criticism. In Excavating Indiana Jones, a collection of international scholars analyzes Indiana Jones tales from a variety of perspectives, examining the films' representation of history, cultural politics, and identity, and also tracing the adaptation of the franchise into comic books, video games, and theme park attractions.