Readings In Popular Culture

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Popular Culture — The Conditions of Control?

   • Gary Day

   Pages 1-12

3. MacDonald’s Man meets Reader’s Digest

   • Clive Bloom

   Pages 13-17

4. Acid — Burning a Hole in the Present

   • Helena Blakemore

   Pages 18-22

5. Hampton Court Revisited: A Re-evaluation of the Consumer

   • Andrew Smith

   Pages 23-31

6. Henry’s Paperweight: The Banks and TV Advertising

   • Robert M. Chaplin

   Pages 32-38

7. ‘A Thing of Beauty and a Source of Wonderment’: Ornaments for the Home as Cultural Status Markers

   • Gwyneth Roberts

   Pages 39-47

8. Pose for Thought: Bodybuilding and Other Matters

   • Gary Day

   Pages 48-58

9. Dialogic Society: Discourse and Subjectivity in British Telecom’s ‘Talkabout’ Service

   • Adrian Page

   Pages 59-67

10. T-Shirts and the Coming Collapse of Capitalism

    • Paul O’Flinn

    Pages 68-74

11. Recipes for Success

    • Michael J. Hayes

    Pages 75-83

12. That’s Entertainment?

    • Gary Day

    Pages 84-89

13. Christmas: Celebrating the Humbug

    • Norma Wordsworth

    Pages 90-97

14. War Toys

    • Graham Dawson

    Pages 98-111

15. Family Affairs: Angst in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

    • Shelagh Young

    Pages 112-120

16. Is the Micro Macho? A Critique of the Fictions of Advertising

    • Mary Knight

    Pages 121-130

17. Pleasure and Danger, Sex and Death: Reading True Crime Monthlies

    • Deborah Cameron

    Pages 131-138

18. A Second Byte of the Apple

    • Gill Simpson

    Pages 139-144

19. Illiberal Thoughts on ‘Page 3’

    • Bob Brecher

    Pages 145-150

20. The Golden Age of Cricket

    • John Simons

    Pages 151-163

This is the first book since Roland Barthes' Mythologies to take a comprehensive look at popular culture. The twenty-six essays in this volume, all written by specialists, cover a range of topics from t-shirts to computers. While each essay reflects some aspect of contemporary cultural theory, a number also develop original approaches to questions of whether popular culture is a condition or a representation of experience and how it manages to both resist and reproduce consumer capitalism. Together, these essays present an exciting reinterpretation of popular culture which will appeal to anyone interested in this important subject.

• culture
• identity
• national identity
• society

HELENA BLAKEMORE has recently been awarded her MA in modern fiction at Queen Mary College, London CLIVE BLOOM Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities at Middlesex Polytechnic RICHARD BRADBURY Associate Professor for the British Council at the English Institute at the University of Lodz in Poland BOB BRECHER Teaches Philosophy and runs the BA Humanities course at Brighton Polytechnic DEBORAH CAMERON Teaches Feminist Studies at the Roehampton Institute ROBERT M. CHAPLIN Art teacher in North East London LEZ COOKE Associate Lecturer in Film and Media Studies at Barnet College of Further Education ANTHONY CRABBE Teaches History of Art and Design at Trent Polytechnic GRAHAM DAWSON Teaches Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex and Brighton Polytechnic R. J. ELLIS Teaches English and American Literature and Cultural Studies at North Staffordshire Polytechnic BARRY EMSLIE Recently completed his doctoral thesis on Marxist Aesthetics and Bertolt Brecht MICHAEL J. HAYES Teaches at Lancashire Polytechnic MARY KNIGHT Lecturer in the General Education, Department of Newham Community College PAUL O'FLINN Principal Lecturer in English at Oxford Polytechnic ADRIAN PAGE Senior Lecturer at Bedford College of Higher Education, in English and Drama GWYNETH ROBERTS Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cultural Studies, North East London Polytechnic JOHN SIMONS Senior Lecturer in English and Co-ordinator of American Studies at King Alfred's College, Winchester GILL SIMPSON Associate Lecturer in the Linguistics Department at Lancashire Polytechnic ANDREW SMITH Currently undertaking a graduate research diploma at Middlesex Polytechnic ANN TRENEMAN Journalist currently working in London MICHAEL WOODIWISS Lecturer in American Studies, Essex University NORMA WORDSWORTH Currently completing her post graduate dissertion on Women and Humour in Literature at the University of Kent SHELAGH YOUNG Freelance Journalist and Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies at Bristol Polytechnic.

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