Signs of life in the U.S.A. : readings on popular culture for writers Cover Image

Book

Signs of life in the U.S.A. : readings on popular culture for writers / [edited by] Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon.

Maasik, Sonia. (Added Author). Solomon, J. Fisher (James Fisher), 1954- (Added Author).

Record details

ISBN: 0312136315
Physical Description: xx, 795 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
Edition: 2nd ed.
Publisher: Boston : Bedford Books, c1997.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

1. Consuming passions: the culture of American consumption: -- Signs of shopping -- Street style -- Hard bodies -- Semiotics of home decor -- Disney world: public use/private state -- Toys / Roland Barthes.

2. Brought to you B(u)y: the signs of advertising: -- The parable of the democracy of goods -- Masters of desire: the culture of American advertising -- Generation X-force -- Sex, lies and advertising.

3. Cheap thrills: the images of music, video and TV. -- TV's anti-families: Married...with malaise -- Twentysomethings -- Madonna: plantation mistress or sould sister? -- Bad sistas -- Mountains of contradictions: gender, class and region in the star image of Dolly Parton -- Politics of irony [Rush Limbaugh and David Letterman]

4. Hollywood sign: the culture of American film: -- Put on a happy face: masking the difference between blacks and whites -- Asian women in film -- Class and virtue -- Dead white male heterosexual poets society -- Malcolm X.

5. Larger than life: the mythic characters of American culture: --What makes Superman so darned American -- Cultural meaning of the Kennedys -- Batman, deviance and camp -- Our Barbies, ourselves -- Say it ain't cool, Joe [Camel]

6. We've come a long way, maybe: Gender codes in American culture: Gender role behaviors and attitudes -- Beauty myth -- Centerfold syndrome -- Women's language -- Power at play: sport and gender relations -- Fraternal bond as a joking relationship.

7. Race card: readings in multucultural semiotics: -- In living color: race and American culture -- Goin' gangsta, choosin' Cholita -- Rage of the Black middle class -- Language and literature from a Pueblo Indian perspective

8. Cultural outlaws: Street gangs, militias and hackers: -- Praised and the damned [girls in gangs] -- Image of fear: minority teens allege bias in "Gang profiling" -- Not just the inner city: well-to-do join gangs -- MInd of the militias -- Hackers: the first information warriors

9. Journals of the plague years: the social mythology of AIDS: -- Making kitsch from AIDS -- Portraits of people with AIDS -- Lights, camera...death.

10. Virtual culture: Signs in cyberspace: -- Cyberpunk -- Christmas unplugged --- Women and children first: gender and the settling of the electronic frontier -- Haves and have-nots -- Keypad democracy.