Search results for "Popular culture"
showing 10 items of 47 documents
Tiger King and the Exegesis of COVID-19 Media Coverage of Nonhuman Animals
2022
Beginning with the premise that the media participates in the manufacturing of the societal consent that enables and perpetuates the systematized exploitation of nonhuman animals, this article explores how media coverage of such nonhuman animals (and of wildlife in particular) during the COVID-19 crisis may influence our consumption of popular entertainment in a way that centralizes the discussion on the implications of established speciesist practices. I specifically focus on the impact of the first season of Netflix’s successful docuseries Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, directed by Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, which was released in March 2020, a key moment in the world…
The American nuclear family in the TV series "The Simpsons"
1999
Sublime and grotesque:exploring the liminal positioning of clowns between oppositional aesthetic categories
2019
The horror clown is a potential rooted in the liminalities that are an integral part of the clown figure per se. Drawing on anthropological work and the study of popular culture, this paper argues that clowns can be placed between different dualistic frames such as the sacred and the profane, the sublime and the grotesque, and fear and disgust. This positioning and the ways in which clowns operate between these categories are transmitted aesthetically. In this paper the dualistic aesthetics and violent potential of clowns is examined through three different clown examples: the ritual clown, the circus clown and the horror clown. Field observations made by Keisalo of the Chapayeka rituals cl…
Schlock horror and pillow punches
2019
As an introduction to this special themed journal issue on violent clowns, this paper provides an overview of the 14 contributions that examine the comic appeal of violence in culture. It also ties...
Pintura califal de Bédar (Almería, 355/966)
2020
Esta investigación se centra en un texto árabe pintado sobre un elemento inusual: una balsa de agua para riego en Bédar (Almería). Junto al epígrafe que la data, hay dibujados dos animales cuadrúpedos que quizá representen una escena de caza y una cenefa decorativa; conserva asimismo otros signos gráficos y diseños muy degradados que no ha sido posible descifrar totalmente. Como hasta ahora no se había determinado su cronología, en este estudio he seguido el método habitual en Epigrafía Árabe: dibujar los trazos visibles y restituir después las partes de pintura desaparecida o muy borrada. Como resultado de este estudio queda de relieve el valor de este destacado documento de la cultura pop…
Tribal Politics, Suits and Rock Music: Electioneering in Meghalaya
2016
ABSTRACTPublic discourse in India's northeastern state Meghalaya is dominated by issues of tribal identity and the threat of being overwhelmed by outsiders. In the context of national elections, local campaigners have to respond to and navigate between the different requirements of national and regional politics. Election campaigns, understood as a negotiation process during which campaigners act as brokers, provide insights into the narratives and characteristics of politics in Meghalaya. Manifestos, leaflets and large-scale events communicate a statement about organisational strength and a candidate's popularity, and subsequently about the capacity to ultimately deliver to the voter. Aest…
A prequel to Nollywood: South African photo novels and their pan-African consumption in the late 1960s
2010
This article interrogates the history of the photo novel in Africa with particular reference to African Film, a magazine of almost pan-African circulation, published between 1968 and 1972 in South Africa. Featuring the adventures of Lance Spearman, an African crime fighter, the magazine was read widely across Anglophone Africa, from Nigeria and Ghana to South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. After a brief introduction to the history of the photo novel, the author discusses the production, content, reception, and legacy of the Lance Spearman photo novels. It is argued that Lance Spearman may be understood as a crossover of James Bond and Philip Marlowe, and several influences from…
“I be da reel gansta”—A Finnish footballer’s Twitter writing and metapragmatic evaluations of authenticity
2015
This article explores the ways in which ‘gangsta’ English features are deployed, evaluated and adopted in two types of social media, the web forum and Twitter, within the domains of hip hop culture and football (soccer) culture, from the dual perspective of authenticity and normativity. Empirically, we aim to break new ground by investigating the intricate interconnections between two social media formats and combining two highly popular but previously seldom connected cultural forms—football and hip hop. Our theoretical aim is to contribute to the current debate on authenticity, normativity, popular culture and social media, and the complex ways in which they are connected. We focus, first…
Theorizing religion and media in contemporary societies: An account of religious ‘publicization’
2011
This article argues that a combination of the rapid development and dissemination of media technologies, the liberalization of national media economies and the growth of transnational media spheres is transforming the relationship between religion, popular culture and politics in contemporary societies in ways not adequately accounted for in existing sociological theories of religion (secularization, neo-secularization and rational choice) and still largely neglected in sociological theories of media and culture. In particular, it points to a series of media enabled social processes (de-differentiation, diasporic intensification and re-enchantment) which mirror and counter processes identif…
"Life is short, talk fast!" : verbal humour in Gilmore Girls
2016
Gilmoren tytöt on amerikkalainen televisiosarja, joka seuraa 32-vuotiaan äidin ja 16-vuotiaan tyttären elämää fiktiivisessä Stars Hollow’n pikkukaupungissa Connecticutissa seitsemän vuoden ajan. Tämän kandidaatintutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, miten Gilmoren tyttöjen verbaalinen huumori rakentuu. Gilmoren tytöt tunnetaan vahvojen naishahmojensa ja feministisyytensä lisäksi myös eläväisestä, terävästä dialogistaan. Aineistoni keskittyy sarjan neljään ensimmäiseen tuotantokauteen, joita yleisesti pidetään dialogiltaan ja huumoriltaan raikkaimpina. Kultakin kaudelta valittiin vapaasti aineistoon yksi jakso. Gilmoren tyttöjen huumoria käsitellään tutkielmassa populaarikulttuuriviittauste…