Can I Be Frank with You?

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 233-252
Author(s):  
Cameron Crookston
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Gothic Literature ◽  
Public Response ◽  
Hollywood Film ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
Picture Show ◽  
Rocky Horror Picture Show

When Fox 21 Television Studios announced that Laverne Cox would play the role of Frank N. Furter in their 2016 The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again, most public response circled around how Cox’s visible political identity as a trans woman spoke to the problematic nature of Rocky Horror’s language and dated identity politics. Released in 1975, Richard O’Brien and Jim Sharman’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show has been a touchstone of queer popular culture for more than forty years. Rocky Horror is constructed as a self- conscious pastiche of multiple cultural moments and queer coded pieces of popular culture; Gothic literature, classic Hollywood film, science fiction B movies, Glam Rock, and drag all mingle in the queer cultural collage that makes up the show’s dramaturgy. As such, the scope of Rocky Horror serves as a kind of performative queer archive, collecting and performing generations of queer culture. However, in addition to offering a dense collection of queer cultural artifacts, Rocky Horror has also inherited many of the complicated representational aspects of its sources, such as the racist coding and simultaneous racial erasure of Gothic and horror conventions as well as rapidly changing and often conflicted trans identity politics of the mid- twentieth century. These problematic appropriations and omissions become all the more salient in light of Cox’s 2016 performance. In this article, Crookston examines how Rocky Horror has functioned as a performative queer cultural archive and how Danny Ortega’s remake, starring Cox, challenges, complicates, and excavates O’Brien’s original historiographic dramaturgy.

Our stories, our selves: Star Wars fanfictions as feminist counterpublic discourses in digital imaginaria

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 277-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
The Body ◽  
Audience Participation ◽  
Film Genre ◽  
Critical Data ◽  
Star Wars ◽  
Picture Show ◽  
Rocky Horror Picture Show

Fanfiction has a long and varied history in the Star Wars franchise since it began in 1977 with the debut of the first film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. The decade of the 1970s created new possibilities for science fiction multiverses and metanarratives; science fiction became an adaptive film genre that could be reimagined with seemingly infinite narrational results. The myriad of genre films that were released in the mid-to-late 1970s revealed dynamic syntheses with horror (e.g. Alien, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Close Encounters of the Third Kind), franchises that previously had existed solely on television (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and musical theatre (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). Cinematic audiences became increasingly accustomed to science fiction tropes and themes in film; audience participation in the theatre (e.g. The Rocky Horror Picture Show) expanded to print zines (often with fanfiction) for multiple franchises as well as fan conventions. Fanfiction’s beginnings as an analogue culture dramatically changed with the advent of the internet and the evolution of fandoms as digital cultures. Web-based platforms such as FanFiction.net and Archive of Our Own (AO3) host sundry fan communities’ creative outputs including podcasts, art and, most frequently, fanfiction stories. The release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015 immediately captured the fandom’s imagination; the animosity and tension between the new villain Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) and protagonist Rey of Jakku particularly fascinated the young adult fans who were lately converted to the Star Wars fandom due to this pairing (known as Reylo within the fandom and within cinematic circles). The newest generations of fans were acclimated to audience participation and paratextual interactions due to their positions as digital natives. The Reylo fan phenomenon particularly erupted into fanfictions as critical data artefacts, even predicting Reylo as a romantic pairing years before the second and third films in the franchise trilogy Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Reylo pairing is just one example of how online Star Wars fanfiction communities expand audience participation to autonomous collective identity formation. This article examines feminist fanfictions in the Star Wars fandom as gendered critical data artefacts, as collaborative communities of practice, and as counterpublic discourses that apply feminist critiques to conventional gender roles within the most recent film trilogy and the fandom itself.

Keniscayaan Politik Identitas Dari Suatu Bangsa dan Agama

ADALAH ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahrotunnimah Zahrotunnimah
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Social Group ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Politics Of Identity ◽  
The Future

Abstract:The discussion of this simple article was inspired by a book entitled The Politics of Identity and the Future of Our Pluralism. The problem in this book is whether the identity politics in Indonesia will jeopardize the nationalist position and pluralism in Indonesia in the future? If dangerous in what form? How to handle it? The source of this book relies on the opinion of L. A Kauffman who first explained the nature of identity politics, and who first introduced the term political identity which is still unknown. However, in this book explained substantively, identity politics is associated with the interests of members of a social group who feel blackmailed and feel alienated by large currents in a nation or state.Keywords: Identity Politics, Nation, ReligionAbstrak:Pembahasan artikel sederhana ini terinspirasi dari buku berjudul Politik Identitas dan Masa Depan Pluralisme Kita. Permasalahan dalam buku ini adalah apakah poitik identitas di Indonesia ini akan membahayakan posisi nasionalis dan pluralisme di Indonesia di masa yang akan datang? Jika berbahaya dalam bentuk apa? Bagaimana cara mengatasinya? Sumber buku ini bersandarkan pada pendapat L. A Kauffman yang pertama kali menjelaskan tentang hakekat politik identitas, dan siapa yang pertama kali memperkenalkan istilah politik identitas yang masih belum diketahui sampai saat ini. Tetapi, didalam buku ini dijelaskan secara substansif, politik identitas dikaitkan dengan kepentingan anggota-anggota sebuah kelompok sosial yang merasa diperas dan merasa tersingkir oleh arus besar dalam sebuah bangsa atau negara. Kata Kunci: Politik Identitas, Bangsa, Agama   

Identity Politics' Issue In Indonesia Presidential Election 2019

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ida Susilowati ◽  
Zahrotunnimah Zahrotunnimah ◽  
Nur Rohim Yunus
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Campaign ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
Presidential Election Campaign ◽  
Research Analysis

AbstractPresidential Election in 2019 has become the most interesting executive election throughout Indonesia's political history. People likely separated, either Jokowi’s or Prabowo’s stronghold. Then it can be assumed, when someone, not a Jokowi’s stronghold he or she certainly within Prabowo’s stronghold. The issue that was brought up in the presidential election campaign, sensitively related to religion, communist ideology, China’s employer, and any other issues. On the other side, politics identity also enlivened the presidential election’s campaign in 2019. Normative Yuridis method used in this research, which was supported by primary and secondary data sourced from either literature and social phenomenon sources as well. The research analysis concluded that political identity has become a part of the political campaign in Indonesia as well as in other countries. The differences came as the inevitability that should not be avoided but should be faced wisely. Finally, it must be distinguished between political identity with the politicization of identity clearly.Keywords. Identity Politics, 2019 Presidential Election

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Modern Science ◽  
Lord Byron ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft ◽  
William Godwin ◽  
Gothic Literature ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Ghost Stories ◽  
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ◽  
Story Writing

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley conceived of the central idea for Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus—most often referred to simply as Frankenstein—during the summer of 1816 while vacationing on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. It is her first and most famous novel. Although the assertion is debatable, some scholars have argued that Frankenstein is the first work of modern science fiction. Shelley was inspired to write Frankenstein in response to a “ghost story” writing contest between herself, Percy Shelley, Percy Shelley’s physician and friend John Polidori, and Lord Byron, who were trapped indoors reading German ghost stories as the result of inclement weather. Polidori’s contribution to this contest, “The Vampyre: A Tale” (1819), influenced the development of Gothic literature. According to Shelley, she drew inspiration from a nightmare she had, which she attributed to discussions she overheard between Percy and Byron regarding experiments with electricity and animation. Shelley began working on the novel when she returned home to England in September, and the book’s first edition was published anonymously in 1818. Shelley’s father William Godwin made minor revisions for a second edition in 1821; and Shelley herself made more substantial changes for the third edition in 1831. The story is told through an epistolary frame, and follows Victor Frankenstein, a university student of the “unhallowed arts” who assembles, animates, and abandons an unnamed human-like creature. The creature goes on to haunt his creator both literally and metaphorically. Over the past two hundred years, the story has been widely influential, and re-interpreted in various forms of culture and media. In literary studies, scholars have discussed which edition of the text is the “truest” to Mary Shelley’s intended vision. The novel has been analyzed for its messages about human pride and hubris, the pursuit of knowledge, the nature/nurture question, as put forth by Rousseau, ethical questions in medicine and science, and family, gender, and reproduction, among other topics.

The Golden Age of Stealing: An Analysis of Queer Appropriation and Exploitation in 21st Century Popular Culture

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrian Deveau
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Cultural Production ◽  
Golden Age ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Cultural Productions ◽  
Queer Culture ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Queer Art

Popular media is a series of appropriations and citations of cultural productions, refurbishing past ideas to fit the mold of the present. Representation of art works and cultural products influence the visibility of the groups who produce for popular culture. While social media and contemporary art allow for the rapid spread of ideas through the internet and advertisements, too often are ideas stolen for profit for large companies by exploiting the artistic integrity of uninitiated groups. Queer culture often appropriates historical methodologies for a reclamation of the past to create representation for the future. Queer artists produce landmark aesthetics in visual culture, shaping contemporary fashion trends and artistic movements in the 21st Century. While appropriation as a methodology is not inherently problematic, exploitation develops when artists are neglected credit for works which are exploited for capitalist gain.The research paper The Golden Age of Stealing: An Analysis of Queer Appropriation and Exploitation in 21st Century Popular Culture analyzes the relationship between the appropriation and exploitation of Queer art, using the 1980’s and 90’s club kids as a platform for queer aesthetic production. The paper outlines the dichotomy between representation of queer peoples in the 1990’s and the aesthetics produced to question popular representations and roles within a western consumer society. Using queer performative theories including utopianism, performativity, and disidentification, the paper distinguishes why the stealing of queer art for profit is inherently dangerous and regressive for the queer community, silencing queer voices and perpetrating a heteronormative narrative of cultural production.

Workers, Citizens and the Argentine Nation: Party Politics and the Working Class in Rosario, 1912–3

1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 589-616
Author(s):  
MATTHEW B. KARUSH
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
Political Identity ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
Class Consciousness ◽  
Port City ◽  
Electoral Democracy

The electoral democracy created by the Sáenz Peña Law of 1912 opened up dramatic new possibilities for working-class political identity. In the important port city of Rosario, the Radical politician Ricardo Caballero crafted a political discourse that combined an explicit defence of working-class interests with a nostalgic depiction of the country's rural past. By linking class consciousness with images drawn from the popular culture of the ‘gauchesque,’ Caballerismo constructed a distinctively working-class version of Argentine nationalism and citizenship.

Borat: Putting the Id Back in Identity Politics

Slavic Review ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nancy Condee
Keyword(s):  
Identity Politics ◽  
Political Scientist ◽  
Hollywood Film

This forum has attracted six richly varied responses to Larry Charles's film Borat. That Slavic Review would bring together, among others, a political scientist, an anthropologist, a historian, and two ethnographers (if I discern their fields correctly) to discuss a Hollywood film attests both to the journal's vitality and to the film's skill in marshalling interesting questions. In light of the range of issues raised here, my comments attempt, with inconsistent success, to restrict themselves to the questions broached in the preceding essays, rather than supplying an altogether new line of argument.

scholarly journals Repackaging Popular Culture: Commentary and Critique in Community

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tully Barnett ◽  
Ben Kooyman
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Big Bang ◽  
Fan Culture ◽  
High Stakes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Nerd Culture ◽  
The Big Bang

Contemporaneous with the collision of Science Fiction/Fantasy with the mainstream evident in the success of nerd culture show The Big Bang Theory (2007- ), Joss Whedon’s The Avengers (2012), the growth of Comic Con audiences and so on, Dan Harmon developed Community (2009- ), a sitcom depicting a study group at a second-rate community college. The show exemplifies a recent gravitation away from the multi-camera, laugh-track driven sitcom formula, alternating between “straight” episodes dealing with traditional sitcom premises, though always inflected with self-aware acumen, and more ambitious, unconventional episodes featuring outlandish premises, often infused with the trappings of genre and geek fandom. The show presents apocalyptic action- and Western-style paintball wars, epidemics that evoke zombie cinema, a Yahtzee game that spirals into alternate timelines, and a high-stakes Dungeons and Dragons game that blurs the boundaries between reality and fantasy.  Both the straight and the unconventional episodes ultimately serve the same purpose, examining the intersection between nerd culture and everyday life. This essay discusses a number of episodes which exemplify Community’s intersections between everyday life and popular culture, charting the show’s evolving preoccupation with pop culture and intertwining of reality and fantasy. It discusses Community’s self-referentiality as a sitcom, its ambitious and elaborate recreations of and homages to pop culture artefacts, and its explicit gravitation towards Science Fiction and Telefantasy in its third season. Through its various homages to popular culture and ongoing depiction of fan culture, we posit that the show is both a work of fandom and a work about fandom, advocating for the pivotal role of fandom in everyday life and for popular culture as a tool for interpreting, comprehending and navigating life. In this respect, the show contributes to the long history of both the sitcom and Telefantasy as vehicles for cultural commentary.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document