Introduction

Demonstrating that gender representations in popular culture are intertwined with a broad range of cultural, historical, and social discourses that shape both their production and reception, the introduction outlines some of the key concerns related to the performance and policing of masculinity in pop music. It discusses the theoretical and methodological foundations that may underpin an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and interpretive approach to the study of popular music and gender, and places an emphasis on grappling with the multiple affordances elicited by pop artists’ construction of identity across several platforms. It advocates for an inclusive definition of pop music that encompasses the range of musical and cultural impulses that circulate in mainstream popular music culture. It also discusses the selection of material for a study of pop music and masculinity, and considers the benefits and limitations of an artist-centered interpretive approach.

Modern Folk Devils: Contemporary Constructions of Evil

The devilish has long been integral to myths, legends, and folklore, firmly located in the relationships between good and evil, and selves and others. But how are ideas of evil constructed in current times and framed by contemporary social discourses? Modern Folk Devils builds on and works with Stanley Cohen’s theory on folk devils and moral panics to discuss the constructions of evil. The authors present an array of case-studies that illustrate how the notion of folk devils nowadays comes into play and animates ideas of otherness and evil throughout the world.Examining current fears and perceived threats, this volume investigates and analyzes how and why these devils are constructed. The chapters discuss how the devilish may take on many different forms: sometimes they exist only as a potential threat, other times they are a single individual or phenomenon or a visible group, such as refugees, technocrats, Roma, hipsters, LGBT groups, and rightwing politicians. Folk devils themselves are also given a voice to offer an essential complementary perspective on how panics become exaggerated, facts distorted, and problems acutely angled. Bringing together researchers from anthropology, sociology, political studies, ethnology, and criminology, the contributions examine cases from across the world spanning from Europe to Asia and Oceania.

The Discursive Problematization of Death, Dehumanization and Sociocultural identity: An Analysis of 'The Walking Dead'

<p>The zombie is a significant cultural figure which is represented and produced as being symptomatic of and relevant to contemporary concerns about death and dehumanization. This thesis will focus on the ways that death and dehumanization are changing and being negotiated within popular cultural representations and discourses regarding zombies, particularly in Frank Darabont’s television series The Walking Dead. The thesis will consider the way in which the figure of the zombie is representative of issues and discourses that are indicative of a problematization of the category of the human, and the notion of the transcendental. This will involve an examination of the changing narratives of the body, with particular regard to consumerism and the insistence of the body as a major site of the truth and value of the self, in contrast to the horrifying bodily form of the zombie. The thesis will also examine the way that dehumanization is problematized in The Walking Dead, where the human/non-human distinction is shown to be increasingly precarious and difficult to sustain. Further, the thesis will examine how the zombie is represented as manifesting the collapse of identity, as agents become alienated from the social discourses, narratives and values which constitute and categorize the subject.</p>

The Discursive Problematization of Death, Dehumanization and Sociocultural identity: An Analysis of 'The Walking Dead'

<p>The zombie is a significant cultural figure which is represented and produced as being symptomatic of and relevant to contemporary concerns about death and dehumanization. This thesis will focus on the ways that death and dehumanization are changing and being negotiated within popular cultural representations and discourses regarding zombies, particularly in Frank Darabont’s television series The Walking Dead. The thesis will consider the way in which the figure of the zombie is representative of issues and discourses that are indicative of a problematization of the category of the human, and the notion of the transcendental. This will involve an examination of the changing narratives of the body, with particular regard to consumerism and the insistence of the body as a major site of the truth and value of the self, in contrast to the horrifying bodily form of the zombie. The thesis will also examine the way that dehumanization is problematized in The Walking Dead, where the human/non-human distinction is shown to be increasingly precarious and difficult to sustain. Further, the thesis will examine how the zombie is represented as manifesting the collapse of identity, as agents become alienated from the social discourses, narratives and values which constitute and categorize the subject.</p>

The Politics of Social Discourses about Youth in New Zealand 1950-1965 and 1990-2005

<p>This thesis explores the politics of changing discourses around the youth question in New Zealand’s postwar (1950-1965) and near-contemporary history (1990-2005). Building on a modified Foucaultian framework, it examines for both periods anxieties over young people’s relationships with home, school and the wider society. It also contrasts the two periods to illustrate the ideological shift from the welfare state to neoliberalism, as it was played out through youth-related discourses. This thesis goes beyond the moral panic approach, especially regarding the postwar period. It will demonstrate that rethinking what is conventionally condensed and marginalised as ‘context’ is key to understanding the politics of youth discourses. Postwar debates about young people, because youth were conceived as being in social crisis, served to expose ideological differences that the welfare state had ostensibly overcome. That in turn destabilized the apparent moral consensus and opened up opportunities for resistance and subversion. By contrast, the liberal and emancipatory discourse of society in the 1990s and early 2000s served to insulate neoliberal politics from volatile public concerns. This in turn paradoxically provides a stronger and more efficient foundation for social control over youth.</p>

The Politics of Social Discourses about Youth in New Zealand 1950-1965 and 1990-2005

<p>This thesis explores the politics of changing discourses around the youth question in New Zealand’s postwar (1950-1965) and near-contemporary history (1990-2005). Building on a modified Foucaultian framework, it examines for both periods anxieties over young people’s relationships with home, school and the wider society. It also contrasts the two periods to illustrate the ideological shift from the welfare state to neoliberalism, as it was played out through youth-related discourses. This thesis goes beyond the moral panic approach, especially regarding the postwar period. It will demonstrate that rethinking what is conventionally condensed and marginalised as ‘context’ is key to understanding the politics of youth discourses. Postwar debates about young people, because youth were conceived as being in social crisis, served to expose ideological differences that the welfare state had ostensibly overcome. That in turn destabilized the apparent moral consensus and opened up opportunities for resistance and subversion. By contrast, the liberal and emancipatory discourse of society in the 1990s and early 2000s served to insulate neoliberal politics from volatile public concerns. This in turn paradoxically provides a stronger and more efficient foundation for social control over youth.</p>

Illuminated English Law Books

Illuminated books of the English legal tradition follow distinct iconographic patterns depending on the nature of the legal material included. The article explores correlations and dissonance between image and text as well as the symbolism associated with the imagery (in both initials and the margins) and its connection to political, legal and social discourses. It evaluates what the images reveal about key concepts of medieval law and justice, including kingship and good governance, the role of parliament and the church in endorsing these, as well as how these aspects might be undermined (or paradoxically confirmed) by medieval society’s penchant for role reversal, transgression and misrule.

Adaptations of Hybrids: Literary Plays with Genres in Contemporary Polish Cinema (Spoor and Darkness and Dark, Almost Night)

The article discusses the problem of genre hybridity and the play with genres from a comparative perspective on the example of Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk and Dark, Almost Night by Joanna Bator as well as of their fi lm adaptations, directed by Agnieszka Holland and Borys Lankosz, respectively. In both novels, generic and stylistic hybridity does not only fulfi ll a ludic function, but more importantly serves to express a social critique, and their fi lm adaptations refl ect this. Spoor is a creative adaptation which – through the combination of genres and styles – questions ethical norms often regarded as axioms and prompts the viewer to reconsider the relationship between humans and animals. Dark, Almost Night approaches the complex combination of genres in the literary original in a reductive way, which affects its message. The study of adaptations should not focus on the issue of „fi delity”, but rather examine how the change of the medium transforms the original textual structures and their use of social discourses.

La rhétorique de la congolité dans la publicité en RD Congo. Enjeux d’un discours de populisme nationaliste en Afrique francophone

The field of advertising is a melting pot of ideologies, that is, of both cultural and political identities. Today, these are built in and through social discourses specific to the contemporary context. In DR Congo, the instrumentation of the Congolese paradigm with a hint of sovereignty has increasingly become a constant in the advertising discourse. It is a media dynamic of expression of a certain autarky against Western and Sino-American economic imperialism, through the promotion of the local industry. It is deployed through the rhetoric of « Congolity » which is understood in terms of a catalyst for the issues of a discourse of nationalist populism in a country of French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.