Todd McGowan
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- April 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780252038143
- eISBN:
- 9780252095405
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Illinois Press
- DOI:
- 10.5406/illinois/9780252038143.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Since the release of Do the Right Thing in 1989, Spike Lee has established himself as a cinematic icon. Lee's mostly independent films garner popular audiences while at the same time engaging in ...
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Since the release of Do the Right Thing in 1989, Spike Lee has established himself as a cinematic icon. Lee's mostly independent films garner popular audiences while at the same time engaging in substantial political and social commentary. He is arguably the most accomplished African American filmmaker in cinematic history, and his breakthrough paved the way for the success of many other African Americans in film. This book shows how Lee's films, from She's Gotta Have It through Red Hook Summer, address crucial social issues such as racism, paranoia, and economic exploitation in a formally inventive manner. The book argues that Lee uses excess in his films to intervene in issues of philosophy, politics, and art. It contends that it is impossible to watch a Spike Lee film in the way that one watches a typical Hollywood film. By forcing observers to recognize their unconscious enjoyment of violence, paranoia, racism, sexism, and oppression, Lee's films prod spectators to see differently and to confront their own excess. In the process, his films reveal what is at stake in desire, interpersonal relations, work, and artistic creation itself.Less
Since the release of Do the Right Thing in 1989, Spike Lee has established himself as a cinematic icon. Lee's mostly independent films garner popular audiences while at the same time engaging in substantial political and social commentary. He is arguably the most accomplished African American filmmaker in cinematic history, and his breakthrough paved the way for the success of many other African Americans in film. This book shows how Lee's films, from She's Gotta Have It through Red Hook Summer, address crucial social issues such as racism, paranoia, and economic exploitation in a formally inventive manner. The book argues that Lee uses excess in his films to intervene in issues of philosophy, politics, and art. It contends that it is impossible to watch a Spike Lee film in the way that one watches a typical Hollywood film. By forcing observers to recognize their unconscious enjoyment of violence, paranoia, racism, sexism, and oppression, Lee's films prod spectators to see differently and to confront their own excess. In the process, his films reveal what is at stake in desire, interpersonal relations, work, and artistic creation itself.
Jessica Winston
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780198769422
- eISBN:
- 9780191822421
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198769422.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, 16th-century and Renaissance Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter examines plays produced after Gorboduc at the Inns of Court in the 1560s. Critics have suggested that these plays comment on the succession, but I argue that the post-Gorboduc plays ...
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This chapter examines plays produced after Gorboduc at the Inns of Court in the 1560s. Critics have suggested that these plays comment on the succession, but I argue that the post-Gorboduc plays share an unusual plot feature: they are set up to comment on political topics, but by the end, they swerve away from or undercut this narrative potential, dwelling instead on the psychology and social positions of the characters themselves. In this way, the plays suggest that members use dramatic performance to announce the prerogatives of their members and the Inns themselves in the political nation, but in turning away from these topics, the plays negotiate jurisdiction, indicating that political advice is a prerogative that members will not engage. The plays discussed include Thomas Pound’s two marriage masques (1566), Jocasta and Supposes, and Gismond of Salerne.Less
This chapter examines plays produced after Gorboduc at the Inns of Court in the 1560s. Critics have suggested that these plays comment on the succession, but I argue that the post-Gorboduc plays share an unusual plot feature: they are set up to comment on political topics, but by the end, they swerve away from or undercut this narrative potential, dwelling instead on the psychology and social positions of the characters themselves. In this way, the plays suggest that members use dramatic performance to announce the prerogatives of their members and the Inns themselves in the political nation, but in turning away from these topics, the plays negotiate jurisdiction, indicating that political advice is a prerogative that members will not engage. The plays discussed include Thomas Pound’s two marriage masques (1566), Jocasta and Supposes, and Gismond of Salerne.
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780719078842
- eISBN:
- 9781781701706
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719078842.003.0004
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the political commentaries of Georg Lukács on the subject of socialist renewal. Lukács argued for the establishment of a humanist-socialist society within the existing ...
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This chapter discusses the political commentaries of Georg Lukács on the subject of socialist renewal. Lukács argued for the establishment of a humanist-socialist society within the existing communist system in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. His work, Toward the Ontology of Social Being (1971–73) marks his revisionist philosophical attempt to return to the classical roots of Marxism.Less
This chapter discusses the political commentaries of Georg Lukács on the subject of socialist renewal. Lukács argued for the establishment of a humanist-socialist society within the existing communist system in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. His work, Toward the Ontology of Social Being (1971–73) marks his revisionist philosophical attempt to return to the classical roots of Marxism.
Lanita Jacobs
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030062
- eISBN:
- 9781617030079
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030062.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter examines how, even in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many African American stand-up comedians displayed an ambivalent patriotism—indeed, a pervasive Du Boisian ...
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This chapter examines how, even in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many African American stand-up comedians displayed an ambivalent patriotism—indeed, a pervasive Du Boisian “double consciousness” still felt by many African Americans. It shows that these comedians were sympathetic to the victims of 9/11, but whipped up jokes that called into question the clarity of the “us vs. them” distinction that white America largely embraced after the attacks. It discusses the issue of race and racial difference in 9/11-related jokes and considers the Arab or Middle Easterner as the “new nigger” theme in many urban comedy clubs. It also looks at audience reactions to 9/11 humor, noting how not all jokes managed to elicit laughter. Finally, it considers 9/11 jokes as a form of political commentary that offer cautionary perspectives about America’s war on terrorism and its sociopolitical ramifications.Less
This chapter examines how, even in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, many African American stand-up comedians displayed an ambivalent patriotism—indeed, a pervasive Du Boisian “double consciousness” still felt by many African Americans. It shows that these comedians were sympathetic to the victims of 9/11, but whipped up jokes that called into question the clarity of the “us vs. them” distinction that white America largely embraced after the attacks. It discusses the issue of race and racial difference in 9/11-related jokes and considers the Arab or Middle Easterner as the “new nigger” theme in many urban comedy clubs. It also looks at audience reactions to 9/11 humor, noting how not all jokes managed to elicit laughter. Finally, it considers 9/11 jokes as a form of political commentary that offer cautionary perspectives about America’s war on terrorism and its sociopolitical ramifications.
Ernest B. Gilman
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226294094
- eISBN:
- 9780226294117
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226294117.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 17th-century and Restoration Literature
During the seventeenth century, England was beset by three epidemics of the bubonic plague, each outbreak claiming between a quarter and a third of the population of London and other urban centers. ...
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During the seventeenth century, England was beset by three epidemics of the bubonic plague, each outbreak claiming between a quarter and a third of the population of London and other urban centers. Surveying a wide range of responses to these epidemics—sermons, medical tracts, pious exhortations, satirical pamphlets, and political commentary—this book aims to bring to life the many and complex ways Londoners made sense of such unspeakable devastation. The book argues that the plague writing of the period attempted unsuccessfully to rationalize the catastrophic, and that its failure to account for the plague as an instrument of divine justice fundamentally threatened the core of Christian belief. It also trains a critical eye on the works of Jonson, Donne, Pepys, and Defoe, which, it posits, can be more fully understood when put into the context of this century-long project to “write out” the plague.Less
During the seventeenth century, England was beset by three epidemics of the bubonic plague, each outbreak claiming between a quarter and a third of the population of London and other urban centers. Surveying a wide range of responses to these epidemics—sermons, medical tracts, pious exhortations, satirical pamphlets, and political commentary—this book aims to bring to life the many and complex ways Londoners made sense of such unspeakable devastation. The book argues that the plague writing of the period attempted unsuccessfully to rationalize the catastrophic, and that its failure to account for the plague as an instrument of divine justice fundamentally threatened the core of Christian belief. It also trains a critical eye on the works of Jonson, Donne, Pepys, and Defoe, which, it posits, can be more fully understood when put into the context of this century-long project to “write out” the plague.
Liang Luo
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474424592
- eISBN:
- 9781474444705
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424592.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Considered one of the four legends in the Chinese oral tradition, the legend of the White Snake and its theatrical and popular cultural metamorphoses played an important role in the pre-cinematic ...
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Considered one of the four legends in the Chinese oral tradition, the legend of the White Snake and its theatrical and popular cultural metamorphoses played an important role in the pre-cinematic origins of Hong Kong horror cinema. This chapter surveys the changing representation of gender and horror in a series of films based on the White Snake legend from the 1920s to the 1970s. Centred on a very horrific concept (a monstrous snake disguised as a beauty and married to a human male), these films nonetheless enrich or even challenge our understanding of the genre of horror cinema in their service to a wide range of other genres: operatic performance, romantic melodrama, fantasy adventure, slapstick comedy, and social and political commentary. In addition to challenging the very concept of horror, this cluster of White Snake films poses further challenges to the idea of “Hong Kong cinema,” as it ranges from a Tokyo production, a Shanghai production, a Hong Kong-Japan coproduction, to a production based in Hong Kong with South Asian distributors, and a Hong Kong-Taiwan coproduction with a Shaw Brothers director.Less
Considered one of the four legends in the Chinese oral tradition, the legend of the White Snake and its theatrical and popular cultural metamorphoses played an important role in the pre-cinematic origins of Hong Kong horror cinema. This chapter surveys the changing representation of gender and horror in a series of films based on the White Snake legend from the 1920s to the 1970s. Centred on a very horrific concept (a monstrous snake disguised as a beauty and married to a human male), these films nonetheless enrich or even challenge our understanding of the genre of horror cinema in their service to a wide range of other genres: operatic performance, romantic melodrama, fantasy adventure, slapstick comedy, and social and political commentary. In addition to challenging the very concept of horror, this cluster of White Snake films poses further challenges to the idea of “Hong Kong cinema,” as it ranges from a Tokyo production, a Shanghai production, a Hong Kong-Japan coproduction, to a production based in Hong Kong with South Asian distributors, and a Hong Kong-Taiwan coproduction with a Shaw Brothers director.
Sharon Irish
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780816660957
- eISBN:
- 9781452946276
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Minnesota Press
- DOI:
- 10.5749/minnesota/9780816660957.003.0009
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
The conclusion discusses Lacy's recent projects and interests, as well as her continuing emphasis on the interconnectedness of things—the relationship between the mind and body, body and space, and ...
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The conclusion discusses Lacy's recent projects and interests, as well as her continuing emphasis on the interconnectedness of things—the relationship between the mind and body, body and space, and the reconfiguring of social spaces therein. Beginning from her own body—white, female—Lacy's political commentary and critiques eventually expanded not only to cross-cultural, multiracial boundaries, but also the physical spaces that bind them. There is, after all, a constant connection between the mind and body—one cannot take form without the other—and in this respect the themes of network and exchange so prominent in Lacy's life continue to challenge representation and explore new embodied experiences. Art situates us in the spaces between physical and emotional relationships, challenging us to make sense of these new experiences and act upon them in a way that can change the world for the better.Less
The conclusion discusses Lacy's recent projects and interests, as well as her continuing emphasis on the interconnectedness of things—the relationship between the mind and body, body and space, and the reconfiguring of social spaces therein. Beginning from her own body—white, female—Lacy's political commentary and critiques eventually expanded not only to cross-cultural, multiracial boundaries, but also the physical spaces that bind them. There is, after all, a constant connection between the mind and body—one cannot take form without the other—and in this respect the themes of network and exchange so prominent in Lacy's life continue to challenge representation and explore new embodied experiences. Art situates us in the spaces between physical and emotional relationships, challenging us to make sense of these new experiences and act upon them in a way that can change the world for the better.
