Popular Culture : An Introduction

From Madonna and drag queens to cyberpunk and webzines, popular culture constitutes a common and thereby critical part of our lives. Yet the study of popular culture has been condemned and praised, debated and ridiculed. InPopular Culture: An Introduction, Carla Freccero reveals why we study popular culture and how it is taught in the classroom.Blending music, science fiction, and film, Freccero shows us that an informed awareness of politics, race, and sexuality is essential to any understanding of popular culture. Freccero places rap music, theAlienTrilogy and Sandra Cisneros in the context of postcolonialism, identity politics, and technoculture to show students how they can draw on their already existing literacies and on the cultures they know in order to think critically.Complete with a glossary of useful terms, a sample syllabus and extensive bibliography, this book istheconcise introduction to the study of popular culture.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments1Popular Culture: An Introduction2Cultural Studies, Popular Culture, and PedagogyA.Overview and BackgroundB.Serial Killers and the Question of Representation3Sexual SubculturesA.The Body and the StateB.Queer SubculturesC.Madonna's Popular BodiesD.Truth or Dare4Identity Politics and PostcolonialityA.Race and Identity PoliticsB.Postcoloniality, Imperialism, Third World:Background and ContextC.Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis5Multiculturalism's MigrationsA.Diasporic Identities and Sandra CisnerosB.Do the Right ThingC.Rap, Rock, ResistanceD.Sound and Story6TechnoculturesA.Technocultures and PostmodernismB.William Gibson's NeuromancerC.The Cultural Politics of the Alien FilmsAppendix: Sample SyllabusNotesGlossaryFilmographyDiscographyBibliographyIndexAbout the Author