Jessica Jones, Scarred Superhero
Jessica Jones, Scarred Superhero

Author: Tim Rayborn

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2018-04-09

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 1476666849

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Jessica Jones barged onto our screens in November 2015, courtesy of Marvel and Netflix, presenting a hard-drinking protagonist who wrestles with her own inner (and outer) demons. Gaining enhanced abilities as a teenager, she eschews the "super costume" and is far more concerned with the problems of daily life. But when Jessica falls under the control of a villain, her life changes forever. Based on the comic book Alias, the show won a large following and critical acclaim for its unflinching look at subjects like abuse, trauma, PTSD, rape culture, alcoholism, drug addiction, victims' plight and family conflicts. This collection of new essays offers insight into the show's complex themes and story lines.

Resist and Persist
Resist and Persist

Author: Amanda Firestone

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-05-05

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 1476639825

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To many, the world appears to be in a state of dangerous change. News and fictional media alike report that these are dark times, and narratives of social resistance imbue many facets of Western culture. The new essays making up this collection examine different events and themes of the 2010s that readily acknowledge the struggling state of things. Crucially, these essays look to the resistance and political activism of communities that seek to make long-reaching and institutional changes in the world through a diverse group of media texts. They scrutinize how a society relates to injustices and how individuals enact a desire for change. The authors analyze a broad range of works such as texts as Awake: A Dream from Standing Rock, Black Panther, The Death of Stalin, Get Out, Jessica Jones, Hamilton, The Shape of Water, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. By digging into these and other works, as well as historic events, the contributors explicate the soul-deep necessity of pushing back against injustice, whether personal or cultural.

The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media
The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media

Author: Stephanie Patrick

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-05-09

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 303095935X

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This edited collection provides an intersectional and transnational exploration of representations of sexual violence and rape within films, television shows, and digital media in the contemporary context of the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. Drawing upon sociology, gender studies, cultural studies, media studies, and Black feminist studies, chapters focus on women and texts at the margins of mainstream culture’s depictions of sexual violence. The editors and contributors examine the dominant narrative of the thin, cisgender, heterosexual white female victim, and the ways in which social and cultural conversations around race and gender impact and are impacted by depictions of sexual violence in media. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in sociology, gender studies, and media studies, particularly those interested in the intersectionality of race and gender. Chapter 1 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Spaces Between
Spaces Between

Author: Nina Eckhoff-Heindl

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-07-16

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13: 3658301163

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The contributions gathered in this volume exhibit a great variety of interdisciplinary perspectives on and theoretical approaches to the notion of ‘spaces between’. They draw our attention to the nexus between the medium of comics and the categories of difference as well as identity such as gender, dis/ability, age, and ethnicity, in order to open and intensify an interdisciplinary conversation between comics studies and intersectional identity studies.

Streaming Mental Health and Illness
Streaming Mental Health and Illness

Author: Emily Katseanes

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-12-21

Total Pages: 194

ISBN-13: 1476682704

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From mindfulness in schools to meditation apps, mental health is bursting out of the psychiatrist's chair and into our everyday conversations. As awareness of mental health increases, so does its predominance in popular culture, which makes for a particularly interesting investigation into the representation of these concerns on our most ubiquitous streaming service: Netflix. These eight essays explore how the service's original content jumps into those conversations, creating helpful--or harmful--messaging about the inner workings of our minds. From toxic masculinity to PTSD, adolescence to motherhood, mental health touches our lives in myriad ways. This interdisciplinary collection explores these intersections, examining how representations of mental health on our screens shape our understanding of it in our lives.

Representing Acts of Violence in Comics
Representing Acts of Violence in Comics

Author: Nina Mickwitz

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2019-08-01

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 1351051768

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This book is part of a nuanced two-volume examination of the ways in which violence in comics is presented in different texts, genres, cultures and contexts. Representing Acts of Violence in Comics raises questions about depiction and the act of showing violence, and discusses the ways in which individual moments of violence develop, and are both represented and embodied in comics and graphic novels. Contributors consider the impact of gendered and sexual violence, and examine the ways in which violent acts can be rendered palatable (for example through humour) but also how comics can represent trauma and long lasting repercussions for both perpetrators and victims. This will be a key text and essential reference for scholars and students at all levels in Comics Studies, and Cultural and Media Studies more generally.

The Disney+ Kingdom
The Disney+ Kingdom

Author: David Whitt

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2024-04-22

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 1476653313

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Debuting in 2019, Disney+ quickly became one of the most popular streaming services worldwide. With hubs for Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic, Disney+ not only provides "vault" content from these brands but also original films and television programming such as High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, The Mandalorian, The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers, Andor and The Imagineering Story. This collection of essays examines a variety of Disney+ exclusive content, exploring themes such as nostalgia, identity, representation and lived experience. Designed to appeal to both academics and the average Disney fan, it attempts to answer the question of whether its original streaming content is a plus or minus for the "Mouse House."

Antiheroines of Contemporary Media
Antiheroines of Contemporary Media

Author: Melanie Haas

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2020-12-02

Total Pages: 233

ISBN-13: 1793624577

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This volume of essays provides a critical foray into the methods used to construct narratives which foreground antiheroines, a trope which has become increasingly popular within literary media, film, and television. Antiheroine characters engage constructions of motherhood, womanhood, femininity, and selfhood as mediated by the structures that socially prescribe boundaries of gender, sex, and sexuality. Within this collection, scholars of literary, cultural, media, and gender studies address the complications of representing agency, autonomy, and self-determination within narrative texts complicated by age, class, race, sexuality, and a spectrum of privilege that reflects the complexities of scripting women on and off screen, within and beyond the page. This collection offers perspectives on the alternate narratives engendered through the motivations, actions, and agendas of the antiheroine, while engaging with the discourses of how such narratives are employed both as potentially feminist interventions and critiques of access, hierarchy, and power.

Superheroes and Excess
Superheroes and Excess

Author: Jamie Brassett

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2021-11-29

Total Pages: 211

ISBN-13: 1351396927

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Finding the superhero genre in need of further investigation from philosophical standpoints that value excess as a creative drive, rather than denigrate it as a problem to be resolved, this book opens up discussions that highlight different approaches to ‘the creative excess of being’ as expressed through the genre. While superheroes are an everyday, culturally dominant phenomena, philosophical methods and investigations have a reputation for lofty superiority. Across 13 chapters, this book facilitates a collision between the superhero genre and the discipline of philosophy, resulting in a voyage of exploration where each illuminates the other. The contributions in this book range from new voices to recognized scholars, offering superhero studies a set of critical interventions that are unusual, conceptually diverse, theoretically grounded and varied in practice. These chapters consider ‘excessive’ traits of superheroes against schools of thought that have attempted to conceptualize and understand excess by analysing texts and figures across a variety of mediums, such as The Fantastic Four, Captain America, The Vision, Logan, Black Panther and Super Hero Girls. With its unique approach to the superhero genre, this book will be an invaluable read for students and scholars working on comic studies, transmedia studies, cultural studies, popular culture and superhero studies.

Power and Marginalization in Popular Culture
Power and Marginalization in Popular Culture

Author: Lisa A. King

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-05-01

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 1476640165

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In many pop culture texts, "monsters" can be read as metaphors for marginalized Others in U.S. culture. This book applies the philosophical lens of Michel Foucault's normalizing and bio-powers to zombies, vampires, magicians, genetic mutants and others, asking whether these stories of apparent liberation really are so. Exploring a single theme in depth across a series of pop culture texts, this book encourages a radical new understanding of liberation narratives and of political activism as a mechanism of social change.