Is it true that, in this era of digitization and mass media, reading and writing are on the decline? In a thought-provoking collection of essays and profiles, 30 contributors explore what may instead be a rise in rhetorical activity, an upsurge due in part to the sudden blurring of the traditional roles of creator and audience in participatory media. This collection explores topics too often overlooked by traditional academic scholarship, though critical to an exploration of rhetoric and popular culture, including fan fiction, reality television, blogging, online role-playing games, and Fantasy Football.
The author, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University and the author of three books has observed Chinese popular culture for 30 years. His book may seem too long for a work that focuses only on the ten years in China since the 1989 Tiananmen mass protest movement, but it has a swift and lively pace. Barm?'s thesisAthat popular culture has developed ways for people to express dissatisfaction without attacking the governmentAis substantiated through his analyses of music, comic books, television shows, ad jingles, screen savers, and T-shirts.
In his compelling new book, Chris Rojek turns this shibboleth on its head to demonstrate how leisure has become a form of labor. Ranging widely from an analysis of the inflated aspirations of the leisure society thesis to the culture of deception that permeates leisure choice, the author shows how leisure is inextricably linked to emotional labor and intelligence. It is now a school for life. In challenging the orthodox understandings of freedom and free time, The Labour of Leisure sets out an indispensable new approach to the meaning of leisure.
Surveying the major facts, concepts, theories, and speculations that infuse our present comprehension of time, the Encyclopedia of Time: Science, Philosophy, Theology, & Culture explores the contributions of scientists, philosophers, theologians, and creative artists from ancient times to the present. By drawing together into one collection ideas from scholars around the globe and in a wide range of disciplines, this Encyclopedia will provide readers with a greater understanding of and appreciation for the elusive phenomenon experienced as time.
