Poetic Resurrection
The Bronx in American Popular Culture
1st Edition
Published on 3. September 2020
220 pages
978-3-8394-5311-7 (ISBN)
Description
While many Americans dismissed the borough of The Bronx in the late 1970s through the belief that »The Bronx is burning,« this study challenges that assumption. As the first explicit study on The Bronx in American popular culture, this book shows how a wide variety of cultural representations engaged in a complex dialogue on its past, present, and future. Sina A. Nitzsche argues that popular culture ushered in the poetic resurrection of The Bronx, an artistic and imaginative rebirth, that preceded, promoted, and facilitated the spatial revival of the borough.
Reviews / Votes
»As Stuart Hall teaches us, popular culture is a site of struggle for and against power, even as it constitutes the stake to be won or lost in that struggle. Sina A. Nitzsche's cultural geography of The Bronx begins the long overdue task of mapping that site, analyzing the most formative representations of that mythic borough through the multifaceted lens of power relations - it theorizes, documents, and contributes to a welcome poetic resurrection.«More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Bielefeld
Germany
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
7
5 s/w Abbildungen, 2 farbige Abbildungen
Klebebindung, 5 SW-Abbildungen, 2 Farbabbildungen
File size
3,02 MB
ISBN-13
978-3-8394-5311-7 (9783839453117)
DOI
10.14361/9783839453117
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
09/2020
1st Edition
transcript
€35.00
Shipment within 5-7 days
Person
Sina A. Nitzsche is the founder of the European Hiphop Studies Network and holds a PhD from the TU Dortmund. Her research interests include hip-hop, popular culture, urban, and media studies. She has also become one of the most renowned commenters on hip-hop culture in German media.
Content
- Cover
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction. Welcome to The Bronx
- Chapter 1. Approaching the Boogie Down:The Bronx, Popular Culture, and the Poetic Resurrection
- 1.1 Mind the Gap: Historicizing The Bronx
- 1.2 Exploring Urban Spaces: Popular, Media, and Convergence Cultures
- 1.3 Spectacular Ruins: Mapping the Era of Decline in The Bronx
- 1.4 Beyond Ruins: The Poetic Resurrection
- Chapter 2. The Bronx is Not Lost:Remembering the Success Story in Literature
- 2.1 "I was the queen of my block": Polish Immigration, Tremont Challenges, and Jewish American Female Empowerment in Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood (1982)
- 2.2 "I hoped we would not let happen to the entire world what we had let happen to The Bronx": Highbridge Masculinity, Jewish Humor, and the Global Dimensions of Devastation in Growing Up Bronx (1984)
- 2.3 "I was trading in my dreams of the fifties for a new beginning": Kingsbridge Memories, Jewish American Masculinity, and Post-Industrial Well-Being in The Old Neighborhood (1980)
- 2.4 Conclusion
- Chapter 3. Zooming in on the Devastation:The Bronx as an Urban Frontier in Film
- 3.1 "It's a fort in hostile territory, you understand?": Colonial Encounters, Irish American Heroism, and Precinct Skepticism in Fort Apache: The Bronx (1981)
- 3.2 "I hate kids, especially yours": Italian American Domesticity,Frontier Femininity, and Gangster Journeys in Gloria (1980)
- 3.3 "South Bronx and Wall Street: They are both dead": Gothic Ruins, Supernatural Creatures, and the Postcolonial Politics of Decline in Wolfen (1981)
- 3.4 Conclusion
- Chapter 4. Creating a New Popular Culture:Re-Imagining the American Dream in Hip-Hop
- 4.1 "We are all graffiti artists": Visual Creativity, Puerto Rican Romance, and a Local Success Story in Wild Style (1982)
- 4.2 "It's like a jungle sometimes": Afrodiasporic Masculinity, Youth Resilience, and Genre Innovation in "The Message" (1982)
- 4.3 "A self-starting culture": Grassroots Agency, Media Diversity, and Coffee Table Gentrification in Born in The Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip-Hop (2007)
- 4.4 Conclusion
- Conclusions. Global Dimensions of the Poetic Resurrection
- Works Cited
