Bob Ashley

Increasingly a body of critical thought is developing that addresses the techniques, ideology and appeal of those texts with the most extensive readership and box-office appeal. In this sourcebook Ashley collects examples of the most prominent studies of popular narrative. The selections seek to introduce the reader to the important issues and problems - how to define the popular text, the complex relationship between a text and its readers or viewers, the range of popular genres and the principal critical approaches of critics and theorists. These disparate and frequently competing readings debate the issues theoretically and offer close analyses of such popular genres as thrillers, horror, romances, westerns, and science fiction.

A Source Book

Reading Popular Narrative

Steve Jones

Joanne Hollows

Ben Taylor

What and how we eat are two of the most persistent choices we face in everyday life. Whatever we decide on though, and however mundane our decisions may seem, they will be inscribed with information both about ourselves and about our positions in the world around us. Yet, food has only recently become a significant and coherent area of inquiry for cultural studies and the social sciences. Food and Cultural Studies re-examines the interdisciplinary history of food studies from a cultural studies framework, from the semiotics of Barthes and the anthropology of Levi-Strauss to Elias' historical analysis and Bourdieu's work on the relationship between food, consumption and cultural identity. The authors then go on to explore subjects as diverse as food and nation, the gendering of eating in, the phenomenon of TV chefs, the ethics of vegetarianism and food, risk and moral panics.

Food and Cultural Studies

"Food and Cultural Studies" re-examines the interdisciplinary history of food studies from a cultural studies framework, from the semiotics of Barthes and the anthropology of Levi-Strauss to Elias' historical analysis and Bourdieu's work on the relationship between food, consumption and cultural identity.

Bob Ashley

About

Books

Join the club