American Popular Culture in the Era of Terror: Falling Skies, Dark Knights Rising, and Collapsing Cultures

(Hardback)

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Bringing together the most popular genres of the 21st century, this book argues that Americans have entered a new era of narrative dominated by the fearand wish fulfillmentof the breakdown of authority and terror itself. Bringing together disparate and popular genres of the 21st century, American Popular Culture in the Era of Terror: Falling Skies, Dark Knights Rising, and Collapsing Cultures argues that popular culture has been preoccupied by fantasies and narratives dominated by the anxiety and, strangely, the wish fulfillmentthat comes from the breakdowns of morality, family, law and order, and storytelling itself. From aging superheroes to young adult dystopias, heroic killers to lustrous vampires, the figures of our fiction, film, and television again and again reveal and revel in the imagery of terror. Kavadlo's single-author, thesis-driven book makes the case that many of the novels and films about September 11, 2001, have been about much more than terrorism alone, while popular stories that may not seem related to September 11 are deeply connected to it. The book examines New York novels written in response to September 11 along with the anti-heroes of television and the resurgence of zombies and vampires in film and fiction to draw a correlation between Kavadlo's "Era of Terror" and the events of September 11, 2001. Geared toward college students, graduate students, and academics interested in popular culture, the book connects multiple topics to appeal to a wide audience.

Reviews

Kavadlo's chapters are well-written and thoughtful. I have used some of these chapters in media criticism classes. . . . . This is an engaging critical analysis of American culture in the wake of terrorism and 9/11. It not only adds much to the scholarly discussion surrounding terror in our cultural narratives and cultural consciousness, but it is also a book that could add a lot to classroom discussions pertaining to the pervasiveness of American representations of terror, alternative narrative structures in television, or how culture affects popular culture narratives. His writing is accessible enough for undergraduate students while complex and thorough enough for any graduate student or advanced scholar. * The Popular Culture Studies Journal *

Author Bio

Jesse Kavadlo, PhD, is professor of English at Maryville University of St. Louis.