Generation X and the Rise of the Entertainment Subject

(Hardback)

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Generation X and the Rise of the Entertainment Subject defines Gen X as the first generation

to be dominated by entertainment subjectivity. A social and psychological feedback loop is created as entertainment caters to adolescent consumers while the consumer, in turn, is shaped by the entertainment they internalize. While the paradigmatic latchkey young adults are immersed in media consumption, they see the world through the lens of popular culture products that seek to capitalize on the free time and disposable income of the unoccupied viewer. This book argues that Gen X entertainment subjectivity lays the foundations for contemporary society where handheld devices and other technologies detach their users from the world around them.

Reviews

Robert Samuels has meticulously, deftly, coherently and precisely written a deeply informative of various narratives of Generation X that have been examined, marketed and commodified by the media, corporations, Hollywood and the larger population. It is a riveting, effervescent work that seamlessly integrates Generation X with popular culture.

Samuels trenchantly identifies one of the roots of our current media obsessions in Generation Xs early position as what he calls an entertainment subject, a subject shaped by the popular culture it was internalizing, while at the same time shaping that culture. Samuels examines how college reveals the cultural shift in authority from traditional figures to authority dominated by entertainment and consumerism. Unpacking such Generation X cultural touchstones as Nirvana, Ferris Buellers Day Off, and Do the Right Thing, among other texts, this book is a piercing interrogation of pop cultures role in how societys understanding of authority has shifted.

Author Bio

Robert Samuels is lecturer of writing at University of California, Santa Barbara.