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- Volume 38, Issue 2, 2019
European Journal of American Culture - Volume 38, Issue 2, 2019
Volume 38, Issue 2, 2019
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Lone wolf family man: Individualism, collectivism and masculinities in American Sniper(s) and Lone Survivor(s)
More Less‘Lone wolf family man’ compares the memoir and film renditions of masculinities in two narratives from the recent United States wars: Lone Survivor (Afghanistan) and American Sniper (Iraq). The article examines how the four texts construct masculinities in relation to two core American values, collectivism and individualism, and reveals the tension between these values in war narratives. The article concludes that although the memoirs extol the courage and honour of collectivist military might, the blockbuster films contradict that value, telling Americans instead that collectivism is and should be subordinate to the heroics of the individual.
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A woman and her truck: Pickups, the woman driver, and cowgirl feminism
More LessOf all the vehicles produced for the American driver, perhaps none is more strongly associated with masculinity than the full-size pickup truck. Although women are recognized as the fastest growing segment of the US pickup market, the reaction to women’s intrusion into what has long been considered male territory has been met with a fair amount of resistance. Female truck drivers often have their femininity questioned, and are subject to unwarranted criticism and negative stereotyping from male peers. However, rather than change the culture, female truck owners have developed a strategy to gain acceptance and legitimacy within it. Identification with the cowgirl – the strong, courageous and fiercely independent woman who helped build the American West – grants women the authority to enter the masculine world of pickup trucks on their own terms. As noted by the 25 pickup-owning women interviewed for this project – and considered through the lens of cowgirl feminism, a concept coined by Laura Jane Moore in her historical examination of the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame – the assumption of the cowgirl persona not only provides women access into a historically masculine culture, but pronounces them as capable, hardworking, adventurous and empowered women drivers.
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The Survival of a President: Alternate history and the spectre of Vietnam in Stephen King’s 11/22/63
Authors: Dawn Stobbart and Alan Gregory-FoxThe assassination of John F. Kennedy has haunted American cultural history for more than half a century, a moment that Stephen King explores in his 2012 novel, 11/22/63. The assassination has become a moment recognized more widely within the world’s collective consciousness. It has been written about in fiction, analysed in documentaries, reproduced in film, and even in recreated in videogames. King’s 11/22/63 enters into a literary tradition that spans many years with literary appropriations of Kennedy’s death extending beyond historical representations of the figures and events surrounding the assassination. This is achieved by speculating on the prospective consequences of erasing the trauma of the shooting from America’s cultural memory and presenting an alternate history in which the President the assassination. King’s use of alternate history in 11/22/63 and the survival of the President within that narrative, allows the reader to examine the Kennedy assassination and its repercussions in detail, both in terms of the conspiracy theories that surround the shooting, the ramifications of the President’s death, and his hypothetical survival. This paper uses King’s novel to consider whether the ability to change past events should be undertaken, even if they can be, through this pivotal and globally recognized event.
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Taking a leap in the dark: The ethics of Batman
By Paweł WojtasThis article attempts to locate Batman’s ethical code, as represented in selected DC comic books and film adaptations, within western philosophical tradition to measure the extent to which Batman typifies a deontologist stance or whether his singular sense of duty is inspired by other non-duty-based schools of thought. The point of departure for philosophical deliberations on the Batman ethics is Bruce Wayne’s childhood pledge to war on criminals, which is regulated by his cardinal and unwavering principle to never take the life of his adversaries. Considering the ramifications of this principle (multiple deaths dealt out by his archenemies) and other complicating factors relating to the inconsistencies within the Batman canon, Batman’s ethical code constitutes a complex case in point for both philosophers and scholars of jurisprudence. Therefore, although seemingly more duty-based than utilitarian, Batman’s ethics refuses to be exhausted by such clear-cut dualisms. Therefore, this article interrogates the blind spots of Batman’s moral code to account for the ways in which it aligns itself with or eschews conventional ethical categories and modern legal standards.
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Book Reviews
Authors: Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, Rachel Sykes and James PeacockFrom the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America, Elizabeth Hinton (2016) Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 332 pp., ISBN 978-0-67473-723-5, h/bk, £47.50/$35.91, p/bk, £14.33/$18.95
Transgressive Humor of American Women Writers, Sabrina Fuchs Abrams (ed.) (2017) London: Palgrave Macmillan, 263 pp., ISBN 973-3-31956-728-0, h/bk, £71.50
Paul Auster’s Ghosts: The Echoes of European and American Tradition, María Laura Arce Álvarez (2018) Lanham: Lexington Books, 171 pp., ISBN 978-1-49856-163-1, h/bk, £60.00
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Volumes & issues
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Volume 42 (2023)
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Volume 41 (2022)
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Volume 40 (2021)
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Volume 39 (2020)
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Volume 38 (2019)
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Volume 37 (2018)
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Volume 36 (2017)
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Volume 35 (2016)
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Volume 34 (2015)
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Volume 33 (2014)
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Volume 32 (2013)
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Volume 31 (2012)
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Volume 30 (2011 - 2012)
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Volume 29 (2010 - 2011)
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Volume 28 (2009)
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Volume 27 (2008)
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Volume 26 (2007 - 2008)
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Volume 25 (2005 - 2007)
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Volume 24 (2005)
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Volume 23 (2004)
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Volume 22 (2003)
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Volume 21 (2002)
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Volume 20 (2001 - 2002)