Journal of European Popular Culture - Volume 6, Issue 2, 2015

In 1960, Paris-based Situationist Michèle Bernstein published the first instalment in a pair of novels that playfully ‘knocked-off’ the popular literary genres of the post-war era and which the author has subsequently dismissed as jokes. Principally concerned with Bernstein’s first book released through Buchet/Chastel in 1960, Tous les chevaux du roi (2004)/All the King’s Horses (2008), this article explores how this fake romance novel heavily laden with irony provides a front for a deeper level cultural critique. While previous responses to Bernstein’s novel treat it as either an eye-witness account of the everyday life of the Situationist International (1957–1972), or as propagandizing for a libertine revolution of the passions, a focus on the insincerity and ‘joking’ of the author highlights the novel’s more pressing concern for performing a Situationist critique of reification. At the same time, Bernstein’s ambivalent treatment of the popular genre of the teen romance novel raises complex questions about some of the gendered aspects of the Situationist critique. For this reason, this article also explores how the performative rehearsal of boredom, banality and cliché in All the King’s Horses (2008) calls into question the radical potential attributed to desire in the avant-garde’s project to enact a revolution of everyday life under commodity capitalism.

This article examines the representation of Cyprus in post-imperial British popular culture with particular reference to the film The High Bright Sun (1965), a mainstream British production depicting the decline of British imperial authority during the ‘Cyprus Emergency’. The film is contextualized first in relation to contemporaneous cycles of British television dramas and novels representing Cyprus, and second in relation to ongoing political events as they intruded on the film’s production history. The article proceeds to examine the ways in which The High Bright Sun was marketed to audiences in Britain and its reception in the British press. It argues that while the marketing campaign attempted to detach the film from its immediate political context, British reviewers were eager to make unfavourable associations between events shown on-screen and the ongoing conflict in Cyprus.

According to postmodern theorists, the compression of time and space has led to the problematizing of both linear views of history and utopian concepts of the future. The postmodern shift towards nostalgia, where styles and sounds are constantly recycled, has been accompanied by a rejection of the modernist faith in the future. Thus, many of us find it difficult to envisage a tomorrow that is not like yesterday, seeking reassurance in familiar sounds and images that validate our perception of past music and associated styles. This article explores the phenomenon of the parodic popular music tribute, demonstrating the appeal it offers to temporal travellers in an era where our desire to incorporate the past into the present increasingly defines our future. Through an examination of the work of individual artists and groups I show how acts like Bjorn Again and The Bootleg Beatles promote a rejection of modernist visions of transformation. Instead, this form of entertainment constructs a future characterized by constant revivification of the music of the past.

Migration films represent an emerging genre of film-making that is increasingly influencing European citizens and policy-makers alike. Through them, we are able to deconstruct negative attitudes about migrants and how they fit into an increasingly cosmopolitan and diverse Europe. In 2008, the EU Parliament created the LUX Film Prize, an award that recognizes European films that embody European traditions, values and integration. In 2009, the prize was awarded to French Director Philippe Lioret’s film Welcome, the story of a Kurdish migrant in France hoping to reach Britain by swimming the English Channel. Despite its fictional scope, it was highly politicized and controversial due to its critical approach of French refugee policies, specifically the L622-1 law prohibiting citizens from offering assistance to undocumented migrants. Following the EU Commission’s acknowledgement of the need to further involve citizens in debates on European issues, this article argues that the LUX Prize is an innovative medium to foster debate and discussion on matters of migration within a wider European public sphere. It has also provided a platform for those outside the political landscape to help shape the discourse on migration, thus reinforcing a more inclusive European civic participation on matters directly affecting them as citizens.

This article examines the translation of two ancient Greek myths into theme park attractions in European theme parks. Following a very general discussion of the reasons for the popularity of ancient myths in modern media, the authors present a model of cultural translation in theme parks. The model is then applied to two theme park rides in Terra Mítica (Spain) and Parc Astérix (France), both of which, while referring to different myths, rely on the same iconography to establish their theme (the palace of Cnossos). The article specifically addresses scholars interested in classical reception studies and theme park studies, but may be interesting to anyone studying popular culture, cultural translation, adaptation and reception.

Alan Moore and the Gothic Tradition, Matthew J. A. Green (ed.) (2013) 1st ed., Manchester: Manchester University Press, 306 pp. ISBN: 9780719085994, h/b, £65.00

Post-War French Popular Music: Cultural Identity and the Brel-Brassens-Ferré Myth, Adeline Cordier (2014) Ashgate Popular and Folk Music Series, 188 pp., ISBN 9781409426066, h/b, £60.00

The Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Ha untology and Lost Futures, Mark Fisher (2014) Winchester: Zero Books, 245 pp. ISBN: 9781780992666, p/b, £12.95