Pleasure and Pain in Us Public Culture

By: Christopher J. Gilbert (Editor), John Louis Lucaites (Editor), Joshua Trey Barnett (Contribution by)

Write A Review

Paperback | 5 November 2024

At a Glance

Paperback
264 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
22.9 x 15.2

Paperback

$76.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $19.19 with

Aims to ship in 10 to 15 business days

Unraveling the intricate dance of pleasure and pain in contemporary American culture

Mainstream news and social media often highlight presentations of pain that invite a voyeuristic, pleasurable experience, whether the result of war, disasters, crime, accidents, or other catastrophes. This collection of essays explores pleasurable pains and painful pleasures, showing how they pervade contemporary western public culture.

Deploying methodologies drawn from psychoanalysis, rhetoric and communication, political theory, and visual culture, Pleasure and Pain in US Public Culture offers insightful criticisms and theories about how pleasure and pain function in public discourse, media, and everyday communication practices.

The contributors provide a sample of fascinating range of news reportage, television, film and cinema, stage drama, comic performances, street art, and other forms of popular culture. The media cited and analyzed include Spike Lee's films, Afrofuturism, autoethnography, and the #MeToo movement.

The collection takes up engrossing topics such as the cathartic allure of pain, ethical dilemmas surrounding public displays of suffering, and the transformative power of narratives that confront trauma. The essays also draw connections between theory and real-world outcomes, explore the implications of enjoying traumatic comedy, and link the natural world to otherwise mundane instances of interspecies violence. Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination hearings and what they suggest about witnessing trauma is also discussed.

Pleasure and Pain in US Public Culture will change how a reader sees the world. It imparts a startling vision of western culture permeated by pain and pleasure.

Industry Reviews

"This collection provokes lively debates. The chapters have a shared interest in analyzing the apparent opposites of 'pleasure' and 'pain' as mutually reinforcing elements constitutive of a conflicted contemporary reality." --Vanessa Meikle Schulman, author of Work Sights: The Visual Culture of Industry in Nineteenth-Century America

Shipping

	Standard Shipping	Express Shipping
Metro postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Regional postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95
Rural postcodes:	$9.99	$14.95

How to return your order

At Booktopia, we offer hassle-free returns in accordance with our returns policy. If you wish to return an item, please get in touch with Booktopia Customer Care.

Additional postage charges may be applicable.