The Madonna Connection

Representational Politics, Subcultural Identities, And Cultural Theory

Ramona Liera Schwichtenberg, Deidre Pribram, Dave Tetzlaff, Ron Scott

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780367293659
• eBook ISBN: 9781000303094
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Scienze sociali
• Subtopic: Sociologia

Various cultural theories (foremost among them, postmodernism) have figured in the debate over the politics of representation. These theories have tended to look at representation in the context of either audience enablement or commercial constraint; that is, do the images empower the public or inhibit it? One key area consistently overlooked has the been the study of subcultural or subordinate groups who appropriate what is traditionally considered "mainstream." The Madonna Connection is the first book to address the complexities of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture by using the influence of a cultural heroine to advance cultural theory. Madonna's use of various media—music, concert tour, film, and video—serves as a paradigm by which the authors study how images and symbols associated with subcultural groups (multiracial, gay and lesbian, feminist) are smuggled into the mainstream. Using a range of critical and interpretive approaches to this evolving and lively cultural phenomenon, the authors demonstrate the importance of personalities like Madonna to issues of enablement and constraint. Are "others" given voice by political interventions in mass popular culture? Or is their voice co-opted to provide mere titillation and maximum profit? What might the interplay of these views suggest? These are some of the questions the authors attempt to answer. Some celebrate Madonna's affirmation of cultural diversity. Others criticize her flagrant self-marketing strategies. And still others regard her as only a provisional challenge to the mainstream.

Index

Abjection, 31, 34(n8), 221

Abortion, 30

ACT-UP. See AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power

Advocate, The, 119, 121

African Americans, 2, 47-48, 51, 86, 87, 282

black church, 57, 59, 69, 70-72, 74

children, 278-279

feminists, 102(n14)

male, 65, 76(n16). See also Gay/lesbian community, black/Latin men

music of, 59, 63, 70

passing, 100(n9)

women. See Women, black

See also Civil rights; Race/ethnicity issues

AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP), 114, 115

AIDS issues, 23, 110,114, 124(n4)

Alcoff, Linda, 172

Alger, Horatio, 261

Allen, Robert C., 23, 32

Althusser, Louis, 82, 220

Alvin Ailey Dance Company, 76(n12)

Ambiguity, 286, 288

American Family Association, 22

Americanness, 174

American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 276

Anderson, Steve, 296

Androgyny, 287

Anorexia, 283

Anti-Oedipus (Deleuze and Guattari), 224, 301

Antiwar movement, 99(n1)

Apocalypse Now, 258

Appearances, 200, 201, 202, 207. See also Authenticity; Real, category of; Simulation

Appropriation, 82, 83, 98, 109, 113, 125(n12), 177, 179, 222, 231, 243, 253

Arena (TV program), 313(n4)

Art, 18, 19, 27, 62, 108, 172, 184(n1), 206, 215, 219, 255, 256

avant-garde, 161, 162, 215, 220-222

celebrity as, 243, 308

pr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Connections/Intersections
• One Out of Bounds: Reading Race and Madonna's Audiences
• Two The Sapphic Insurgent: Madonna and Gay Culture
• Three Gender Trouble: Madonna Poses the Feminist Question
• Four The Political Economy of Postmodernism: Madonna as Star-Commodity
• About the Book and Editor
• About the Contributors
• Index