Breaking Down Breaking Bad
eBook - PDF
Available until 31 Dec |Learn more

Breaking Down Breaking Bad

Critical Perspectives

  1. 232 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF
Available until 31 Dec |Learn more

Breaking Down Breaking Bad

Critical Perspectives

About this book

The story of Walter White's transformation from chemistry teacher to drug lord has captured the imagination of television viewers around the world. This collection of essays sets the series in the context of American culture, analyzing its reinvention of classic themes in literature.

A protagonist who sets out on a quest and discovers things about himself and the world is a common enough convention in American storytelling. Typically the hero encounters evil along the way and acquires worldly wisdom. Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad, offers a dynamic variant of this quest, posing the question of how far a desperate man facing death will go in order to achieve a sense of self and financial security for his family. Going beyond the obvious ethical issues that have preoccupied viewers and critics alike, the essays in this book cut across disciplines, delve deeply into contemporary issues, and explore the pure pleasure and entertainment value of the series.

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Yes, you can access Breaking Down Breaking Bad by Matt Wanat, Leonard Engel, Matt Wanat,Leonard Engel in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Television History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Acknowledgments
  6. Introduction / Matt Wanat and Leonard Engel
  7. 1: Breaking Bad—Morality Play Meets Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle: “Actions Have Consequences” / Leonard Engel
  8. 2: “Negro y Azul”: The Narcocorrido Goes Gothic / Cordelia E. Barrera
  9. 3: Breaking Bad as Critical Regionalism / Alex Hunt
  10. 4: On the Red Couch: Breaking Bad and the Refusal of Therapy / Jeffrey Severs
  11. 5: Doubling Down on a Handful of Nothin’: The Role of the Double in Breaking Bad / Brandon O’Neal
  12. 6: Civilization and Its Discontents and Walter White’s Individual Disorder in Seasons 1 and 2 of Breaking Bad / George Alexandre Ayresde Menezes Mousinho
  13. 7: Breaking Borders and Breaking Bad: Using Unconventional Choruses to Build a Narcotragedy / Maria O’Connell
  14. 8: Breaking the Caper, Subverting the Heist / Matt Wanat
  15. 9: “I Watched Jane Die”: Theorizing Breaking Bad’s Aesthetic of Brutality / Ian K. Jensen
  16. 10: Breaking Bad and Django Unchained: Strange Bedfellows / Glenda Pritchett
  17. 11: “It Wasn’t Whole Foods, Was It?”: Identity Management, Duplicity, and the False Consciousness of Suburbia / Brad Klypchak
  18. 12: The Arc of W. W.: Imperial Selfhood and Metastatic Poetry in Breaking Bad / Timothy Dansdill
  19. Contributors
  20. Index
  21. Back Cover