Throughout history magic has been an art that has instilled awe and wonder in its spectators. The magician used to be held in high esteem, as teacher, as scientist, as priest and even as philosopher. This being the case, throughout the history of philosophy, philosophers have deemed magic to be deception, to be a mode of misleading people into believing what is not true. Through the modern philosophical era, philosophers have been seeking a purely scientific method for questioning reality. It seems that, today, even the magician views his or her art as mere entertainment. The purpose of my thesis is to dispel the belief that magic is purely a hobby with no artistic value and that, like other artworks, magic too can cause one to question existence. / by Mark J. Gobeo. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study examines two television soap operas and their consumption by a select group of teenagers. The soap operas in question, Neighbours and Home and Away, are produced in Australia and watched by large audiences in the UK. The study's broadest aim is to discover the nature of the relationship between the programmes and their teenage viewers. In order to meet this aim, the study combines textual analysis and audience research. Following a review of the textual analysis of soap opera, Neighbours and Home and Away are examined in detail as texts. The audience study is then introduced and located. The empirical study involved tape-recording interviews with groups of 13-16 year olds in one Edinburgh High School, and with individual teenagers in their own homes. In total, 50 teenagers were interviewed. The recurring findings of the audience study are analysed in detail. The final two chapters of the thesis contextualize the findings and conclusions of the textual and audience studies. A selective genealogy is provided which theoretically locates Neighbours and Home and Away and their consumption as cultural practices in self-government. It is argued that the two programmes should be understood as integral parts of a broad but specific arena for learning. It is argued that interviewees use Neighbours and Home and Away as cultural resources. They learn how to conduct themselves in intimate and social relationships, and, in particular, learn how to practise and reconstruct their gendered selves. It is argued that the model of analysis elaborated is valuable because: it best explains the specific nature of Neighbours and Home and Away and their consumption; it provides a way of moving beyond something of an orthodoxy in soap opera analysis; and it avoids the binary logic of some recent arguments about popular culture and social change.

This thesis takes as the object of its enquiry children's talk about the range of different media texts which they circulate amongst themselves in informal settings. It uses this data to raise questions about how we can conceptualise literacy in a multimedia age; the role that talk about texts plays in establishing what it means to read and to be a reader; and the relationship between talk, text and context. The thesis contributes to the development of a social theory of literacy by linking differences observed in ways of talking about texts to different aspects of the social contexts in which those texts circulate. It redefines the social contexts for reading which shape a given literacy event in terms of the social processes through which texts are made available to particular readers ii. particular settings. These social processes are described in terms of the social regulation of texts. The methodological and theoretical issues the thesis tackles arise largely from the attempt to construct a new language of description (See Bernstein, 1996) for the range of talk about texts collected as part of the research data. The language used to describe the data has become the means for making visible aspects of literacy as a social practice which have been previously overlooked. In this respect, the act of description is therefore in itself theoretical: it helps formulate what it refers to.

This thesis is a study of popular social history and education in mid-twentieth century Britain. It argues that the ‘history of everyday life’ was a guiding framework for how ‘ordinary’ people sought to understand themselves and the world around them in this period. The ‘history of everyday life’ told stories of how the ‘uneventful’ lives, practices, feelings, and social and material environments of individuals changed across generations. It was the dominant form of popular social history in Britain from 1918 to the end of the 1960s, and it flourished long before academic social history championed similar themes, in a different idiom and for very different audiences. This thesis follows the ‘history of everyday life’ across a range of public-facing, educational institutions that were interested in producing histories for a mass audience. It delves into the myriad ways in which ‘amateur’ historians (often women) produced and disseminated ‘everyday’ histories. The ‘history of everyday life’ was a flexible intellectual resource available to both the radical left and conservative right. Whilst still attending to this full political spectrum, this thesis shifts focus away from explicit ideologies to the visual, emotional, and practical elements of historical activity.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study seeks to uncover the non-coercive, intricate and insidious ways which have generated both the 'willing' acceptance of and resistance to the rule of Robert Mugabe and ZANU-PF in Zimbabwe. I consider how popular culture is a site that produces complex and persuasive meanings and enactments of citizenship and belonging in contemporary Zimbabwe and focus on 'agency,' 'subversion' and their interconnectedness or blurring. The study argues that understanding nationalism's impact in Zimbabwe necessitates an analysis of the complex ways in which dominant articulations of nationalism are both imbibed and contested, with its contestation often demonstrating the tremendous power of covert forms of resistance. The focus on the politics of popular culture in Zimbabwe called for eclectic and critical engagements with different social constructionist traditions, including postcolonial feminism, aspects of the work of Louis Althusser and Michel Foucault. My eclectic borrowing is aimed at enlisting theory to analyse ways in which co-optation, subversion and compromise often coexist in the meanings generated by various popular and public culture forms. These include revered national figures and symbols, sacrosanct dead bodies and retrievals, slogans and campaign material, sport, public speeches, the mass media and music. The study therefore explores political sites and responses that existing disciplinary studies, especially politics and history, tend to side-line. A central thesis of the study is that Zimbabwe, in dominant articulations of the nation, is often constituted in a discourse of anti-colonial war, and its present and future are imagined as a defence of what has already been gained from previous wars in the form of "chimurenga." I argue that formal sites of political contestation often reinforce forms of patriarchal, heterosexist, ethnic, neo-imperial and class authoritarianism often associated only with the ZANU PF as the overtly autocratic ruling party. In turning to diverse forms of popular culture and their reception, I identify and analyze sites and texts that, rather than constituting mere entertainment or reflecting organized and party political struggles, testify to the complexity and intensity of current forms of domination and resistance in the country. Contrary to the view that Zimbabwe has been witnessing a steady paralysis of popular protest, the study argues that slogans, satire, jokes, metaphor, music and general performance arts by the ordinary people are spaces on which "even the highly spectacular deployment of gender and sexuality to naturalize a nationalism informed by the 'efficacy' of a phallocentric power 'cult' is full of contestations and ruptures."

Popular culture has had a great deal of impact on our social, cultural, and political worlds; it is portrayed through different mediums, in different forms, and connects the world to ideas, beliefs, and different perspectives. Though this dissertation is part of a larger body of work that examines the complex relationship between popular culture and mathematical identity, this study takes a different perspective by examining it through the lens of mathematical Internet memes. This study was conducted with 31 secondary school participants and used a two-tiered approach (in-depth focus groups and an individual meme activity) at each of the five school sites visited around New York City. Multiple sources of data were used to reveal that students are receiving messages about mathematics from memes in popular culture. In particular, participants described six core themes from the meme inventory: (1) stereotypical views of mathematics; (2) mathematics is too complicated; (3) no effort should be needed in mathematics; (4) mathematics is useless; (5) mathematics is not fun; and (6) sense of accomplishment from mathematics. Participants were also given free rein to create hypothetical mathematics memes. Findings demonstrate that not only are memes being used to depict mathematical stereotypes, thereby reinforcing negative messages, but also support social media practices (liking, commenting, sharing, and creating) that reify negative messages about mathematics with little to no resistance from opposing perspectives. In general, participants described mathematical memes in a specific manner that demonstrates them having influence over students’ mathematical identity but not entirely on the way one may think. Future research implications include explorations of the “new” online mathematical space students are utilizing; to wit, what makes these specific memes go viral? What are common misconceptions? Are commenters learning from their mistakes and other answer responses? Implications for practice include the creation of formal spaces within classrooms and communities for students to debrief their thoughts and sentiments about mathematics, as well as informal opportunities for educators, students, and community members to engage positively about mathematics: because without these interventions the messages found in memes, whether positive or negative, are potentially legitimized through popular culture’s presentations. Moreover, the results of this study also show that students are unaware of the processes and proficiencies of mathematical learning. More specifically, teachers and others must help students understand knowledge is not transmitted by copying notes or that teaching strategies need to account for students being apprehensive to ask questions in a mathematics classroom. Memes can also be used to explore mathematics content, through error analysis and explanation of concepts.

Review of Wilcox, Rhonda V., Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthia Masson, and David Lavery, eds. Reading Joss Whedon. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2014. Print.

This dissertation develops the theoretical framework of “trainwreck feminism.” Forwarded by contemporary women in comedy like Mindy Kaling, Abbi Jacobson, Ilana Glazer, and Amy Schumer, trainwreck feminists adopt the trope of the trainwreck—excessive in need, sex, and madness—to demonstrate the disastrous consequences of growing up in postfeminist culture that both insists women are finally liberated and continues to police their choices. Engaging ongoing debates about whether postfeminism is over since feminism is becoming a status symbol for celebrities and public figures, I argue that postfeminism remains a powerful cultural force, and women in comedy are some of its most vocal critics. Trainwreck feminism exposes the misogyny at the core of postfeminist culture, while arguing that feminist activism is still needed. Trainwreck feminism is reflective of a larger rejection of postfeminist culture, a contradictory moment that celebrates feminism’s achievements while insisting the movement is outdated. Trainwreck feminism represents a larger re-politicization of feminism in pop culture. Each chapter examines a different comic and the specific branch of postfeminism they undermine: Mindy Kaling and the postfeminist life cycle, Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer and commodity feminism, and Amy Schumer and choice feminism. Ultimately, these women imbue the trainwreck with true feminist potential, pointing a finger at postfeminist culture as a source of women’s madness. Because they are cautionary tales, trainwrecks can highlight the unspoken rules and expectations of femininity. While comedy can have a fairly nasty, depoliticizing relationship with feminism, often turning feminism into a lifestyle or label devoid of political activism, I argue that some contemporary comic texts are actively politicized, inspiring viewers to critique and change the world around them. They do so by appropriating particular vernacular rhetorics that appeal to younger, millennial audiences and using it to demonstrate how postfeminism has failed women. That is, each comic I examine leverages postfeminist sensibilities in order to critique and undermine them, engaging in a trainwreck feminism that highlights the contradictions, absurdities, and misogyny at the heart of postfeminist culture.

This thesis analyses the television program known as 'Super Girls', which aired on Hunan Satellite Television from 2004-2006 in the Peoples' Republic of China. In the West, this program is sometimes referred to as 'Chinese Idol' because of its similarities to the globally popular television format, 'Idol'. Although 'Super Girls' shares many similarities with 'Idol' there are also equally important differences. This thesis examines these differences as a way of theorising the how the program negotiates the localisation of a Western television format. First, the program is placed in the broader context of the increased liberalisation and commercialisation of the Chinese television industry. Secondly, the thesis analyses the concept of format television and presents the logic behind the global shift toward producing this type of programming. Next, specific aspects of Super Girls are analysed in detail to bring out how the program functioned culturally in the context of China. These aspects of Super Girls include, the way the program represents the changing role and potential of television from the PRC to contribute to negotiations on Chinese identity that take place among the various symbolic universes of Cultural China, including the global Chinese Diaspora. The thesis also explores the nature of the celebrities produced by the contest through isolating their meaning and significance within the Chinese context. The thesis argues that the contest winners are celebrated for their individuality and come to stand for the rise of 'ordinary power'. The thesis also examines the ways in which Super Girls embraces its audience through new modes of address and offering new types of agency for its audience. As a result, Super Girls offers insight into how Chinese culture is now shaped by a rise of 'ordinary empowerment' where the bottom-up cultures are hybridised with the traditional high culture in television broadcasting.

Beyond the Pink: (Post) Youth Iconography in Cinema is a project in cultural time travel. It cuts up linear cinematic narratives to develop a hop-scotched history of youth, Generation X and (post) youth culture. I focus upon the pleasures, pedagogies and (un)popular politics of a filmic genre that continues to be dismissed as unworthy of intellectual debate. Accelerated culture and the discourse of celebrity have blurred the crisp divisions between fine art and crude commodity, the meaningful and meaningless, and real and fictive, unsettling the binary logic that assigns importance to certain texts and not others. This research project prises open that awkward space between representation and experience. Analysts require methods and structures through which to manage historical change and textual movement. Through cinema, macro-politics of identity emerge from the micro-politics of the narrative. Prom politics and mallrat musings become imbued with social significance that speak in the literacies available to youth. It grants the ephemerality and liminality of an experience a tactile trace. I select moments of experience for Generation X youth and specific icons – Happy Harry Hardon, Molly Ringwald, the Spice Girls, the Bitch, the invisible raver, teen time travellers Marty McFly and Donnie Darko, and the slacker – to reveal the archetypes and ideologies that punctuate the cinematic landscape. The tracked figures do not configure a smooth historical arc. It is in the rifts and conflicts of diverse narratives and subjectivities where attention is focused. This research imperative necessitates the presentation of a series of essays arranged in a tripartite framework. The first section proposes theoretical paradigms for a tethered analysis of filmic texts and Generation X. The second segment explores sites of struggle in public spaces and time. The final section leaves the landscape of post-Generation X to forge the relationship between history, power and youth identity. I particularly focus on the iconography, ideologies and imaginings of young women to lead the discussion of the shifts in the experience and representations of youth. By reinserting women into studies of film, it is imperative to stress that this is not a dissertation in, and of, women’s cinema. Rather, it serves as an historical corrective to the filmic database. The existing literature on youth cinema is disappointing and narrow in its trajectories. Timothy Shary’s Generation Multiplex: The Image of Youth in Contemporary American Cinema and Jon Lewis’ The Road to Romance and Ruin: Teen Films and Youth Culture exemplify the difficulties of capturing the complexities of individual films when they are collated in artificial and stifling categories. At one end of the analytical spectrum is the critique that comes with the caveat of ‘it’s just another teen movie’. Jonathon Bernstein’s monograph Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies is one such example which derails into acerbic diatribes and intellectual dismissal. The Cinema of Generation X: A Critical Study by Peter Hanson is a more successful project that is interested in the influences that inform a community of filmmakers than arriving at a catalogue of generic themes and narratives. There is an emphasis on the synergy between text, producer and readership. I continue this relationship explored by Hanson, but further accent the politics of film. The original contribution to knowledge offered by this doctoral thesis is a detailed study of (post) youth popular culture, building into a model for Generation X cinema, activating the interdisciplinary perspectives from film and cultural studies. With its adaptability into diverse media forms, cultural studies paradigms allow navigation through the expansive landscape of popular culture. It traverses beyond simple textual analyses to consider a text’s cultural currency. As an important carrier of meaning and sensory memories, cinema allows for alternative accounts that are denied in authorised history. As a unique form with its own visual literacy, screen theory is needed to refine observations. This unique melding of screen and cultural studies underscores the convergent relationship between text, readership, production and politics. This doctoral thesis activates concepts and methods of generationalism, nationalism, social history and cultural practice. There is a dialogue between the chapters that crosses over text and time. The 1980s of Molly Ringwald shadows the dystopia of Donnie Darko. The celebrity status of the Spice Girls clashes with the frustrated invisibility of the female raver. Douglas Coupland’s vision of Generation X in 1991 has evolved into Richard Linklater’s documentation of post-youth in the new millenium. Leaping between decades through time travel in cinema, I argue that the nostalgic past and projections for the future evoke the preoccupations and anxieties of the present.