Time Passages: Collective Memory and American Popular Culture (American Culture, 4) - Softcover

Lipsitz, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0816618062 ISBN 13: 9780816618064

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press, 1990

Synopsis

"Time Passages is a far-reaching-and perhaps permanent-contribution to cultural studies." San Francisco Review of Books

"This high take on 'low' culture examines the complex web of popular narratives that arise from and create the American collective memory. Studying the period from the end of World War II to the present, Lipsitz . . . inventively explores the popular canon, turning variously to television, rock music, film, novels, and the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans." Publishers Weekly

"What really separates Lipsitz from earlier critics of popular culture is that he got his rock diploma from the high-school gym, not the Frankfurt School. Lipsitz knows the color of the labels, the B-sides, the cover versions." Boston Phoenix Literary Section

"In a series of provocative and finely crafted essays on film, rock 'n' roll, early television, popular novels, New Orleans Mardi Gras celebrations, and other aspects of popular culture, Lipsitz argues that popular culture has been, and remains, an arena of hope, possibility, criticism, and even resistance for millions of ordinary people." American Studies

George Lipsitz is professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, San Diego, where he serves as director of the Thurgood Marshall Institute. He is the author of many books, including Time Passages (see right), The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity Politics (1998), and Dangerous Crossroads: Popular Music, Postmodernism, and the Poetics of Place (1997).

About this title

About the Author

George Lipsitz is professor of black studies and sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Among his many books are Dangerous Crossroads and Footsteps in the Dark (Minnesota, 2007).

From Publishers Weekly

This high take on "low" culture examines the complex web of popular narratives that arise from and create the American collective memory. Studying the period from the end of WW II to the present, Lipsitz ( Class and Culture in Cold War America ) inventively explores the popular canon, turning variously to television, rock music, film, novels and the Mardi Gras Indians of New Orleans who spend all year preparing to celebrate Carnival. Lipsitz argues that TV shows such as I Remember Mama gave voice to immigrant working-class families, in part to inculcate that subculture with a consumer ethic. Rock music is seen as an important dialogic process with African origins, incorporating influences from a variety of ethnic groups . Lipsitz's vocabulary subscribes to academic trends ("metaphoricity"), and careless editing permits a repetition of phrases and ideas. But the author frequently arranges amusing juxtapositions--such as epigraphs by Russian literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0816618062
• ISBN 13: 9780816618064
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306