“Quiet Quitters”: Detectorists, Hobbies and Resistance to Neoliberal Capitalism
(2024)
Book Chapter
All Outputs (19)
The end of history?: Contesting the legacy of the 1960s and 1970s in The X-Files (2023)
Book Chapter
This chapter examines how The X-Files offered a revisionist historical perspective of the political upheaval the United States experienced through the 1960s and 1970s. It shows how in its relentless questioning of the official record on the assassina... Read More about The end of history?: Contesting the legacy of the 1960s and 1970s in The X-Files.
Alien Legacies: The Evolution of the Franchise (2023)
Book
Alien (1979) has left an indelible mark on popular culture. Conceived primarily to cash in on the popularity of science-fiction films in the late 1970s, directed by a person known for making adverts (Ridley Scott) and starring an unknown actor in the... Read More about Alien Legacies: The Evolution of the Franchise.
Bad Hombres at the Border: Masculinity and Mexico in Rambo Last Blood (2022)
Book Chapter
The Rambo series (1982-2019) has functioned as a barometer of US domestic and foreign policies across its forty year history. At first a traumatised veteran of the war in Vietnam, John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) became a hard-bodied defender of US in... Read More about Bad Hombres at the Border: Masculinity and Mexico in Rambo Last Blood.
Teaching Demons and Eating Nazis: Morality in Trump-era Fantasy Comedy (2022)
Book Chapter
Donald Trump’s personality is arguably symptomatic of the values of the contemporary era. His aggressive individualism, narcissism and selfishness were no impediment to securing the presidency, which suggests the normalisation, indeed, valorisation,... Read More about Teaching Demons and Eating Nazis: Morality in Trump-era Fantasy Comedy.
Make America Hate Again? The Politics of Vigilante Geriaction (2021)
Journal Article
The article explores the politics of the vigilante geriaction film, with specific focus on the remake of Death Wish (Eli Roth, 2018). In its construction of a nation under mortal threat from within and without, the subgenre is uncritical in its reinf... Read More about Make America Hate Again? The Politics of Vigilante Geriaction.
New Wave, New Hollywood: Reassessment, Recovery, and Legacy (2021)
Book
As a period of film history, The American New Wave (ordinarily understood as beginning in 1967 and ending in 1980) remains a preoccupation for scholars and audiences alike. In traditional accounts, it is considered to be bookended by two periods of c... Read More about New Wave, New Hollywood: Reassessment, Recovery, and Legacy.
New Wave, New Hollywood: Reassessment, Recovery, and Legacy (2021)
Book
As a period of film history, The American New Wave (ordinarily understood as beginning in 1967 and ending in 1980) remains a preoccupation for scholars and audiences alike. In traditional accounts, it is considered to be bookended by two periods of c... Read More about New Wave, New Hollywood: Reassessment, Recovery, and Legacy.
Kubrick and the Critics (2021)
Book Chapter
The cultural politics of Jennifer Lawrence as star, actor, celebrity (2020)
Journal Article
Jennifer Lawrence emerged as a major star of American cinema following the collapse of the economy in 2008. This article will argue that her image in the initial phase of her fame (2010–16) is reflective of mainstream culture’s response to the crisis... Read More about The cultural politics of Jennifer Lawrence as star, actor, celebrity.
The odds are never in your favor: the form and function of American cinema’s neoliberal dystopias (2019)
Journal Article
This article explores the ways in which dystopian cinema that emerged in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008 provided pointed critique of two aspects of neoliberalism’s economic and social policies: the deliberate imposition of precariousne... Read More about The odds are never in your favor: the form and function of American cinema’s neoliberal dystopias.
“The Lincoln Memorial Was Too Crowded”: Interpreting the United States' Memorial Landscape through Film and Television (2017)
Journal Article
This article argues for a more rigorous understanding of the use of memorials in American film and television as part of the ongoing negotiation and development of American memory, looking beyond the disaster genre and the Lincoln Memorial to other s... Read More about “The Lincoln Memorial Was Too Crowded”: Interpreting the United States' Memorial Landscape through Film and Television.
“The Real Thing”: Election Campaigns and The Question of Authenticity in American Film and Television (2015)
Journal Article
This article examines the concept of authenticity in American politics through its construction and representation in fictional election campaigns in film and television. This article will posit The Candidate (1972), Tanner '88 (1988), Wag the Dog (1... Read More about “The Real Thing”: Election Campaigns and The Question of Authenticity in American Film and Television.
The American President in Film and Television: Myth, Politics and Representation (2014)
Book
As evidenced by the election of celebrity and reality television star Donald Trump, popular culture has played a vital role in the conceptualisation of political leadership. This revised edition of The American President in Film and Television explor... Read More about The American President in Film and Television: Myth, Politics and Representation.
Seeing Obama, Projecting Kennedy: The Presence of JFK in Images of Barack Obama (2012)
Journal Article
During the 2008 election campaign Obama's youth, his glamorous wife, young children, and liberal politics resuscitated the memory of Kennedy, who remains the benchmark of the presidential image. This article explores how Obama shapes himself in Kenne... Read More about Seeing Obama, Projecting Kennedy: The Presence of JFK in Images of Barack Obama.