Pretend We're Dead

Capitalist Monsters in American Pop Culture

Business & Finance, Business Reference, Corporate History, Nonfiction, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Cultural Studies, Popular Culture
Cover of the book Pretend We're Dead by Annalee Newitz, Duke University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Annalee Newitz ISBN: 9780822387855
Publisher: Duke University Press Publication: July 17, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books Language: English
Author: Annalee Newitz
ISBN: 9780822387855
Publisher: Duke University Press
Publication: July 17, 2006
Imprint: Duke University Press Books
Language: English

In Pretend We’re Dead, Annalee Newitz argues that the slimy zombies and gore-soaked murderers who have stormed through American film and literature over the past century embody the violent contradictions of capitalism. Ravaged by overwork, alienated by corporate conformity, and mutilated by the unfettered lust for profit, fictional monsters act out the problems with an economic system that seems designed to eat people whole.

Newitz looks at representations of serial killers, mad doctors, the undead, cyborgs, and unfortunates mutated by their involvement with the mass media industry. Whether considering the serial killer who turns murder into a kind of labor by mass producing dead bodies, or the hack writers and bloodthirsty actresses trapped inside Hollywood’s profit-mad storytelling machine, she reveals that each creature has its own tale to tell about how a freewheeling market economy turns human beings into monstrosities.

Newitz tracks the monsters spawned by capitalism through b movies, Hollywood blockbusters, pulp fiction, and American literary classics, looking at their manifestations in works such as Norman Mailer’s “true life novel” The Executioner’s Song; the short stories of Isaac Asimov and H. P. Lovecraft; the cyberpunk novels of William Gibson and Marge Piercy; true-crime books about the serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer; and movies including Modern Times (1936), Donovan’s Brain (1953), Night of the Living Dead (1968), RoboCop (1987), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001). Newitz shows that as literature and film tell it, the story of American capitalism since the late nineteenth century is a tale of body-mangling, soul-crushing horror.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In Pretend We’re Dead, Annalee Newitz argues that the slimy zombies and gore-soaked murderers who have stormed through American film and literature over the past century embody the violent contradictions of capitalism. Ravaged by overwork, alienated by corporate conformity, and mutilated by the unfettered lust for profit, fictional monsters act out the problems with an economic system that seems designed to eat people whole.

Newitz looks at representations of serial killers, mad doctors, the undead, cyborgs, and unfortunates mutated by their involvement with the mass media industry. Whether considering the serial killer who turns murder into a kind of labor by mass producing dead bodies, or the hack writers and bloodthirsty actresses trapped inside Hollywood’s profit-mad storytelling machine, she reveals that each creature has its own tale to tell about how a freewheeling market economy turns human beings into monstrosities.

Newitz tracks the monsters spawned by capitalism through b movies, Hollywood blockbusters, pulp fiction, and American literary classics, looking at their manifestations in works such as Norman Mailer’s “true life novel” The Executioner’s Song; the short stories of Isaac Asimov and H. P. Lovecraft; the cyberpunk novels of William Gibson and Marge Piercy; true-crime books about the serial killers Ted Bundy and Jeffrey Dahmer; and movies including Modern Times (1936), Donovan’s Brain (1953), Night of the Living Dead (1968), RoboCop (1987), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001). Newitz shows that as literature and film tell it, the story of American capitalism since the late nineteenth century is a tale of body-mangling, soul-crushing horror.

More books from Duke University Press

Cover of the book Revolutions in Mexican Catholicism by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Hip Hop Desis by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Religion and Nationalism in Soviet and East European Politics by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Worlds Apart by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Coming through the Fire by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Burn This House by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Between You and Me by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Undead TV by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Constituent Moments by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Dark Continents by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Sisters in the Life by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Postmodernism and China by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book I Love My Selfie by Annalee Newitz
Cover of the book Empty Moments by Annalee Newitz
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy