The Legacy of Mad Men (eBook)

Cultural History, Intermediality and American Television

Karen McNally, Jane Marcellus, Teresa Forde, Kirsty Fairclough (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: PDF

2019 | 1st ed. 2019
XVII, 280 Seiten
Springer International Publishing (Verlag)
978-3-030-31091-2 (ISBN)

Infos

'The Legacy of Mad Men adds significant new perspectives to the legacy of Mad Men scholarship. The authors apply theoretical perspectives that have been understudied in previous Mad Men work, chart new connections with previous media, and examine overlooked aspects of Men Men's sound design. A concluding chapter insightfully considers how the election of Donald Trump has signaled a resurgence in the sexism, antisemitism, and racism critiqued in Mad Men.'

-          - Dr Jeremy Butler, Professor of Communication and Culture, University of Alabama

 

For seven seasons, viewers worldwide watched as ad man Don Draper moved from adultery to self-discovery, secretary Peggy Olson became a take-no-prisoners businesswoman, object-of-the-gaze Joan Holloway developed a feminist consciousness, executive Roger Sterling tripped on LSD, and smarmy Pete Campbell became a surprisingly nice guy. Mad Men defined a pivotal moment for television, earning an enduring place in the medium's history.

 

This edited collection examines the enduringly popular television series as Mad Men still captivates audiences and scholars in its nuanced depiction of a complex decade. This is the first book to offer an analysis of Mad Men in its entirety, exploring the cyclical and episodic structure of the long form series and investigating issues of representation, power and social change. The collection establishes the show's legacy in televisual terms, and brings it up to date through an examination of its cultural importance in the Trump era. Aimed at scholars and interested general readers, the book illustrates the ways in which Mad Men has become a cultural marker for reflecting upon contemporary television and politics.  

Karen McNally is Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at London Metropolitan University, UK and has published on stardom, gender and race in Hollywood Cinema.

Jane Marcellus is Professor of Media History and Cultural Studies at Middle Tennessee State University, USA and has published on feminism and media history, with a focus on the representation of employed women.

Teresa Forde is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at the University of Derby, UK and has published on gender, science fiction, soundtracks and memory.

Kirsty Fairclough is Associate Dean: Research and Innovation at the University of Salford, UK and has published on race, gender, popular music and celebrity.

             

Inhalt

Contents 6
Editors and Contributors 11
Introduction: Where the Truth Still Lies 16
What Else Is There to Say About Mad Men? 16
Bibliography 23
Part I Mad Men’s Status: Television, Reputation, Fandom 25
Mad Men’s Legacy in the Quality Television Tradition 26
Right Time, Right Place 26
The Emergence of Quality Television 29
The Legacy of Mad Men 33
Bibliography 38
Mad Men, Maddicts, and Recapturing the Carousel Through Kodak Moments and Selfies 41
Introduction: A Meta-Slide Show 41
Sliding into Nostalgia 44
Slide 1: Old Wounds, Kodak Moments, and Acts of Preservation 45
Slide 2: Breaking the Rules 47
Slides 3 and 4: Playing with Time 48
Slides 5, 6, and 7: Invisible Labourers Outside of the Frame: Mothers, Domestic Workers, and Kodak Girls 49
Slides 8 and 9: Absence 52
Slides 10, 11, and 12: Pictures Speak Louder Than Words 53
Nostalgia as Generative 54
Bibliography 56
Mad Men and Complex Seriality 59
Introduction 59
From Narrative Complexity to Complex Seriality 60
Conceptual Originality and Drama with a Point of View 62
The Integration of Central Characters and Overarching Story 64
The Psychological Investigation of Character 66
Conclusions 70
Bibliography 72
Part II Gender and Race: The Complex Management of Power 75
The Depiction of the Civil Rights Movement on Mad Men 76
Capturing an Era 76
CRT: A Brief Overview 78
Race and Mad Men 79
Everyday Interactions 79
SCDP and the ‘Negro’ Market 82
The Civil Rights Movement and SCDP 83
The Real Civil Rights Movement and the Reel Civil Rights Movement 87
Conclusion 89
Bibliography 90
Mad Men, Women, and the Lure of Feminism 91
Preview: Watching Women on Mad Men 91
Feminist Continuities: The Way We’ve Always Been 94
Historical Difference and Feminist Progress: The Way We Really Were 98
Competing Feminist Frameworks/Competition Between Women 100
From Feminist Snares to Feminist Fantasies: Seeking an Alternative End 101
Bibliography 105
The Performativity of Labour and Femininity on Mad Men 108
Women of Service 111
Performativity 113
Affective Labour and Female Transformation 117
Bibliography 121
Mad Men, Corporate Culture, and Violence Against Women 123
Bourdieu’s Symbolic Violence 125
Kanter’s Corporate Work Roles 125
Joan and Peggy 126
Betty and Trudy 129
Rachel and Bobbie 131
Conclusion 135
Bibliography 136
Part III Mad Men’s Intermediality: Film, Music, Poetics 138
Don Draper and the Enduring Appeal of Antonioni’s La Notte 139
Bibliography 152
Mad Men’s Mid-Century Modern Times 154
Chaplin’s Labour Thesis in Modern Times 156
The Violence of ‘The Monolith’ 157
‘Human Existence Is Finite’ 159
‘That Machine Came for Us’ 162
Dehumanizing the Workplace in Our Modern Times 164
Bibliography 167
Dualities and Ambiguities: Mad Men’s Use of the Beatles, Nancy Sinatra, and Judy Collins in Seasons Five and Six 168
Bibliography 179
Using Bakhtin’s ‘Third Ear’ to Hear Mad Men’s Adspeak in the Everyday 181
Introduction 181
Background: Post-war Capitalism and Bakhtin 182
Season One 184
Proceeding Seasons 187
Conclusion: California Carnivalesque? 191
Bibliography 195
Mad Men and the Staging of Literature via Ken Cosgrove and His Problems 196
Bibliography 209
Part IV Endings and Legacies: The Final Season 210
Mad Men’s Finale and the Making of History 211
From Riches to Rags 212
Death of a Salesman 215
Back to Reality 218
Bibliography 221
Ending an Era and the Dismantling of Narrative ‘Machinery’ in Mad Men’s Finale 222
Moving ‘Forward’ 223
Accepting the Past, Achieving Stasis 227
Changing Places 231
A New Don? 233
Bibliography 235
What Jungian Psychology Can Tell Us About Don Draper’s Unexpected Embrace of Leonard in Mad Men’s Finale 237
Bibliography 249
Afterword: Reading Mad Men in the Era of Trump 251
The Gender Divide 253
Race, Power and Visibility 257
Conclusion 261
Bibliography 262
Index 263

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 30.11.2019
• Zusatzinfo: XVII, 280 p. 1 illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
• Schlagworte: American Studies • Cultural History • Gender Studies • Mad Men • Television Studies • Transmedia
• ISBN-10: 3-030-31091-4 / 3030310914
• ISBN-13: 978-3-030-31091-2 / 9783030310912