Biopics—films that chronicle the lives of famous and notorious figures from our national history—have long been one of Hollywood's most popular and important genres, offering viewers various understandings of American national identity. Invented Lives, Imagined Communities provides the first full-length examination of US biopics, focusing on key releases in American cinema while treating recent developments in three fields: cinema studies, particularly the history of Hollywood; national identity studies dealing with the American experience; and scholarship devoted to modernity and postmodernity. Films discussed include Houdini, Patton, The Great White Hope, Bound for Glory, Ed Wood, Basquiat, Pollock, Sylvia, Kinsey, Fur, Milk, J. Edgar, and Lincoln, and the book pays special attention to the crucial generic plot along which biopics traverse and showcase American lives, even as they modify the various notions of the national character.

What are the imagined communities that compel men to kill or to die for an idea of a nation? This notion of nationhood had its origins in the founding of the Americas, but was then adopted and transformed by populist movements in nineteenth-century Europe. It became the rallying cry for anti-Imperialism as well as the abiding explanation for colonialism. In this scintillating, groundbreaking work of intellectual history Anderson explores how ideas are formed and reformulated at every level, from high politics to popular culture, and the way that they can make people do extraordinary things. In the twenty-first century, these debates on the nature of the nation state are even more urgent. As new nations rise, vying for influence, and old empires decline, we must understand who we are as a community in the face of history, and change.

No detailed description available for "Tough Ain't Enough".

This collective book offers new insight on the genres of biography and autobiography by examining the singular path of those deemed to be ‘outsiders’, such as Winnie Mandela, Ida B. Wells, Malcolm X and Harvey Milk. Its specific focus on these female leaders and civil rights activists, who refused to be constrained by gender, race and class, shifts attention away from the great men of history and places it solely on those who have transformed their personal lives into a fight for collective goals. With an interdisciplinary approach that looks at literature, cinema and cultural studies, Women Activists and Civil Rights Leaders in Auto/Biographical Literature and Cinema argues that life writing is a key source of artistic creativity and activism which enables us to take a fresh look at history.

The collection of essays in the book moves from the largest domain of celebrity culture in India – Bollywood – through celebrity life writing and biopics and, finally, to the politics of and by celebrity culture. The book begins with an exploration of films made around celebrity victims to the vernacular cosmopolitanism of Bollywood stars’ philanthropic and humanitarian work and, finally, to celebrity charisma and its role in the current era of ‘post-truth.’ Two studies of celebrity biopics and auto/biographies – from sports stars to Bollywood stars – and their disease memoirs are included. Finally, a section of essays are devoted to celebrity cultural politics, including Indian writing as a celebrity, the Narmada River as a celebrity, the desacralization of celebrity statues, Arundhati Roy’s celebrated and celebrity activism and the self-fashioning of Indian authors in the age of digital culture.

Creates a portrait of one of America's legendary literary couples utilizing correspondence of many of their contemporaries.