Traber reexamines the practice of self-marginalization in Euro-American literature and popular culture that depict whites adopting varied markers of otherness to disengage from the dominant culture. He draws on critical theory, whiteness and cultural studies to counter an eager correlation between marginality and agency. The nonconformist cultural politics of these border crossings implode since the transgressive identity the protagonists desire relies upon, is built from, the center's values and definitions. An orthodox notion of individualism underpins each act of sovereignty as it rationalizes exploiting stereotypes of an Other constructed by the center. The work closes by positing a theory of identity based on Jean-Luc Nancy's concept of the emptied self. In recognizing the already mixed quality of being, identity is made a vacuous concept as the standards for determining self and difference become too slippery to hold.

Traber reexamines the practice of self-marginalization in Euro-American literature and popular culture that depict whites adopting varied markers of otherness to disengage from the dominant culture. He draws on critical theory, whiteness and cultural studies to counter an eager correlation between marginality and agency. The nonconformist cultural politics of these border crossings implode since the transgressive identity the protagonists desire relies upon, is built from, the center's values and definitions. An orthodox notion of individualism underpins each act of sovereignty as it rationalizes exploiting stereotypes of an Other constructed by the center. The work closes by positing a theory of identity based on Jean-Luc Nancy's concept of the emptied self. In recognizing the already mixed quality of being, identity is made a vacuous concept as the standards for determining self and difference become too slippery to hold.

Performing Punk is a rich exploration of subcultural contrasts and similarities among punks. By investigating how punk is made, for whom, and in opposition to what, this book takes the reader on a journey through the lesser-known aspects of the punk subculture.

Punk music and community have been a piece of United States culture since the early 1970s. Although varied scholarship on Punk exists in a variety of disciplines, the educative aspect of Punk engagement, specifically the Do?It?Yourself (DIY) ethos, has yet to be fully explored by the Education discipline. This study attempts to elucidate the experiences of adults who describe their engagement with Punk as educative. To better know this experience, is to also better understand the ways in which Punk engagement impacts learner selfconcept and learning development. Phenomenological in?depth interviewing of six adult participants located in Los Angeles, California and Gainesville, Florida informs the creation of narrative data, once interpreted, reveals education journeys that contain mis?educative experiences, educative experiences, and ultimately educative healing experiences. Using Public Pedagogy, Social Learning Theory, and Self?Directed Learning Development as foundational constructs, this work aims to contribute to scholarship that brings learning contexts in from the margins of education rhetoric and into the center of analysis by better understanding and uncovering the essence of the learning experience outside of school. Additionally, it broadens the understanding of Punk engagement in an attempt to have an increased nuanced perspective of the independent learning that may be perceived as more educative that any formal attempt within our school systems.

Three years after entering the pop music scene, Lady Gaga became the most well-known pop star in the world. These thirteen critical essays explore Lady Gaga's body of work through the interdisciplinary filter of performance identity and cover topics such as gender and sexuality, body commodification, visual body rhetoric, drag performance, homosexuality and heteronormativity, Surrealism and the theatre of cruelty, the carnivalesque, monstrosity, imitation and parody, human rights, and racial politics. Of particular interest is the way that Lady Gaga's œuvre, however popular, strange, raw or controversial, enters into the larger sociopolitical discourse, challenging the status quo and altering our perceptions of reality.

For more than 40 years, hardcore and punk have promised to offer an alternative to what is perceived as the norm and the mainstream. Hardcore Research: Punk, Practice, Politics provides a comprehensive insight into some of the most active, outspoken, and widely received scholarly positions in the academic discourses on hardcore and punk and combines them with a variety of new and emerging voices. The book brings together scholars with personal ties to past and present hardcore and punk scenes, who present both insightful and critical examinations of the rich and varied histories of this subcultural phenomenon and its current reverberations at the intersection of cultural practice and academic research.

Foundations. Introduction -- Constructing categories of difference -- Minorities, meaning, and mass media -- Articulations of difference -- The articulation of difference. Country music and redneck woman -- The construction of Arabs as enemies -- Perpetuation of the hot Latina stereotype in Desperate housewives -- Commodified racism : brand images of Native Americans -- The pornographic gaze in mainstream American magazine and fashion advertising -- Women, lipstick, and self-presentation -- Sun also rises : Stereotypes of the Asian/American woman on Lost -- Coon songs : the Black male stereotype in popular American sheet music (1850-1920) -- Homosexuality and horror : the lesbian vampire film -- Television news coverage of "Day without an immigrant.