Ambiguous Borderlands: Shadow Imagery in Cold War American Culture - Softcover

Mortenson, Erik

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0809334321 ISBN 13: 9780809334322

Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr, 2015

Synopsis

The image of the shadow in midtwentiethcentury America appeared across a variety of genres and media including poetry, pulp fiction, photography, and film. Drawing on an extensive framework that ranges from Cold War cultural histories to theorizations of psychoanalysis and the Gothic, Erik Mortenson argues that shadow imagery in 1950s and 1960s American culture not only reflected the anxiety and ambiguity of the times but also offered an imaginative space for artists to challenge the binary rhetoric associated with the Cold War.

From comics to movies, Beats to bombs, Ambiguous Borderlands provides a novel understanding of the Cold War cultural context through its analysis of the image of the shadow in midcentury media. Its interdisciplinary approach, ambitious subject matter, and diverse theoretical framing make it essential reading for anyone interested in American literary and popular culture during the midtwentieth century.

About this title

About the Author

Erik Mortenson is an assistant professor in the department of English and Comparative Literature at Koç University in Istanbul, Turkey. He is the author of Capturing the Beat Moment: Cultural Politics and the Poetics of Presence, which was selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title in 2011.

Edition details

• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Pr
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809334321
• ISBN 13: 9780809334322
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320