Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000 (eBook, ePUB)

Critical Approaches
Redaktion: Rees, Shelley S.

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

First broadcast in the not too distant past on a television station in Minnesota, Mystery Science Theater 3000 soon grew out of its humble beginnings and found a new home on cable television. This simple show about a man and two robots forced to watch bad movies became a cult classic, and episodes of the series continue to be packaged in DVD collections to this day. Before its final run, the show received Emmy nominations and a Peabody award for Television excellence, and in 2007, Time magazine declared MST3K one of "The 100 Best Shows of All-Time." In Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches, Shelley S. Rees presents a collection of essays that examines the complex relationship between narrative and audience constructed by this baffling but beloved television show. Invoking literary theory, cultural criticism, pedagogy, feminist criticism, humor theory, rhetorical analysis, and film and media studies, these essays affirm the show's narrative and rhetorical intricacy. The first section, "Rhetoric and the Empowered Audience," addresses MST3K's function as an exercise in rhetorical resistance. Part Two, "Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Genre," analyzes MST3K through distinct generic traditions, including humor studies, traditional science fiction tropes, and the B-movie. Finally, the third section addresses postmodern and intertextual readings of the show. By providing an academic treatment of an iconic television phenomenon, these essays argue that Mystery Science Theater 3000 is worthy of serious scholarly attention. Though aimed at a discerning readership of academics, this collection will also appeal to the intellectual nature of the show's well-educated audience.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 176
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Mai 2013
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9780810891418
• Artikelnr.: 38153025

Autorenporträt

Edited by Shelley S. Rees

Inhaltsangabe

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction Shelley S. Rees Part I: Rhetoric and
the Empowered Audience of Mystery Science Theater Chapter 1 The
Audio-Visual Palimpsest: Rhetoric, Poetics, and Heteroglossia in Mystery
Science Theater 3000 Ben Wetherbee Chapter 2 Mystery Science Theater 3000
and the Restricted Universe of Popular Culture Production Jef Burnham and
Joshua Paul Ewalt Chapter 3 Down in Front!: Interpretation, Performance,
"Shadowramma" and the Hermeneutics of Mystery Science Theater 3000 Neal
Stidham Chapter 4 "My Life is a Hollow Lie": Riffing the Sexism of the Past
in Mystery Science Theater 3000 Sean Kennedy Part II: Mystery Science
Theater 3000 and Genre Chapter 5 "Do You Even Live Here?": Regionalism,
Humor and Tradition in Mystery Science Theater 3000 Claire Schmidt and
Laurel Schmidt Chapter 6 How to Make Robot Friends: Mocking Technophobia
and Technophilia in Mystery Science Theater 3000 Kevin Donnelly Chapter 7
Your Experiment this Week: The Attack of Mystery Science Theater and Moral
Imagination (in Color) John Venecek Part III: Intertextuality and
Postmodernism in Mystery Science Theater Chapter 8 "This isn't Yorick, It's
George Goebel": Mystery Science Theater 3000 Does Hamlet Walter C. Metz
Chapter 9 Mystery Science Theater 3000 as Metafilm: Postmodern Narrative
Readings Nathan Shank Index About the Contributors About the Editor