It Came from the 1950s! - by Darryl Jones & Elizabeth McCarthy & Bernice M Murphy (Hardcover)

About the Book

"It came from the 1950s is an eclectic, witty, and insightful collection of essays predicated on the hypothesis that popular cultural documents provide unique insights into the concerns, anxieties, and desires of their times. The essays explore the emergence of "Hammer Horror" and the company's groundbreaking 1958 adaptation of Dracula; the work of popular authors such as Shirley Jackson and Robert Bloch, and the effect that 50s food advertisements had upon the poetry of Sylvia Plath; the place of special effects in the decade's science fiction films; and 1950s Anglo-American relations as refracted through the prism of the 1957 film Night of the Demon"--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

An eclectic and insightful collection of essays predicated on the hypothesis that popular cultural documents provide unique insights into the concerns, anxieties and desires of their times. 1950s popular culture is analysed by leading scholars and critics such as Christopher Frayling, Mark Jancovich, Kim Newman and David J. Skal.

Review Quotes

'This collection by a range of leading scholars probes beneath the surface of 1950s American culture to examine the undercurrents of anxiety which the material prosperity of that decade was concealing. The resulting analysis of popular genres, particularly fiction and film, sheds fascinating new light on a period which is far more complex than we had imagined.' - David Seed, University of Liverpool, UK

About the Author

KEVIN CORSTORPHINE Lecturer in English at the University of Hull, UK DARA DOWNEY IRCHSS Post-doctoral research fellow at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland CHRISTOPHER FRAYLING Rector and Professor of Cultural History at the Royal College of Art in London from 1996-2009, as well as a former Chairman of the Arts Council England, UK MARK JANCOVICH Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK DEREK JOHNSTON Ph.D. Graduate from the University of East Anglia, UK WAYNE KINSEY Consultant Histopathologist in Norwich and Lecturer at the University of East Anglia School of Medicine, UK KIM NEWMAN Novelist, critic and broadcaster LORNA PIATTI-FARNELL Lecturer in Cultural and Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, Australia DAVID J. SKAL Author and Documentary Filmmaker