The Wow Climax: Tracing the Emotional Impact of Popular Culture

Henry Jenkins

Published by New York University Press 2006

The Wow Climax

Tracing the Emotional Impact of Popular Culture

Henry Jenkins

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814743706.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Henry Jenkins at Authors@Google (video)
Vaudevillians used the term "the wow climax" to refer to the emotional highpoint of their actsa final moment of peak spectacle following a gradual building of audience's emotions. Viewed by most critics as vulgar and sensationalistic, the vaudeville aesthetic was celebrated by other writers for its vitality, its liveliness, and its playfulness.
The Wow Climax follows in the path of this more laudatory tradition, drawing out the range of emotions in popular culture and mapping what we might call an aesthetic of immediacy. It pulls together a spirited range of work from Henry Jenkins, one of our most astute media scholars, that spans different media (film, television, literature, comics, games), genres (slapstick, melodrama, horror, exploitation cinema), and emotional reactions (shock, laughter, sentimentality). Whether highlighting the sentimentality at the heart of the Lassie franchise, examining the emotional experiences created by horror filmmakers like Wes Craven and David Cronenberg and avant garde artist Matthew Barney, or discussing the emerging aesthetics of video games, these essays get to the heart of what gives popular culture its emotional impact.

Author / Editor information

Jenkins Henry :

Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California. He is the author or editor of 20 books including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Society, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activists. He blogs at henryjenkins.org and co-hosts the podcast How Do You Like It So Far?Henry Jenkins is the Provost’s Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at the University of Southern California. He is the author or editor of 20 books including Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Spreadable Media: Creating Meaning and Value in a Networked Society, and By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activists. He blogs at henryjenkins.org and co-hosts the podcast How Do You Like It So Far?

Reviews

Offers a lively, diligently researched, and well-written account of one scholar’s engagement with the emotional punch of media.

Janet Staiger,author of Media Reception Studies:
Building on the tradition of social commentators such as Gilbert Seldes, Robert Warshow, and Susan Sontag, Henry Jenkins brings his outstanding insight and compassionate counsel to contemporary cultural phenomena. Here not only media, but affect, matters. A delightful and helpful collection on popular pleasures.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Introduction: Wow! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I The Lively Arts
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
1 Games, the New Lively Art Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	19
2 Monstrous Beauty and Mutant Aesthetics Rethinking Matthew Barney’s Relationship to the Horror Genre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	41
Part II The Immediate Experience
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
3 Death-Defying Heroes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
4 Never Trust a Snake: WWF Wrestling as Masculine Melodrama Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
5 Exploiting Feminism in Stephanie Rothman’s Terminal Island Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	102
6 “You Don’t Say That in English!” The Scandal of Lupe Velez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
Part III Welcome to the Playground
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
7 “Going Bonkers!” Children, Play, and Pee-Wee Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
8 “Complete Freedom of Movement” Video Games as Gendered Play Spaces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
9 “Her Suffering Aristocratic Majesty” The Sentimental Value of Lassie Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
About the Author Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	285

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Keywords: These; essays; heart; what; gives; popular; culture; emotional; impact

eBook

Published: December 24, 2006
ISBN: 9780814743706