Overview

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson declared an ""unconditional war"" on poverty in the form of sweeping federal programs to assist millions of Americans. Two decades later, President Reagan drastically cut such programs, claiming that welfare encouraged dependency and famously quipping, ""Some years ago, the federal government declared war on poverty, and poverty won."" These opposing policy positions and the ideologies informing them have been well studied. Here, the focus turns to the influence of popular art and entertainment on beliefs about poverty's causes and potential cures. These new essays interrogate the representation of poverty in film, television, music, photography, painting, illustration and other art forms from the late 19th century to the present. They map when, how, and why producers of popular culture represent--or ignore--poverty, and what assumptions their works make and encourage.

Full Product Details

Author:   Wylie Lenz
Publisher:   McFarland & Co Inc
Imprint:   McFarland & Co Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 1.40cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.358kg
ISBN:  

9781476664224

ISBN 10:   1476664226
Pages:   282
Publication Date:   17 August 2020
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Table of Contents

Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Poverty, Policy, Beliefs and Popular Culture Wylie Lenz Henry Ossawa Tanner and African American Realist Paintings of Poverty in the 1890s Lyrica Taylor Not Picturing Poverty: The New Woman and ­Nineteenth-Century Periodical Illustration Anna M. Dempsey Early Film and Child Welfare Issues: Charlie Chaplin’s The Kathleen A. Tobin Agnes Smedley’s Daughter of Earth and Representations of the Social Michael Mayne Speaking the Language of the New Deal: Efficiency, Poverty and Economic Security in the 1930s Campaign Against Venereal Disease Erin Wuebker “The Language of Pictures”: Images of Poverty in New Deal America Courtney L. Kisat A Hillbilly, a Bum and an Old Woman Meet a Screwball Redhead: Lampooning the Poor in I Love Lucy Mark Bernhardt Poverty, Opportunity and Art Legacies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Katelynd L. Gibbons Precarious Mobility: Vagrancy in American Pop Culture Wibke Schniedermann Making a (Third) Space for Learning: Analyzing Urban Education in HBO’s The Wire Chad William Timm “In Wildness Is the Preservation of the World”: Poverty and Potentiality in Beasts of the Southern Wild Lauren Riccelli Zwicky A Place to See: Poverty in American Theater, 1935–2015 Mary K. Ryan “What You Are About to See Will Make You Question What Matters Most”: Poverty Porn, The Briefcase and the Deserving Poor Owen Cantrell “Welcome to The First 48”: Identity, Delinquency and Reality ­Television Jessica H. Zbeida About the Contributors Index

Reviews

"""Lenz's thesis that purely fictional narratives may influence our view of poverty just as strongly as fact-based ones do is well supported by the scholarship gathered here.""--Journal of Popular Film and Television"

Lenz's thesis that purely fictional narratives may influence our view of poverty just as strongly as fact-based ones do is well supported by the scholarship gathered here. --Journal of Popular Film and Television

Author Information

Wylie Lenz is an assistant professor of English in the humanities and social sciences department at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland, Florida.

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