Through classroom activities, wizard rock concerts, and organizations like the Harry Potter Alliance, Harry Potter fans are using creativity to positively impact the world.
Zombies, vampires and ghosts feature prominently in nearly all forms of entertainment in the 21st century, including popular fiction, film, comics, television and computer games.
Comic book audience expectations have fluctuated dramatically through the years, and comic book creators have had to adapt to shifting reader concerns.
As traditional social hierarchies fall away, ever steeper levels of economic inequality and the entrenchment of new class distinctions lend a new glamor to the idea of aristocracy: witness the worldwide popularity of Downton Abbey, or the seemingly insatiable public fascination with the private lives of the British royal family.
The Wire's provocative subject matter, layered narrative and explicit critiques of American socio-economic institutions make it one of the most teachable television series in recent years.
Following on author Peter Rollins' motto "e;If it isn't popular, it isn't culture,"e; this collection of new essays considers Vince Gilligan's award-winning television series Breaking Bad as a landmark of Western culture--comparable to the works of Shakespeare and Dickens in their time--that merits scholarly attention from those who would understand early the 21st century zeitgeist.
One of the most popular comic strips of the 1950s and the first to reference politics of the day, Walt Kelly's Pogo took on Joe McCarthy before the controversial senator was a blip on Edward R.
Dick Grayson--alter-ego of the original Robin of Batman comics--has gone through various changes in his 75 years as a superhero but has remained the optimistic, humorous character readers first embraced in 1940.
The convergence of rock music, counterculture politics and avant-garde aesthetics in the late 1960s underscored the careers of the Beatles, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and the Velvet Underground.
The chautauqua movement was a truly American phenomenon, providing education and entertainment for millions of people and employing thousands of musicians in the process.
Within Africa, radio provides an important platform for accommodating diverse linguistic groups and enabling speakers to express themselves in their own local languages.
Madchester may have been born at the Hacienda in the summer of 1988, but the city had been in creative ferment for almost a decade prior to the rise of acid house.
This book explores the concept of 'quiet' - an aesthetic of narrative driven by reflective principles - and argues for the term's application to the study of contemporary American fiction.
This lively and ground-breaking collection brings together work on forms of popular television within the authoritarian regimes of Europe after World War Two.
Ripped, torn and cut offers a collection of original essays exploring the motivations behind - and the politics within - the multitude of fanzines that emerged in the wake of British punk from 1976.
As more of our human interaction moves online and facilitated by digital channels, it becomes increasingly important to understand how being online influences how we interact with others and ourselves.