Staging Modern American Life: Popular Culture in the Experimental Theatre of Millay, Cummings, and Dos Passos examines the integration of and challenges to popular culture found in the theatrical works of these writers. Their plays, which have largely been marginalized in discussions of theatre history and literary scholarship, offer a hybrid theatre that integrates the popular with the formal, the mainstream with the experimental. This emphasis on popular culture is an attempt to offer new readings of these works with an eye to American cultural studies, highlighting Millay¹s, Cummings¹, and Dos Passos¹ insightful examination of mass entertainment and the tensions surrounding it at the time. This book also argues that these works play an important role in the development of American theatre more broadly.

Sitting on pins and needles, anxiously waiting to see what will happen next, horror audiences crave the fear and exhilaration generated by a terrifying story; their anticipation is palpable. But they also breathe a sigh of relief when the action is over, when they are able to close their books or leave the movie theater. Whether serious, kitschy, frightening, or ridiculous, horror not only arouses the senses but also raises profound questions about fear, safety, justice, and suffering.

From literature and urban legends to film and television, horror's ability to thrill has made it an integral part of modern entertainment. Thomas Fahy and twelve other scholars reveal the underlying themes of the genre in The Philosophy of Horror. Examining the evolving role of horror, the contributing authors investigate works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), horror films of the 1930s, Stephen King's novels, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining (1980), and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Also examined are works that have largely been ignored in philosophical circles, including Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1965), Patrick Süskind's Perfume (1985), and James Purdy's Narrow Rooms (2005). The analysis also extends to contemporary forms of popular horror and "torture-horror" films of the last decade, including Saw (2004), Hostel (2005), The Devil's Rejects (2005), and The Hills Have Eyes (2006), as well as the ongoing popularity of horror on the small screen.

The Philosophy of Horror celebrates the strange, compelling, and disturbing elements of horror, drawing on interpretive approaches such as feminist, postcolonial, Marxist, and psychoanalytic criticism. The book invites readers to consider horror's various manifestations and transformations since the late 1700s, probing its social, cultural, and political functions in today's media-hungry society.

Emma Montgomery has been having trouble sleeping. Whenever she closes her eyes, all she can see are horrible nightmares ... nightmares of gruesome murder. And she's not alone. All of the students in Dr. Beecher's secret society have been having terrible dreams and sleepwalking. Now, as their classmates start turning up dead, Emma and her friends race against the clock to keep themselves awake and find out what is causing them to kill in their sleep--before the next victim dies.

"Sleepless is a fun, scary thriller with the power to disturb long after the final page has been turned. With compelling characters, and an innovative plot, Sleepless is extremely engrossing and highly suspenseful."
--Alex McAulay, author of Shelter Me and Bad Girls

On the night of the fire that killed Jacob Crawley and his followers, Allison Burke stood in a circle with the only friends she had ever known and asked, ñWhat if it comes true?î No one looked up or said a word. They just held hands as the air around them filled with smoke and the white ash of burning flesh...

Five years later, one of the friends has apparently drowned, though his body is found in a tobacco field more than thirty miles from the nearest body of water. The news of his death draws this estranged group of teenagers back to Meridian - a small North Carolina town where Jacob first convinced people that he was a prophet.

As each of them returns, they must face the terrible truth about what happened that night and relive the horrifying memories of their time with Jacob, the cult leader who raised them and foresaw their deaths. Now, they wonder if his predictions will come true and if there is any way to stop them before it's too late...

Visit the site for Night Visions, the first novel from Thomas Fahy.

A compelling and innovative television writer, David Chase has created distinctive programs since the 1970s, each reflecting his edgy humor and psychological realism. These critical essays examine Chase's television writings, placing particular emphasis on how his past works have shaped and influenced the current cultural phenomenon of HBO's The Sopranos, and studying Chase's use of identity, community, and place in defining his on-screen characters. Topics explored include Chase's constructs of the urban L.A. environment in The Rockford Files, the portrayal of hybridized American archetypes in Northern Exposure, and the interpretation of sexual identity/masculinity in The Sopranos. An appendix containing complete episode guides for The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure, and The Sopranos is also included.

Freak Shows and the Modern American Imagination examines the artistic use of freakishness between 1900 and 1950, mapping its rather sudden shift from a highly profitable form of entertainment to a reviled one. Throughout this period, the public reassessed freak shows, gradually seeing them as something shameful, and artists responded to this cultural shift by using the freakish body as a tool for exploring problematic social attitudes about race, disability, and sexual desire in American culture. Unlike other studies that tend to focus on the literary and visual uses of freak shows in the second half of the twentieth century, I am interested in the most volatile period for this entertainment--when those writing about freak shows had the opportunity to see them. These writers and artists were responding to the changing perception of freak performers at the time. They wanted to explore how profound contemporary events, such as the Great Migration, World War I, and the Great Depression, were shaping widespread interpretations of difference. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)

Academy Award-winning screenwriter of the film American Beauty and creator of the HBO series Six Feet Under, Alan Ball has consistently probed the cultural forces shaping gender, sexuality, and death in the United States. Through gritty dialogue and edgy humor, Ball centers much of his social critique on the illusory promises of the American Dream. For many of his characters, a belief in the American Dream--including idealized notions of the family, heterosexual norms, and the acceptance of prescribed gender roles--proves stifling and self-destructive. Considering Alan Ball is the first book to explore the impact of Ball's works on contemporary film, television, and western culture. The essays herein examine Ball's writings for theatre, television and film, with emphasis on his best-known work. They offer insight into both the captivating and problematic dimensions of Ball's work, while drawing connections among his diverse writings. An interview with Ball is included.

This collection of essays on the work of Aaron Sorkin affords greater insight into the complexities of his writing, drawing connections between the film and television output of today's most prominent and influential screenwriter. Scholars from various fields-film, literature, art history, political science, and more-examine the thematic content and rhetorical strategy of Sorkin's writing. Eleven essayists explore the subtle, pervasive and often contradictory messages woven throughout Sorkin's work, from politics to portrayals of women, and consider his impact on film, television and culture. An interview with Aaron Sorkin precedes the essays, each of which has notes and a bibliography. An appendix covering film and television credits is included. (Spring/Summer: 2005)

This study features a biography of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, a full-length analysis of the novel, discussion questions, a critical bibliography, and a great deal more. If you're studying this novel, reading it for your book club, or if you simply want to know more about it, you'll find this a helpful and informative guide.

Captive Audience examines the social, gendered, ethnic, and cultural problems of incarceration through the lens of contemporary theater. The essays in this collection engage a broad range of plays by African-American, Latino/a, British, and other American playwrights who give voice to those long hidden behind prison walls. Topics related to the intersection of theater and imprisonment are explored from a variety of critical perspectives, illuminating the dark worlds portrayed in captivity dramas by Migdalia Cruz, Miguel Pinero, Tennessee Williams, Naomi Wallace, and Samuel Beckett, among others. Thomas Fahy and Kimball King have assembled a distinguished group of contributors, including the renowned playwright, screenwriter, and social activist Harold Pinter.

When the disabled, suffering, or freakish body appears on stage, it raises unsettling questions for the audience - How did this happen? Is this condition permanent? Can this happen to me? Is the actor really disabled? The spectator cannot escape the self-conscious act of looking and having an actor return the gaze. The immediacy of this exchange compels the audience to question its assumptions about physical difference and to reconsider the ways in which it participates in sustaining widespread stereotypes and prejudices. Editors Thomas Fahy and Kimball King examine the powerful effects generated by the presence of extraordinary bodies on stage and screen. This volume comprises thirteen original essays from a variety of disciplines that reflect the broad impact of disability in theater and film. Special topics include the creation of disabled theater groups; the role of disability in works by major contemporary playwrights, television commercials, and blockbuster films; and the intersection of disability and eroticism. The collection concludes with personal essays, interviews, and a short play by James MacDonald. Students, scholars, movie buffs, and theatergoers are invited to peer with curious gaze into this fascinating subject, usually hidden behind the curtain of neglect.