Leaving Springfield: The Simpsons and the Possibility of Oppositional Culture / Edition 1

by David L. G. Arnold, Douglas Rushkoff, Duncan Stewart Beard, John Alberti, Kevin J. H. Dettmar

Overview

A study of the landmark television program The Simpsons which focuses on the show’s dual roles as subversive political satire and mainstream mass media hit.

Since its first appearance as a series of cartoon vignettes in 1987 and its debut as a weekly program in 1990, The Simpsons has had multiple, even contradictory, media identities. Although the show has featured biting political and social satire, which often proves fatal to mass public acceptance, The Simpsons entered fully into the mainstream, consistently earning high ratings from audiences and critics alike.

Leaving Springfield addresses the success of The Simpsons as a corporate-manufactured show that openly and self-reflexively parodies the very consumer capitalism it simultaneously promotes. By exploring such topics as the impact of the show’s satire on its diverse viewing public and the position of The Simpsons in sitcom and television animation history, the commentators develop insights into the ways parody intermixes with mass media to critique post modern society.

In spite of the longevity and high cultural profile of the show, The Simpsons has so far attracted only scattered academic attention. Leaving Springfield will be of importance to both scholars of media and fans of the show interested in the function of satire in popular culture in general and television in particular.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814328491
Publisher:	Wayne State University Press
Publication date:	12/08/2003
Series:	Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.79(d)

About the Author

John Alberti is Associate Professor of English at Northern Kentucky University.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
	Introduction	xi
	"Use a Pen, Sideshow Bob": The Simpsons and the Threat of High Culture	1
	Commodity Culture and Its Discontents: Mr. Bennett, Bart Simpson, and the Rhetoric of Modernism	29
	The Simpsons and Hanna-Barbera's Animation Legacy	63
	Countercultural Literacy: Learning Irony with The Simpsons	85
	Homer Erectus: Homer Simpson As Everyman ... and Every Woman	107
	Who Wants Candy? Disenchantment in The Simpsons	137
	Myth or Consequences: Ideological Fault Lines in The Simpsons	172
	"So Television's Responsible!": Oppositionality and the Interpretive Logic of Satire and Censorship in The Simpsons and South Park	197
	Looking for Amanda Hugginkiss: Gay Life on The Simpsons	225
	Releasing the Hounds: The Simpsons As Anti-Nuclear Satire	244
	Local Satire with a Global Reach: Ethnic Stereotyping and Cross-Cultural Conflicts in The Simpsons	273
	Bart Simpson: Prince of Irreverence	292
	List of Episodes Cited	303
	The Simpsons Complete Episode Guide, Seasons 1-13	309
	About the Contributors	327
	Index	331

Editorial Reviews

The book takes a scholarly yet humorous look at how The Simpsons can remain so popular and yet be countercultural at the same time.

Chicago Tribune

Authoritative voices speaking from various well-informed critical perspectives provide Leaving Springfield with rewards for scholars and Simpsons fans alike. Framed more coherently than most collections of television criticism, this volume makes a persuasive case for the series as an act of cultural resistance. Accessible language and detailed textual analysis lend the volume strong student appeal. Devotees will appreciate the close scrutiny of key episodes and intimate knowledge of the series that characterize these essays.

University of Arizona - Caren Deming

The book takes a scholarly yet humorous look at how The Simpsons can remain so popular and yet be countercultural at the same time. - Chicago Tribune

From the Publisher

The book takes a scholarly yet humorous look at how The Simpsons can remain so popular and yet be countercultural at the same time.

Chicago Tribune