Pop Cultures and Ecstatic States of the Body Since World War II

by Kristoff Kerl (Editor), Detlef Siegfried (Editor), Robert P. Stephens (Editor), Olaf Stieglitz (Editor)

Overview

This book examines the many, varied historical entanglements between pop cultures and ecstatic, euphoric, and intoxicated bodies, focusing on the period between the 1950s and the 1980s. Charting a new course by bringing together pop culture studies, the history of bodies, and the history of emotions, the volume unites new historical perspectives on different forms of corporeal pleasure and offers novel methods for studying the social and cultural politics of ecstasy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031840500
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	06/14/2025
Series:	Palgrave Studies in the History of Subcultures and Popular Music
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kristoff Kerl is an independent scholar based in Cologne, Germany.

Detlef Siegfried is Professor of Modern German and European History at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Robert P. Stephens is Associate Professor of History at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.

Olaf Stieglitz is Professor for American Cultural History at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction; Kristoff Kerl, Detlef Siegfried, Robert P. Stephens, Olaf Stieglitz.- PART I: RESEARCHING POP CULTURES AND STATES OF ECSTASY, EUPHORIA, AND INTOXICATION.- 1. Pop ecstasies: Reflections on ecstatic and euphoric states of the body in the history of pop cultures; Kristoff Kerl.- PART II: SPACES AND ARTEFACTS IN THE CONTEXT OF DOING GENDER.- 2. 'My whole body’s sent, I feel like a millionaire': Ecstasies (and agonies) of cannabis intoxication in Jazz-era tea pads, 1930-1950; Robert Beach.- 3. From bare bulbs to liquid light shows: Music club environments in Hamburg-St. Pauli across the 1960s; Julia Sneeringer.- PART III: DOING GENDER BY DOING ECSTASY.- 4. No future whatsoever: Punk as negative ecstasy at the end of the 1970s; Vojin Saša Vukadinović.- 5. From the terraces to the Thunderdome: Ecstasy and male homosociability in 1990s Britain; Peder Clark.- PART IV: EASTERN SPIRITUALITY FOR WESTERN BODIES.- 6. 'Drifting into uncertainty': World music, 1960-1980; Isabel Richter.- 7. Ecstasy, exercise, excess: New religious bodies between pop cultures and cult controversies, 1970-1990; Florian Schleking.- PART V: ECSTASY. EUPHORIA, AND INTOXICATION IN HOLLYWOOD MOVIES.- 8. A Tunnel at the end of the light: The New Hollywood, white masculinity, and the limits of ecstasy; Olaf Stieglitz.- 9. The Ecstasy and the agony: Hollywood and the construction of mental maps of addiction; Robert P. Stephens.- PART VI: POLITICS OF POP ECSTASIES IN WESTERN EUROPE.- 10. Spanish 'jippies', marijuana, and the creation of a moral Panic under Franco’s National Catholicism; Joshua Hill.- 11. Unruly bodies: Punks, ecstasy, and pop culture in Western Germany; Karl Siebengartner.- PART VII: POLITICS OF ECSTASIES IN EASTERN EUROPE.- 12. Ecstasy as prayer and salvation: Soviet hippies and their kaif; Juliane Fürst.- 13. Ecstatic escapism: Heavy metal concerts in East Germany; Nikolai Okunew.