A fun and fascinating deep dive for "devoted and loyal MST3K fans" (Library Journal) that reveals the impact and creation of the cult-hit television series Mystery Science Theater 3000**.**Few television shows can boast the long-term cult popularity and cultural influence of Mystery Science Theater 3000-or MST3K to its legions of devoted fans, known collectively as MSTies. Created by quirk...

This book of empirical studies analyzes examples of televisual shared universes since the 1960s to understand how the nature of televised serial narratives and network corporate policies have long created shared storyworlds. While there has been much discussion about shared cinematic universes and comic book universes, the concept has had limited exploration in other media, such as those seen on the smaller screen. By applying convergence culture and other contemporary media studies concep...

This volume examines the shift toward positive and more accurate portrayals of mental illness in entertainment media, asking where these succeed and considering where more needs to be done. With studies that identify and analyze the characters, viewpoints, and experiences of mental illness across film and television, it considers the messages conveyed about mental illness and reflects on how the different texts reflect, reinforce, or challenge sociocultural notions regarding mental illness...

Reaching back to the beginnings of television, The Greatest Cult Television Shows offers readers a fun and accessible look at the 100 most significant cult television series of all time, compiled in a single resource that includes valuable information on the shows and their creators.While they generally lack mainstream appeal, cult television shows develop devout followings over time and exert some sort of impact on a given community, society, culture, or even media industry. Cult ...

Current characters in children’s entertainment media illustrate a growing trend of representations that challenge or subvert traditional notions of gender and sexuality. From films to picture books to animated television series, children’s entertainment media around the world has consistently depicted stereotypically traditional gender roles and heterosexual relationships as the normal way that people act and engage with one another. Heroes, Heroines, and Everything in Between: Challenging...

The term “cult film” may be difficult to define, but one thing is certain: A cult film is any movie that has developed a rabid following for one reason or another. From highly influential works of pop art like Eraserhead and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! to trash masterpieces such as Miami Connection and Fateful Findings, thousands of movies have earned recognition as cult classics over the years, and new movies rise to cult status every year. So how do ...

Since the release of The Exorcist in 1973, there has been a surge of movies depicting young women becoming possessed by a demonic force that only male religious figures can exorcise, thereby saving the women from eventual damnation. This book considers this history of exorcism cinema by analyzing how the traditional exorcism narrative, established in The Exorcist, recurs across the exorcism subgenre to represent the effects of demonic possession and ritual exorcism. This traditional exorci...

There are a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to researching how film spectators make sense of film texts, from the film text itself, the psychological traits and sociocultural group memberships of the viewer, or even the location and surroundings of the viewer. However, we can only understand the agency of film spectators in situations of film spectatorship by studying actual spectators' interactions with specific film texts in specific contexts of engagement.

**From the author of Frames of Mind, the definitive account of Multiple Intelligences theory and its applications.“For those of us who suspect that intelligence is too complex a phenomenon to be measured by the single number of I.Q. derived from an ‘intelligence test,’ Gardner’s book is a refreshing experience and an open door into a whole new way of looking at human beings.” ―Isaac Asimov**Howard Gardner’s brilliant conception of individual competence has changed ...

A Theory of Adaptation explores the continuous development of creative adaptation, and argues that the practice of adapting is central to the story-telling imagination. Linda Hutcheon develops a theory of adaptation through a range of media, from film and opera, to video games, pop music and theme parks, analysing the breadth, scope and creative possibilities within each.This new edition is supplemented by a new preface from the author, discussing both new adaptive forms/p...

A key interdisciplinary concept in our understanding of social interaction across creative and cultural practices, kinesthetic empathy describes the ability to experience empathy merely by observing the movements of another human being. Encouraging readers to sidestep the methodological and disciplinary boundaries associated with the arts and sciences, Kinesthetic Empathy in Creative and Cultural Practices offers innovative and critical perspectives on topics ranging from art to s...

This book puts forward an authenticity-centred approach to the design of materials for language learning. The premise of the approach is that language learning should be based on authentic materials drawn from a variety of genres found in the target language culture, and that the learning tasks involving these materials should be correspondingly authentic, by entailing interactions that are consistent with the original communicative purpose of the authentic text. It provides both a theoret...