New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles: Things We Said Today

by Kenneth Womack (Editor), Katie Kapurch (Editor)

Overview

The Beatles are probably the most photographed band in history and are the subject of numerous biographical studies, but a surprising dearth of academic scholarship addresses the Fab Four. New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles offers a collection of original, previously unpublished essays that explore 'new' aspects of the Beatles. The interdisciplinary collection situates the band in its historical moment of the 1960s, but argues for artistic innovation and cultural ingenuity that account for the Beatles' lasting popularity today. Along with theoretical approaches that bridge the study of music with perspectives from non-music disciplines, the texts under investigation make this collection 'new' in terms of Beatles' scholarship. Contributors frequently address under-examined Beatles texts or present critical perspectives on familiar works to produce new insight about the Beatles and their multi-generational audiences. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137570130
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date:	06/09/2016
Series:	Pop Music, Culture and Identity
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	285
File size:	503 KB

About the Author

Kenneth Womack, Ph.D. is Dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University, where he also serves as Professor of English. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (2007), the Cambridge Companion to the Beatles (2009), and The Beatles Encyclopedia: Everything Fab Four (2014). Womack is also the author of three award-winning novels, including John Doe No. 2 and the Dreamland Motel (2010), The Restaurant at the End of the World (2012), and Playing the Angel (2013). He serves as Editor of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory, and as Co-Editor of the English Association's Year's Work in English Studies. 
Katie Kapurch, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of English at Texas State University. She has published essays on popular youth culture in scholarly journals and edited collections. Katie is the author of a forthcoming monograph, Victorian Melodrama in the Twenty-First Century: Jane Eyre, Twilight, and the Mode of Excess in Girl Culture (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016). 

Table of Contents

Preface.How Did They Do It?- Introduction.Making It New with the Beatles.- Part I.The Beatles in/as History.- 1.'Getting Better': The Beatles and the Angry Young Men.- 2.English Gardens, Mystery Trips, and Songs Your Mother Should Know: The Beatles and British Nostalgia in 1967.- 3.Blackbird Singing: Paul McCartney's Romance of Racial Harmony and Post-Racial America.- Part II.Artistry and the Beatles.- 4.'Beatle Country': A Bluegrass 'Concept Album' from 1966.- 5.Spatial Counterpoint and the Impossible Experience of 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'.- 6.Blue Jay Way: The Imagery of Pure Consciousness in Select Beatles Songs.- 7.George Harrison and the Influence of American Popular Song.- Part III.Fandom and the Beatles.- 8.The Beatles Christmas Records ... Unwrapped: A Closer Look at the Fan Club Discs.- 9.'She Said She Said': How Women Have Transformed from Fans to Authors in Beatles History.- 10.Crying, Waiting, Hoping: The Beatles, Girl Culture, and the Melodramatic Mode.- 11.Revolution 2.0: Beatle Fan Scholarship and the Digital Age.- 12.The Beatles in the Classroom: John, Paul, George, and Ringo Go to College.- 13.The John Lennon Series and 'Factional' Narrative Biography.