At a lecture given by Vincent Leitch, head editor of the Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism the other day among a number of insightful, interesting things he pointed out(1), was the consideration of many English departments (certainly not just Cultural Studies departments) toward rebranding themselves as Media Studies.(2) It makes sense. You already have an army of grad students sneering and berating literature into submission. In order to get a job anyway they make their intellectual gimmick about post-structuralist feminism (3) in Laverne and Shirley. It would merely provide a large tent under which hyphenated studies and wacko interdisciplinary academics may be housed.
…It would also mean I could fulfill my dream of writing my dissertation on the presentation and transference of mythopoetics and genre narratives in American cartoons of the late 80s and early 90s.(3) It’s all part of my plan to really earn the beatdown Theodor Adorno is going to give me when I arrive in hell.
Adorno the Adorable
1. Not the least of which is the idea of hypertext-as-poetry, which, as fascinating as it sounds, really only amounts to geocities-esque junk. Which, in my zealous blogging, I have just enabled
2. This bleeds into the film industry as well: If you watch films from newer companies, they never brand themselves as ‘productions’ or ‘films’ but as ‘media,’ because it covers all manners of sin.
3. Of course I made that term up.
4. You think I jest but I do not.
