"This is an important book for all students of literature and history." -American Studies International

" . . . thoughtful and provocative. . . . the essays . . . grant complexity and contradiction to mass culture, while interrogating its objects from positions that-explicitly or implicitly-derive from the left and from feminism." -The Independent

These innovative and politically engaged essays reflect the paradox inherent in taking a critical approach to mass culture.

The contributors, in many cases pioneers in their particular area of inquiry, include: Tania Modleski, Raymond Williams (interviewed here by Stephen Heath and Gillian Skirrow), Bernard Gendron, Rick Altman, Margaret Morse, Patricia Mellencamp, Judith Williamson, Jean Franco, Kaja Silverman, Dana Polan, and Andreas Huyssen.