April 27-28, 2024: April 2024 Recap

[A Recapof the month that was in AmericanStudying.]

April1: Satire Studying: African American Satire: An April Fool’s series onsatire starts with a link to my recent SaturdayEvening Post Black History Month column.

April2: Satire Studying: Innocents Abroad: The series continues with thedouble-edged satire at the heart of Mark Twain’s first big hit.

April3: Satire Studying: The Interview: What’s problematic, and what’simportant, about a hugely controversial cinematic comedy, as the series pokeson.

April4: Satire Studying: TV Satires: Four news and sketch comedy shows fromwhich we can learn a lot (but which I originally posted in 2017, so add morerecent nominations please!).

April5: Satire Studying: The Big Short and Vice: The series concludes with valueand limits of satire when it comes to contemporary, contested events.

April6-7: Emily Lauer on Comics Analysis & Editing as Public-Facing Scholarship:My newest Guest Post from a familiar friend of the blog—Emily Lauer with her record-setting4th Guest Post!

April8: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Vaughn Joy on No Way Out: A serieson the 60th anniversary of Poitier’s groundbreaking Oscar win kicksoff with a FilmStudier I really love on Poitier’s cinematic debut.

April9: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: The Blackboard Jungle: The series continueswith a Poitier character who’s very similar to a 1980s favorite, and oneimportant distinction.

April10: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: The Defiant Ones: Two differentgenres through which to contextualize Poitier’s 1958 prison break film, as theseries roles on.

April11: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Two 1967 Classics: Standoutspeeches and sweet sendoffs in Poitier’s pair of pitch-perfect 1967 films.

April12: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: Lillies of the Field: The seriesconcludes with what was historic about Poitier’s Oscar-winning role, what wasn’tquite, and what’s importantly outside that framing.

April13-14: I Am AmericanStudying Sidney Poitier: 21C Heirs: A special weekend follow-upon noteworthy performances from five of our best contemporary Black actors (notincluding Denzel and Morgan who could each get whole posts for their workalone).

April15: Mythic Patriotisms: The 1776 Project: For Patriots’ Day this year I wantedto trace some histories and layers to one of the main categories in my book Of Thee I Sing, starting with a post onhow a project dedicated to “patriotic education” embodies the worst of mythic patriotism.

April16: Mythic Patriotisms: The National Anthem: The series continues with twolayers of mythic patriotism found in the lesser-known later verses of “TheStar-Spangled Banner.”

April17: Mythic Patriotisms: “Self-Made”: How an iconic American narrative ismythic patriotic in both meanings and effects, as the series pledges on.

April18: Mythic Patriotisms: Defining America’s Origins: The multiple mythic patrioticlayers to an origin story that centers on the Pilgrims/Puritans.

April19: Mythic Patriotisms: Love It or Leave It: The series concludes with the1960s constructions of a phrase that sums up mythic patriotism’s exclusions.

April20-21: Mythic Patriotisms in 2024: There’s never been a moment with moreovert mythic patriotism than our own, and for this weekend follow-up I bothanalyzed that presence and asked for connections to chances to talk more aboutthese topics!

April22: Climate Culture: Cli Fi: An Earth Day series on cultural works aboutthe climate crisis kicks off with a stunning recent novel that extends the longlegacy of cli fi.

April23: Climate Culture: The Day After Tomorrow and Don’t Look Up: The seriescontinues with the necessity but limitations of disaster movies, and animportant recent variation on the genre.

April24: Climate Culture: “The Tradition”: Two complementary ways to read aclimate change moment in Jericho Brown’s powerful 21st century sonnet,as the series rolls on.

April25: Climate Culture: “The Ghost Birds”: What’s specific and what’s universalin Karen Russell’s amazing 2021 short story.

April26: Climate Culture: Climate Songs: The series and month conclude with fiveexamples of pop music perspectives on the climate crisis, including MidnightOil’s great album Resist (2022).

Nextseries starts Monday,

Ben

PS. Topicsyou’d like to see covered in this space? Guest Posts you’d like to contribute? Lemme know!