The cultural career of coolness : discourses and practices of affect control in European antiquity, the United States, and Japan / edited by Ulla Haselstein, Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Catrin Gersdorf, Elena Giannoulis.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Haselstein, Ulla.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Aesthetics--Social aspects.

Aesthetics.

Attitude (Psychology)--Social aspects.

Attitude (Psychology).

Emotions--Social aspects.

Emotions.

Social aspects.

Europe--Civilization.

Europe.

Civilization.

United States--Civilization.

United States.

Japan--Civilization.

Japan.

Physical Description:

vi, 287 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Lexington Books, [2013]

Summary:

What is the history of the term "cool"? When did "coolness" come to be associated with certain modes of contemporary self-fashioning? On what grounds do certain nations claim a privilege to be recognized as "cool"? These are some of the questions that served as a starting point for a comparative cultural inquiry that brought together specialists from American studies and Japanese studies, but also from classics, philosophy, and sociology, who all read coolness as a metaphor for affect control. Coolness is analyzed as tied in with cultural discourses on the emotions and the norms of their public display, with gendered cultural practices of subjectivity, and with practices of detachment and self-irony, withdrawal, and dissidence. Book jacket.

Contents:

I "Coolness" in Antiquity 7

1 Emotionally Challenged, Wisely Detached, or Incredibly Cool? On Stoic Apathy / Catherine Newmark Newmark, Catherine 9

2 Roman Cool / Daniel L. Selden Selden, Daniel L. 23

II American Cool 59

3 The Cultural Career of Coolness / Ulla Haselstein Haselstein, Ulla 61

4 Kinds of Cool: Emotions and the Rhetoric of Nineteenth-Century American Abolitionism / Catrin Gersdorf Gersdorf, Catrin 81

5 The Mask of Cool in Postwar Jazz and Film Noir / Joel Dinerstein Dinerstein, Joel 109

6 Cool Revenge: Kill Bill and the Female Assassin / Sophia Frese Frese, Sophia 127

III Japanese Cool 153

7 Is Japan Cool? / Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Irmela 155

8 "Hot" and "Cold" and "Cool": Toward a Climatology of Japanese Culture / Jens Heise Heise, Jens 181

9 Cold Norms and Warm Hearts: On the Conception of Etiquette Rules in Advice Books from Early Modern and Modern Japan / Michael Kinski Kinski, Michael 191

10 Iki: A Japanese Concept of Coolness? / Elena Giannoulis Giannoulis, Elena 215

11 The Domestication of the Cool Cat / Paul Roquet Roquet, Paul 237

12 Marketing National and Self Appearances': Cool and Cute in J-Culture / Aviad E. Raz Raz, Aviad E. 251

IV Global Cool 261

13 Cool Capitalism at Work / Jim McGuigan McGuigan, Jim 263.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739173169

0739173162

OCLC:

851417563