Action Figures : Men, Action Films, and Contemporary Adventure Narratives / by M. Gallagher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallagher, Mark, 1968-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex.

Culture.

Motion pictures.

Television broadcasting.

Ethnology.

Gender Studies.

Sociology of Culture.

Film and Television Studies.

Regional Cultural Studies.

Local Subjects:

Gender Studies.

Sociology of Culture.

Film and Television Studies.

Regional Cultural Studies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (240 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2006.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan US : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

What accounts for the massive global popularity of action films and adventure literature? How do men and women respond to iconic screen stars such as Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve McQueen, and Charlton Heston? Action genres have been Hollywood's most profitable global exports for most of its history, their male heroes the subject of much fascination and derision. Bestselling literary thrillers, from The Hunt for Red October to Into Thin Air , have also contributed markedly to popular understandings of male activity. Action Figures takes stock of action narratives' many appeals and recognizes how contemporary crises of gender identity manifest themselves in popular commercial texts.

Contents:

Introduction : popular representations of active masculinity since the late 1960s

1. Armchair thrills and the new adventurer

2. "I married Rambo" : action, spectacle, and melodrama

3. Omega men : late 1960s and early 1970s action heroes

4. Airport fiction : the men of mass-market literature

5. Restaging heroic masculinity : Jackie Chan and the Hong Kong action film

Conclusion : the future of active masculinity.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-226) and index.

ISBN:

9786611363604

9781281363602

128136360X

9781403977236

1403977232

OCLC:

560470799