Second in a series of reposts from the always insightful History is Made at Night blog. This entry deals with one of my abiding interests as a scholar, how boundaries of race are maintained, negotiated and challenged in popular culture. It also highlights the power of a “fictional” writing approach to capture the truth of a [...]
Zombies! The connection between Resident Evil 5, South African xenophobia & global capitalism
Zombies, EVIL ZOMBIES, are a recurrent problem in the Resident Evil series of video games (comic books, films…) but the zombies in Resident Evil 5 created a minor controversy. The Resident Evil 5 zombies are Africans living in a township type setting and some of the scenes do not make a clear distinction between the [...]
Breaking down racial barriers: the “new” folk revival
I’ve written several pieces on what is often described as an ongoing revival of American traditional music (listed below with links). A piece on NPR today and in the N.Y. Times earlier this week on Southern California’s Frank Fairfield brought the subject back to mind. While you (or I) may argue with the assertion that [...]
Billy Bragg explores what it means to be English in “Pressure Drop”
As part of the nine-month Identity exhibition at London’s Wellcome Collection (Identity: Eight rooms, nine lives – 26 November 2009 – 06 April 2010) Billy Bragg and his band are performing Pressure Drop, a play ‘of passion and prejudice” written by Mick Gordon. The play (19 April-12 May, 2010) explores what it means to be [...]
