Notes from the underground: Zines and the politics of underground culture.
Item
-
Title
-
Notes from the underground: Zines and the politics of underground culture.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9618064
-
identifier
-
9618064
-
Creator
-
Duncombe, Stephen Ross.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Stuart Ewen
-
Date
-
1996
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Sociology, General | American Studies | Mass Communications
-
Abstract
-
Using Zines--noncommercial, nonprofessional, self-published magazines--as a case study, this dissertation explores the possibilities and limitations of the politics of underground culture, giving particular attention to the contradictions which arise in the attempt to build a dissenting culture within an advanced capitalist society. Through the analysis of zine content and form, their history, and interviews with writers and readers, this study considers how individuals use zines as a way to identify and counter the alienation they encounter as individuals, in society, at their workplace, and as consumers of culture. Also discussed is what happens when the virtual Bohemia zine writers create in opposition to the mainstream is "discovered" by the commercial culture industry, and zine writers, bereft of other options, turn toward purist isolation or "selling out." Finally, drawing upon this case study, the politics of culture will be questioned; both its possibilities: creating free spaces for innovative thought and social organization, and providing a stage in a career of political deviance; and its limitations: sublimating political action into cultural expression, and feeding into a political economy which incorporates and thrives off of cultural innovation and dissent.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
