About this item
Highlights
- The 'serial killer' has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture since the term was coined by Robert Ressler at the FBI in the mid-1970s.
- About the Author: Alzena MacDonald is a Lecturer in Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University, Western Australia.
- 272 Pages
- Social Science, Media Studies
Description
About the Book
Murders and Acquisitions analyses representations of the serial killer in popular culture.
Book Synopsis
The 'serial killer' has become increasingly prevalent in popular culture since the term was coined by Robert Ressler at the FBI in the mid-1970s. Murders and Acqusitions explores the social and political implications of this cultural figure. The collection argues that the often blood-chilling representations of the serial killer and serial killing offered in TV series, films, novels and fan productions function to address contemporary concerns and preoccupations. Focusing on well-known popular culture texts, such as The Wire, Kiss the Girls, Monster, the Saw series, American Psycho, The Strangers, CSI and Dexter, this electic anthology engages with a broad spectrum of cultural theory and performs critical textual analysis to examine the sophisticated ways the serial killer is deployed to mediate and/or work through cultural anxieties and fears.
Review Quotes
The popular fascination for the figure of the serial killer has long gone beyond being an intriguing matter only for media sociology; now it has entered our lifestyles, our dreams, our jokes - and we need every tool of cultural analysis at our disposal to understand it. Under the careful editorship of Alzena MacDonald, a top team of international scholars explores, in Murders and Acquisitions, the many, complex aspects of the serial killer 'craze' in popular culture. An essential guidebook.
Professor Adrian Martin, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
About the Author
Alzena MacDonald is a Lecturer in Communication and Cultural Studies at Curtin University, Western Australia. She teaches extensively in the area of Literary and Cultural Studies. Her research interests include representations of crime/horror, Indian nationalisms, and postcoloniality.