David Bowie: Critical Perspectives

✍ Scribed by Devereux, Eoin(Editor);Dillane, Aileen(Editor);Power, Martin J(Editor);October, Dene(Contributor)

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 342
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

David Bowie: Critical Perspectivesexamines in detail the many layers of one of the most intriguing and influential icons in popular culture. This interdisciplinary book brings together established and emerging scholars from a wide variety of backgrounds, including musicology, sociology, art history, literary theory, philosophy, politics, film studies and media studies. Bowie's complexity as a singer, songwriter, producer, performer, actor and artist demands that any critical engagement with his overall work must be interdisciplinary and wide-ranging in its scope. The chapters are organised around the key themes of 'textualities', 'psychologies', 'orientalisms', 'art and agency' and 'performing and influencing' in Bowie's work. This comprehensive book contributes a great deal to the study of popular music, performance, gender, religion, popular media and celebrity.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover......Page 1
Half Title......Page 2
Title Page......Page 4
Copyright Page......Page 5
Contents......Page 8
List of Figures, Cases or Illustrations......Page 10
Foreword......Page 12
Preface......Page 14
Acknowledgments......Page 18
1 David Bowie is......Page 20
2 In this Age of Grand Allusion: Bowie, Nihilism and Meaning......Page 38
3 Culminating Sounds and (En)visions: Ashes to Ashes and the case for Pierrot......Page 54
4 Turn Myself to Face Me: David Bowie in the 1990s and Discovery of Authentic Self......Page 75
5 ‘Crashing out with Sylvian’: David Bowie, Carl Jung and the Unconscious......Page 101
6 Dear Dr. Freud—David Bowie Hits the Couch: A psychoanalytical approach to some of his personae......Page 130
7 Moss Garden: David Bowie and Japonism in fashion in the 1970s......Page 147
8 The “China Girl” Problem: Reconsidering David Bowie in the 1980s......Page 166
9 Embodying Stardom, Representing Otherness: David Bowie in ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’......Page 179
10 Art’s Filthy Lesson......Page 197
11 Authorship, Agency and Visual Analysis: Reading (some) Bowie Album Covers......Page 215
12 Revisiting Bowie’s Berlin......Page 234
13 David Bowie: the Extraordinary Rock Star as Film Star......Page 249
14 The (becoming-wo)Man Who Fell to Earth......Page 264
15 Out of this World: Ziggy Stardust and the Spatial Interplay of Lyrics, Vocals and Performance......Page 282
16 David Bowie Now and Then: Questions of Fandom and Late Style......Page 299
17 How Superficial!—Bowie and the Art of Surfacing in 21st Century Literature......Page 314
Contributors......Page 329
Index......Page 334