Publisher's Synopsis
On December 17th 2014, the US TV-series "The Simpsons" celebrated its 25th birthday - a remarkable anniversary. With an airtime of 25 years and more than 550 published episodes, "The Simpsons" are part of everyday media-reality of more than just one generation of television viewers. Their immense popularity as well as the critic's esteem highlight The Simpsons' importance as pop-cultural phenomenon, and demand far-ranging scholarly attention. This book uses "The Simpsons" as an analytical media-matrix to discuss aspects of postmodernity. It features articles by Angela Meyer ("Lisa Simpson as the Voice of Double-Coded Critiques of Contemporary Society"), Benjamin Franz ("Vests, Monorails, 'Springs' and Kwik-E-Marts: Music as Political Discourse in The Simpsons"), John W. Heeren and Salvador Jimenez Murguia ("Faith And Laughter: A Postmodern View of Religion in The Simpsons"), Eric Pellerin ("The Simpsons and Television Self Reflexivity as Critique"), Martin Gloger ("No Homer-Society - Some Explorations on Springfield Capitalism"), Tom Zlabinger ("Listening to Yellow: Music and Musicians as Heard and Seen in The Simpsons"), Joseph H. Herrera ("Hmm... Abortions for Some, Miniature American Flags for Others": The Simpsons, Cultural Memory & the Unpaid Labor behind 'Oogle Goggles'") and Brett Jordan Schmoll ("Slashing The Simpsons: Apu, Lisa, and the Fictionalization of Academic Discourse")
