Fugitive Cultures

Fugitive Culturesexamines how youth are being increasingly subjected to racial stereotyping and violence in various realms of popular culture, especially children's culture. But rather than dismissing popular culture, Henry Giroux addresses its political and pedagogical value as a site of critique and learning and calls for a reinvigorated critical relationship between cultural studies and those diverse cultural workers committed to expanding the possibilities and practices of democratic public life. Specifically, Giroux examines the rise of a new kind of visual hyper-real violence directed at the contemporary youth market. This new genre combines the spectacle of violence with an avant-guarde aesthetic that subordinates its often racist and sexist political messages to the hype of nitty gritty realism and aesthetic formalism. These films, such asPulp FictionandKids, erase the notion of racial justice as a significant category and celebrate a glossy formof nihilism and despair as an aesthetic breakthough in film. Bringing a range of issues together including talk radio, animated children's films, the portrayal of black and white violence, and the rise of the new nationalism,Fugitive Culturesbreaks new ground in providing insights into how the culture of violence and racial injustice are shaping the lives of our youth.