EXTREME MAINSTREAM

Guest Editor, David Wittenberg

Mainstream popular culture is a source of both fascination and frustration
for cultural critics and theorists. Often the most visible, most pervasive,
most generic, or most politically centrist culture remains relatively
unexamined by critics and theorists, perhaps because its very "easiness"
makes it, ironically, a difficult sort of object to confront. Does the most
mainstream culture actually represent not a center but an "extreme" for
cultural theory? Are theorists themselves destined to occupy only the
extreme margins of the mainstream? For this special issue we are interested
in theoretically engaged work that examines the meaning, value, and/or
critical difficulty of the most mainstream culture, in any category genre,
period, or location. We also invite submissions that directly interrogate
the relationship between the culture theorist and the mainstream. Possible
topics include, but are not limited to, big-budget film, popular music,
tourism, sitcoms, syndicated news, the internet, talk radio, fast food,
Wal-Mart, Nike, AOL, national elections, fairs and expositions, papal
masses, cars, crusades, cell phones, "empire," "grass roots," war, religion,
hairstyles, slang, marriage, monarchy, and pornography.

The Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies, a refereed academic journal produced
at the University of Iowa, is dedicated to publishing the best work in
cultural studies from both established scholars and emerging critics. We
hope to avoid rigid orthodoxies and publish the best of both theoretical
work and applied criticism on a range of issues. Our goal is to present the
best in contemporary criticism while fostering conversations across
disciplinary and ideological divides.

Please submit papers no later than June 1, 2003 to:

Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies
English Department
308 English-Philosophy Building
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242-1492

Two hard copies of the manuscript and a disk, preferably in Microsoft Word
(for Windows), should be provided. Manuscripts cannot be returned unless a
self-addressed envelope with US postage is provided. Submissions should be
no longer than 30 pages and should be prepared following the MLA Style
Manual.

For more information about contributing or subscribing to this journal,
please contact David Banash at david-banash_at_uiowa.edu.

Appearing in the Spring 2003 special issue on "Suburbia":

Robert A. Beuka’s "Cue the Sun: Soundings from Millennial Suburbia"

Mikita Brottman’s "Apocalypse in Suburbia"

Douglas Rushkoff’s "Media Sprawl: Springfield, USA"

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Received on Fri Feb 21 2003 - 15:29:50 EST