Elayne Rapping - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Elayne Antler Rapping is a nationally known critic and analyst of popular culture and social issues. She is the author of several books covering topics such as media theory, popular culture, women's issues, and the portrayal of our legal system on television. As a regular contributor to such publications as The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

, The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...

, and The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

, she has written on a wide variety of cultural issues including film and movie reviews.

Early life and education

Born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Elayne Rapping began her education at the University of California, Los Angeles

University of California, Los Angeles

The University of California, Los Angeles is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, USA. It was founded in 1919 as the "Southern Branch" of the University of California and is the second oldest of the ten campuses...

, then earned her masters and doctoral degrees in English at the University of Pittsburgh

University of Pittsburgh

The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

. In 1967, she received the Andrew Mellon Fellowship.

Career and Major Works

As an educator, Rapping was a Professor of English and Director of Women's Studies at Robert Morris College

Robert Morris College

This article is about the university in Illinois. For the university in Pennsylvania, see Robert Morris University.Robert Morris University Illinois, formerly Robert Morris College, is an educational institution in the U.S...

from 1970 to 1990, Professor of Communications at Adelphi University

Adelphi University

Adelphi University is a private, nonsectarian university located in Garden City, in Nassau County, New York, United States. It is the oldest institution of higher education on Long Island. For the sixth year, Adelphi University has been named a “Best Buy” in higher education by the Fiske Guide to...

from 1991 to 1998, and Professor of American Studies at State University of New York Buffalo until 2009.

Rapping is the author of several books which address a range of topics from popular culture

Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...

, television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

and society, gender issues, to media theory. Her first book, The Looking Glass for Nonfiction TV, published in 1987, is an examination of how newscasts, sports programs, game shows, made-for-TV movies, MTV

MTV

MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

, commercials and other nondramatic forms of TV programming are derived from and influenced by our cultural values, economic forces and the evolving technology of video broadcasting.

A collection of her essays and articles, Media-tions: Forays into the Culture and Gender Wars, was published in 1994. In these varied articles, Rapping takes up such pop culture artifacts as soap operas, Madonna

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...

and Amy Fisher

Amy Fisher

Amy Elizabeth Fisher is an American woman who became known as "the Long Island Lolita" by the media in 1992, when, at the age of 17, she shot and severely wounded Mary Jo Buttafuoco, the wife of her lover Joey Buttafuoco...

to set forth a new paradigm of feminism's interface with the media.

In 1996, Rapping published The Culture of Recovery, a book based on her personal investigations into the self-help groups for women. Her 2003 book, Law and Justice As Seen On TV, examines the significance and political impact of law-related television programming beginning with courtroom dramas in the 1940s up to the crime shows of the present. In his review of Law and Justice, Political Science Professor Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat

Austin Sarat is William Nelson Cromwell professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. He is also a Five College Fortieth Anniversary Professor. He has written, co-written, or edited more than fifty books in the fields of law and political science. ...

stated that Rappings's work "shows how valuable the analysis of popular culture can be in illuminating some of the most important legal and social issues of our time."

As a journalist, Rapping has written extensively for a number of national publications including The Nation
The Nation
The Nation is the oldest continuously published weekly magazine in the United States. The periodical, devoted to politics and culture, is self-described as "the flagship of the left." Founded on July 6, 1865, It is published by The Nation Company, L.P., at 33 Irving Place, New York City.The Nation...

, The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...

, Cineaste, Jump Cut
Jump Cut (journal)
Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media is a refereed journal devoted to the analysis of film, television, video and related media. Its stated goal is to approach its subject from a "nonsectarian left, feminist, and anti-imperialist" perspective...

, and The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...

where she was a regular columnist for many years.

Books

(1976) Processed ideas and packaged dreams: The manufacturing and marketing of American reality
(1987) The Looking Glass World of Non-Fiction Television (ISBN 0-89608-282-2)
(1992) The Movie of the Week: Private Stories, Public Events (ISBN 0-8166-2017-2)
(1993) Gender and media theory: A Critique of the backlash model
(1994) Media-tions: Forays into the Culture and Gender Wars (ISBN 0-89608-478-5)
(1997) The Culture of Recovery (ISBN 0-8070-2717-0)
(2003) Law and Justice as Seen on TV (ISBN 0-8147-7560-8)

Articles

"Unfree Women: Feminism in Doris Lessing's Fiction," Women's Studies
Women's studies
Women's studies, also known as feminist studies, is an interdisciplinary academic field which explores politics, society and history from an intersectional, multicultural women's perspective...

, vol. 3, no. 1 (1975), p. 29-44.
"Tupperware and Women," Radical America
Radical America
Radical America was a left wing political magazine in the United States established in 1967. The magazine was founded by Paul Buhle and Mary Jo Buhle, activists in Students for a Democratic Society and served during its first few years of existence as an unofficial theoretical journal of that...

, vol. 14, no.6 (November–December, 1980), p. 39-50.
"The View from Hollywood: The American Family and the American Dream," Socialist Review
Socialist Review
The Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the British Socialist Workers Party. As well as being printed it is also published online.-Original publication: 1950-1962:...

, vol.13, no. 1 (January–February, 1983), p. 71-92.
"The Magic World of Nonfiction TV," Monthly Review
Monthly Review
Monthly Review is an independent Marxist journal published 11 times per year in New York City.-History:The publication was founded by Harvard University economics instructor Paul Sweezy, who became the first editor...

, vol. 35, no. 7 (December 1983), p. 7l-92.
"Under Fire" By Elayne Rapping and Robert Simon. Jump Cut no. 30 (March 1985), p. 70
"Twice in a Lifetime: Consuming Families" Jump Cut no. 31, (March 1986), p. 3-4
"Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore," Media and Values (Summer 1987), p. 10-13.
"Art and the U.S. Left," Monthly Review, vol.39, no. 1, (January 1987), p. 29-38.
"Twice in a Lifetime," Jump Cut, no. 33 (1987) p. 2-4.
"Hollywood's Youth Cult Films," Cineaste, vol. 16, no. 1-2 (1987–88) p. 14-28.
"From Print to Film: The Filming of Joyce Carol Oates' 'Smooth Talk'," Cineaste, vol.15, no.1 (1987), p. 12-14.
"Wall Street and Hollywood's Classic Tradition," Cineaste, vol.16, no. 3, (1988) p. 15-16.
"Max Headroom: V-v-very Bigtime TV," Socialist Review, no.96 (1988), p. 31-45.
"Liberation in Chains: The Woman Question in Hollywood," Cineaste, vol.17, no.1 (1989), p. 4-12.
"The Future of Motherhood." In: Class and the Feminist Imagination, edited by Ilene Philipson and Karen Hansen,Temple University Press, (Fall 1989), p. 339-427.
"Hooked on a Feeling: The Sociology of Self-Help" Nation, (November 1989).
"Gender and Media Theory: A Critique of the Backlash Model," Journal of Social Philosophy, (Summer 1994), p. 7-22.
"Karal Ann Marling's As Seen on TV," Journal of Communication, (Summer 1995), p. 211-215.
"The Jane Austen Thing" The Progressive (July 1996), p. 37.
"The Movie of the Week: Law, Narrativity, and Gender on Prime Time." In: Feminism, Media, and the Law, edited by Martha Fineman and Martha McCluskey. Oxford University Press US (1997) (ISBN 0-19-509629-0)
"Ellen Comes Out: Media Events as Political Happenings," Z Magazine, (July–August, 1997).
“Television and the Rise of the Victims’ Rights Movement,” New York Law Review, (Summer 1999).
"Textual Travel and Translation and an Age of Globalized Media," Journal of Social Philosophy, (Fall 1999).
"Gender, Melrose Place and the Aaron Spelling Legacy." In: Mediated Women, edited by Marian Meyers. Hampton Press (1999).
"What the Men Don't Know: Secrets of the Daytime Gender Ghetto." In: The Pleasures of Television, edited by Stanley Aronowitz and Patricia Clough. Minnesota UP. (1999).
“Justice and Ideology on Prime Time TV,” Studies in Law, Politics and Society, vol. 21, (2001)
"Daytime Talk Shows and the Gendered Public Sphere." In: Women's Politics and Communication, edited by Liesbet van Zoonen and Annabelle Sreberny-Mohammadi. Hampton Press, (2001).
"Aliens, Nomads, Mad Dogs and Road Warriors: The New Face of Criminal Violence on Tabloid TV." In: Mythologies of Violence in Postmodern Media, edited by Christopher Sharrett, Wayne State University Press, (2002).
"Daytime Utopias: If You Lived in Pine Valley, You'd Be Home." In: Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture, edited by Henry Jenkins, Tara McPherson and Jane Shattuc. Duke University Press (2002) p. 47 (ISBN 0-8223-2737-6)
“The Changing Face of Criminal Violence on Television.” In: Reality TV: Remaking Television Culture, edited by Laurie Ouelette and Susan Murray, NYU Press. (2005).
“Feminism and Daytime Soap Operas.” In: Mediated Women, 2nd ed., ed Marian Meyers, Hampton Press. (2007)
“The Magical World of Daytime Soap Operas.” In: The Media/Cultural Studies Reader, edited by Douglas Kellner and Rhonda Hammer, Peter Lang Press (2009).
“Media, Law and Celebrity,” St. Louis Journalism Review, (Winter 2009).
"Room For Debate: Do We Need Network TV?" New York Times, (February 27, 2009).
"Room For Debate: What Does Broadcast News Do Right?" New York Times, (November 9, 2009).
“TV Lawyers through History.” In: Lawyers on Television: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, edited by Michael Asimov, forthcoming, ABA Press (2009).
"Room For Debate: When Hollywood Says 'Enough'." New York Times, (February 25, 2011).
"Is It Harder To Be A Celebrity Now?" New York Times, (March 23, 2011).

Television and Video

Swoons to Romance Novels, Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television is an open media collective dedicated to raising media literacy and challenging corporate control over broadcast medium. Based in New York City, Paper Tiger was founded in 1981....

1983
"Elayne Rapping Reads Soap Operas" As part of the Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television
Paper Tiger Television is an open media collective dedicated to raising media literacy and challenging corporate control over broadcast medium. Based in New York City, Paper Tiger was founded in 1981....

series: "Smashing the Myths of the Mass Media," 1985.

Early life and education

Career and Major Works

Books

Articles

Television and Video

External links

See also