The Wire Urban Decay and American Television

by Potter, Tiffany; Marshall, C. W.

• ISBN13: 9780826438041
• ISBN10: 0826438040
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-10
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This book examines the series' place within popular culture and its representation of the realities of inner city life, social institutions, and politics in contemporary American society.

Author Biography

Tiffany Potter teaches English literature, and C.W. Marshall teaches Greek and Latin, at the University of British Columbia, in Vancouver, Canada. The Seventeen other contributors come from the United States, Canada, and Great Britian.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
"I am the American Dream": Modern Urban Tragedy and the Borders of Fiction	p. 1
Baltimore before The Wire	p. 15
Baltimore and Its Institutions
Yesterday's Tomorrow Today: Baltimore and the Promise of Reform	p. 23
"We ain't got no yard": Crime, Development, and Urban Environment	p. 37
Heroism, Institutions, and the Police Procedural	p. 50
The Narrative Production of "Real Police"	p. 64
"I Got the Shotgun, You Got the Briefcase": Lawyering	p. 78
Posing Problems and Picking Fights: Critical Pedagogy and the Corner Boys	p. 91
On the Corner
Corner-Boy Masculinity: Intersections of Inner-City Manhood	p. 107
Stringer Bell's Lament: Violence and Legitimacy in Contemporary Capitalism	p. 122
Networks of Affiliation: Familialism and Anticorporatism in Black and White	p. 135
Barksdale Women: Crime, Empire, and the Production of Gender	p. 149
After the Towers Fell: Bodie Broadus and the Space of Memory	p. 162
Twenty-first-Century Television
"The Dickensian Aspect": Melodrama, Viewer Engagement, and the Socially Conscious Text	p. 177
It's All Connected: Televisual Narrative Complexity	p. 190
Dislocating America: Agnieszka Holland Directs "Moral Midgetry"	p. 203
"Gots to Get Got": Social Justice and Audience Response to Omar Little	p. 217
Works Cited	p. 233
Episode List	p. 243
Notes on Contributors	p. 245
Index	p. 247
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