Freak Show Legacies by Gary S. Cross


ISBN
9781350145122
Published
Binding
Paperback
Pages
272
Dimensions
156 x 234mm

A volume exploring how the spectacle of freakishness conflicted with genteel culture throughout the 20th century and played a significant role in shaping contemporary popular culture in the US and beyond.

Society has long been fascinated with the freakish, shocking and strange. In this book Gary Cross shows how freakish elements have been embedded in modern popular culture over the course of the 20th century despite the evident disenchantment with this once widespread cultural outlet. Exploring how the spectacle of freakishness conflicted with genteel culture, he shows how the condemnation of the freak show by middle-class America led to a transformation and merging of genteel and freak culture through the cute, the camp and the creepy.
Though the carnival and circus freak was marginalised by the 1960s and had largely disappeared by the 1980s, forms of freakish culture survived and today appear in reality TV, horror movies, dark comedies and the popularity of tattoos. Freak Show Legacies will focus less on the individual 'freak' as 'the other' in society, and more on the audience for the freakish and the transformation of wonder, sensibility and sensitivity that this phenomenon entailed. It will use the phenomenon of 'the freak' to understand the transformation of American popular culture across the 20th century, identify elements of 'the freak' in popular culture both past and present, and ask how it has prevailed despite its apparent unpopularity.
EOFY 2025 Book Frenzy
42.49
RRP: $49.99
15% off RRP


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Instore Price: $49.99
Enter your Postcode or Suburb to view availability and delivery times.

You might also like

The Wager
24.99
21.24
15% Off
Mutiny On The Bounty
Peter FitzSimons
36.99
31.44
15% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.