New Books Network
Performing Arts
German Studies October 26, 2021

Jewish Difference and the Arts in Vienna

Composing Compassion in Music and Biblical Theater

Caroline A. Kita

Hosted by Lea Greenberg
During the mid-19th century, the works of Arthur Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner sparked an impulse toward German cultural renewal and social change that drew on religious myth, metaphysics, and spiritualism …

Performing Arts

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Interviews with performing artists and scholars of the performing arts about their new books.

Popular Culture October 26, 2021

Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire

Punk Rock in the 1990s United States

David Pearson

Hosted by Rebekah Buchanan
In Rebel Music in the Triumphant Empire (Oxford University Press, 2020), musicologist David Pearson explores the changing landscape of punk in the United States in the 1990s. Pearson examines how the 1990s underground …
Catholic Studies October 25, 2021

America's Most Famous Catholic (According to Himself)

Stephen Colbert and American Religion in the Twenty-First Century

Stephanie N. Brehm

Hosted by Carlos Ruiz Martinez
For nine years, Stephen Colbert’s persona “Colbert”?—a Republican superhero and parody of conservative political pundits--informed audiences on current events, politics, social issues, and religion while lampooning conservative political policy, biblical …
Music October 22, 2021

Major Labels

A History of Popular Music in Seven Genres

Kelefa Sanneh

Hosted by Franz Nicolay
Kelefa Sanneh was born in England, and lived in Ghana and Scotland before moving with his parents to the United States in the early 1980s. He was a pop music …
British Studies October 22, 2021

Shakespearean

On Life and Language in Times of Disruption

Robert McCrum

Hosted by Joseph Krulder
When inspiration struck Robert McCrum to write a book about the Bard, it came while watching one of the playwright’s plays in Central Park, New York. Here, McCrum realized that …
Film October 22, 2021

The Sensuous Cinema of Wong Kar-wai

Film Poetics and the Aesthetic of Disturbance

Gary Bettinson

Hosted by Gustavo Gutiérrez Suárez
The widely acclaimed films of Wong Kar-wai are characterized by their sumptuous yet complex visual and sonic style. This study of Wong’s filmmaking techniques uses a poetics approach to examine …
Performing Arts October 21, 2021

(Re:) Claiming Ballet

Adesola Akinleye

Hosted by Renee Garris
(Re:) Claiming Ballet (Intellect Books, 2021) by Dr. Adesola Akinleye explores the history of movement through ballet, representation, and the future of dance. Though ballet is often seen as a white …
Psychology October 20, 2021

Hold on

The Life, Science, and Art of Waiting

Peter Toohey

Hosted by Reyes Bertolin
What do you do when you're not asleep and when you're not eating? You're most likely waiting--to finish work, to get home, or maybe even to be seen by your …
Architecture October 19, 2021

Echo's Chambers

Architecture and the Idea of Acoustic Space

Joseph L. Clarke

Hosted by Bryan Toepfer
A room’s acoustic character seems at once the most technical and the most mystical of concerns. Since the early Enlightenment, European architects have systematically endeavored to represent and control the …
Art October 19, 2021

Investigative Aesthetics

Conflicts and Commons in the Politics of Truth

Matthew Fuller

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Today, journalists, legal professionals, activists, and artists challenge the state's monopoly on investigation and the production of narratives of truth. They probe corruption, human rights violations, environmental crimes, and technological …
Performing Arts October 19, 2021

Chartist Drama

Gregory Vargo

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Greg Vargo's Chartist Drama (Manchester UP, 2021) opens a window into a fascinating aspect of working-class radical drama. This book includes scripts of four dramas performed or published by members …
Film October 18, 2021

Lucasfilm

Filmmaking, Philosophy, and the Star Wars Universe

Cyrus R.K. Patell

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
From A New Hope to The Rise of Skywalker and beyond, this book offers the first complete assessment and philosophical exploration of the Star Wars universe. Lucasfilm: Filmmaking, Philosophy, and …
Film October 13, 2021

Engineering Hollywood

Technology, Technicians, and the Science of Building the Studio System

Luci Marzola

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Luci Marzola's book Engineering Hollywood: Technology, Technicians, and the Science of Building Studio System (Oxford University Press, 2021) tells the story of the formation of the Hollywood studio system not as the …
Art October 13, 2021

Between Discipline and a Hard Place

The Value of Contemporary Art

Alana Jelinek

Hosted by Pierre d'Alancaisez
Some fields have an easier time describing themselves than others. "History is the study of past events." "Biology is the study of living organisms." But art? Is art a discipline …
Film October 11, 2021

Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men

Phil Rosenzweig

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Phil Rosenzweig's Reginald Rose and the Journey of 12 Angry Men (Fordham Press, 2021) is the first biography of a great television writer, and the story of his magnum opus …
Film October 7, 2021

Phantom Lady

Hollywood Producer Joan Harrison, the Forgotten Woman Behind Hitchcock

Christina Lane

Hosted by Annie Berke
A platinum beauty with an ugly secret; a tall, dark, and handsome husband with murder in his eyes; starkly lit interiors that may or may not include the silhouette of …
Performing Arts October 6, 2021

The Art of Resonance

Anne Bogart

Hosted by Andy Boyd
Anne Bogart's The Art of Resonance (Methuen Drama, 2021) locates the essence of theatre in the experience of resonant vibration among performers and between performers and audience members. The point of art …
Music October 4, 2021

Echoes of the Great Catastrophe

Re-Sounding Anatolian Greekness in Diaspora

Panayotis F. League

Hosted by Emily Ruth Allen
Echoes of the Great Catastrophe: Re-sounding Anatolian Greekness in Diaspora (University of Michigan Press, 2021) explores the legacy of the Great Catastrophe—the death and expulsion from Turkey of 1.5 million Greek Christians …
Film October 1, 2021

A Very Nervous Person's Guide to Horror Movies

Mathias Clasen

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Films about chainsaw killers, demonic possession, and ghostly intruders. Screaming audiences with sleepless nights or sweat-drenched nightmares in their immediate future. Presumably, almost everybody has experience with horror films. Some …
Film September 29, 2021

Screen Captures

Film in the Age of Emergency

Stephen Lee Naish

Hosted by Joel Tscherne
Movies open a window into our collective soul. In Screen Captures: Film in the Age of Emergency (New Star Books, 2021), Stephen Lee Naish guides us through recent cinematic phenomena that …