New Books In Communications

Randy Laist, professor of English at Goodwin University and the University of Bridgeport, has a new edited volume focusing specifically on popular culture and the 1980s. The essays in The '80s Resurrected: Essays on the Decade in Popular Culture Then and Now (McFarland, 2023) approach this theme from a number of disciplinary perspectives, global positions, as well as a wide variety of pop cultural artifacts. Laist’s effort in bringing together these essays was not just about reflecting on the 1980s, and particularly how the 1980s seems to be quite present in contemporary popular culture, but also because of the way that the 1980s has shaped our current political environment. The ‘80s Resurrected includes chapters on different media engagement and different issues that are fleshed out from different artifacts—including video games, film, television, dolls, and music. The ideas that these chapters dive into include questions of race, gender, class, sexuality, LGBTQ+, neoliberalism, misogyny, representation, and