“Sous les paves, la plage!” [Under the paving stones, the beach]
Mark ShielMark Shiel considers some historical precedents for the current moment.
In This Issue
Trump and the Dialectic of Enlightenment
Stanley CorkinStan Corkin discusses Trump’s affinity with televisuality and the dangers of the reality effect.
The Speed of Power, The Pace of Protest: Resistant Urban Rhythms
Caitlin BruceCaitlin Bruce identifies the polyrhythmic nature of the city as a potent model for resistance to the Trump administration’s tactics, and to anti-urban representations of the city as population instead of populace.
Migrating Globally, Fighting Back Locally
Sabine HaenniSabine Haenni fills in the “points of warmth” on her migration map with examples of local resistance and local cinemas.
Hollywood and the Muslim Ban: The Contemporary War Film as Urban Cinema
Johan AnderssonJohan Andersson considers the relationship between Trump’s rhetoric and the anti-urban themes of the contemporary war film.
Assembling an Entry Point: Notes on Navigating the Superhero Genre
James GilmoreIn this final response, James Gilmore suggests that the vastness of the superhero genre defies generalizations and instead requires scholars to take situated “entry points” to the genre.
On the Outpacing of Reality and the Uses of Representation
Erica Stein & Brendan KredellManaging Editors Erica Stein and Brendan Kredell kick off the second phase of From the Editors’ Desk by asking what role media and the city can play in an effective response to the rapid pace of change.
Resisting the Grid: A Centrifugal Dance in Marvel’s Relocated City
Lorrie PalmerLorrie Palmer follows Agent Carter off the grid in her discussion of the second season’s unruly spaces and unruly women.
Cinemas of Economic Crisis: Interdisciplinary Teaching in Languages & Film Studies
Amy Tibbitts & Dennis HanlonDennis Hanlon and Amy Tibbitts discuss how they managed issues connected to team teaching, interdisciplinary topics, and diversely prepared student populations in their class on Spanish and Argentine cinemas of the economic crisis.
Borderless Worlds, Imagined Places: Bending Time and Space in the MCU
Laura FelschowLaura Felschow analyzes Marvel’s expansion of authenticity to the international in world building and marketing.
Do Not Adjust Your Set! Recalibrating Urban Cinema and Media Studies Under Donald Trump
Mark Shiel Mark Shiel calls for urban cinema and media studies to reorient its methodologies in the wake of Donald Trump’s election.
Excelsior: Reaching Toward Utopia in Marvel’s New York
Matt YockeyIn the first response, Matt Yockey argues Marvel links the superhero to the urban, and to New York City in particular, through affect-inducing strategies that belie both Marvel’s, and the city’s, “ever upward” aspirations.
First We Take Manhattan: Introducing Marvel Roundtable Part 2
Erica SteinIn this roundtable redirect, Erica Stein questions what it means for Marvel to image its authenticity in and through New York City. She asks us to consider how Marvel’s dispersed and globalized industrial spatiality complicates and interacts with its proclivity for filming (and filming in) New York.
Trump, The Wire’s Serial Killer, and the State of the News
Stanley CorkinStan Corkin claims the neoliberalization of journalism as a key cause in the rise of Trump, and looks to the fifth season of The Wire as anticipating this phenomenon.
No Cities to Love: The Urban as Population, not People
Caitlin BruceCaitlin Bruce argues that the city could not figure in public imaginaries as a space for authentic populism in the 2016 U.S. election in part because of its long-standing representation as a contagion in cinema.
Rediscovering Bodies in Pain on Marvel’s Netflix Shows
James GilmoreNetflix’s Marvel line-up of shows are transmediated texts that encourage us to ponder whose bodies matter, and how they matter, in the contemporary city.
Class Consciousness, Cinema, and the Rise of Trump
Johan AnderssonJohan Andersson explores the relationship between political crisis and class consciousness in cinema past and present.
Are Cities Sanctuaries? Mapping Migration in the Mediated Metropolis
Sabine HaenniSabine Haenni explores the limits of local warmth, sanctuary cities, and the mediation of experiences of immigration and migration in fiction films.
Media and Polis in Light of Trump, Brexit, and the Global Far Right
Erica Stein & Brendan KredellMedia and the urban were two key strands in discussions of the US presidential election and Brexit. The Managing Editors re-connect them in this introduction to our From the Editors’ Desk feature.
Marvel Noir: Agent Carter, the Automat, and Urban Wholeness
Lorrie PalmerLorrie Palmer discusses the single period-set Marvel television offering, Agent Carter, and its use of locations like the Automat to evoke a unified city
Black Metropolis: The Embodied City in Luke Cage
Matt YockeyWhen Marvel’s iconic Power Man became Netflix’s Luke Cage, the character’s bullet-proof black body retained his relevance, and the urban space he occupied became even more important.
Branding New York: Marvel Comics and Industry Tradition
Laura FelschowMarvel Comics’ loyalty to New York City both in its business practices and its produced content have lent both the company and their product a certain degree of marketable perceived authenticity.
Marvel, the Urban, and Authenticity: An Introduction
Erica SteinSince the release of its earliest comics, Marvel Inc. has foregrounded its use of real urban settings to differentiate itself from competitors and market its products in terms of authenticity. This Roundtable explores some of the strategies and consequences of this connection.
Conference Report: Cities in Crisis
Christopher HollidayChristopher Holliday reports on the recent Cities in Crisis symposium held at King’s College London.