Listening ideas for 7 August 2011 (1)

New Books in Popular Culture
Robert Corber, “Cold War Femme: Lesbianism, National Identity, and Hollywood Cinema”
The study of non-heteronormative sexualities in the academy continues to be remarkably dynamic. Despite the usual attempts to harden the frame around this scholarship, it remains consistently exciting and surprising. Robert J. Corber is one of the reasons why. His books In the Name of National Security: Hitchcock, Homophobia, and the Political Construction of Gender in Postwar America (Duke University Press, 1996) and Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity (Duke University Press, 1997) are recognized as important contributions to the field. In his new book Cold War Femme: Lesbianism, National Identity, and Hollywood Cinema (Duke University Press, 2011), Corber expands earlier arguments about the places of homophobia in the Cold War to include anxieties about the feminine lesbian. Corber emphasizes the ways in which Hollywood representations aligned with shifting understandings of the lesbian in American political culture, while acknowledging the extent to which the Production Code limited and complicated a full realization of that shift onscreen. In films ranging from Nicholas Ray’s to Hitchcock’s, the collision of new and old models of lesbianism enabled ambivalent and often bizarre portrayals of female desire. At once a companion to and an implicit critique of his earlier work, Corber opens a new and provocative discussion of some of Hollywood’s most famous films and stars.
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Veertien Achttien
Harry Patch en de flits van het verzorgingstehuis
Toen Harry Patch op 25 juli 2009 stierf, 111 jaar oud, was er niemand meer die nog kon verhalen van de gruwelen in de loopgraven. Zijn boodschap: 'Oorlog is niet één mensenleven waard.'
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Tapestry
The Road to Damascus
Today on Tapestry we're featuring stories of seekers: people who are so driven to find out their spiritual home, they scope out new ones. We'll bring you the story of Neil Littlejohn in St. John's Newfoundland, who left Christianity for Islam. And we'll hear from freelance producer Prudent Nsengiyumva in Rwanda, where in the aftermath of the genocide, Islam is growing faster than any other faith. Also, comedian and actor Mary Walsh talks about her struggle with faith, and her instinct to hold onto it.
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Slow German
Ferienjob
Marie-Françoise ist Lehrerin aus Belgien. Sie hat mich gebeten, über Ferienjobs zu sprechen. Also werde ich das heute machen.
(review, feed)