Papers by Daniel S Traber
Hardcore Research: Punk, Practice, Politics, 2023
Almost forty years since my first (purposely) hearing punk rock and then hardcore in 1984, I had ... more Almost forty years since my first (purposely) hearing punk rock and then hardcore in 1984, I had recently tried to convince myself that I'm totally bored by eighties hardcore. But that turned out to be a lie, a self-delusion, a halting retreat from my past obsessions. This self-assessment was made all the more clear to me after I was invited to contribute to this collection and, therefore, had to allow myself to be sucked back into the music and visual style of hardcore as a distinct evolution of punk. This self-assessment was made all the more relevant as I started contemplating what I would write about, when I tried introducing a new girlfriend (who is originally from Vicksburg, Mississippi) to hardcore via Penelope Spheeris's iconic documentary The Decline of Western Civilization (filmed through 1979 and 1980; released in 1981). We didn't finish Black Flag's opening supersonic, angry performance before she asked, "You really like this?" "Yes," I affirmed without hesitation, "I really do like this." That interaction instantly reminded me of hardcore's marginalized position in music history. She and I are both born in 1968, and although she had, of course, heard of punk, and had an inkling of what it "looked" like as a sartorial statement, it simply was never her music. (In fact, when we watched a new documentary on the Go-Go's released in 2020, she was surprised, perhaps even a little shocked, to learn that her favorite alt-pop girl band started out as a loud, angry, fast Los Angeles punk group.) Back when we were teenagers in 1980s America, you often still had to search in the dark for this music. One rarely came across it on television, let alone having access to a record store selling it, or a college radio station playing it. In smaller locales it was difficult to even learn about its very existence, unless you dared to approach the "weirdos" marking themselves with band t-shirts and peculiar hairdos-that is, if you even had such people in your proximity. But why would you consider listening to a station "left of the dial," as Paul Westerberg of The Replacements
The Oxford Handbook of Punk Rock, 2021
Punk is unique in that it is the only subculture in which the absence of signifiers of the style ... more Punk is unique in that it is the only subculture in which the absence of signifiers of the style and mindset can be twisted into actually representing the style and mindset: when a person says, "You don't look punk," the instant retort is "Well, isn't that actually punk?" This opens an opportunity to reconsider punk's semiotics, born from a postmodern sensi bility, to see how well its signifiers "float." The essay examines the phenomenon through the concept of doxa, the ideas and beliefs that become "taken for granted" in a communi ty to then function as a tool of social control. A recent example of this is found in the anger expressed within the punk fan community concerning alt-right Trump supporters eagerly touting themselves as the "new punk." The issue of deploying a closed definition of punk can then be extended to questioning systems of authenticity and ontology in rela tion to identity as a whole.
Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, 2021
Herman Melville's Redburn approaches the topic of corporeal coding via the outer layer of clothin... more Herman Melville's Redburn approaches the topic of corporeal coding via the outer layer of clothing. Throughout the novel, the young protagonist consciously uses clothing as a means of self-representation and expression, deploying fashion to create and position himself in different contexts; for example, taking pride in his ragged clothes amongst well-dressed ship passengers becomes a form of social protest. But Redburn is also used to comic effect because his choices are often based on incorrect assumptions of propriety, such as his notion of the way a sailor is supposed to dress not matching the onboard reality. The rules of appearance that construct and restrain an identity are paradoxically bolstered at the same time they are broken, which allows Melville the opportunity to explore rebellion alongside the performative aspect of the self as a body constituting both a visible sign and a living vehicle for the mores, beliefs and ideologies that shape a society. Herman Melville's fourth novel Redburn (1849) is a semi-autobiographical tale of a young teenager's first sea voyage; more specifically, a trip taken as a labouring sailor rather than a consuming tourist. It has the characteristics of a Bildungsroman in that the protagonist experiences growth by the end, in both his sense of self and his social consciousness. But there is a peculiar detail that has typically been overlooked by critics or, when noted, is given less attention. Melville has his young protagonist use clothing as a major means
The Journal of Popular Culture, 2018
racing, but motorsports itself consists of a heterogeneous assortment of vehicle types, track des... more racing, but motorsports itself consists of a heterogeneous assortment of vehicle types, track designs, and rules particular to a specific professional series, hence Formula One is unlike NAS-CAR which is unlike the World Endurance Championship. This diversity also applies to the forms motorsport-based products can take as popular culture. Yet, short of researching NASCAR fans, scholars have largely passed by racing or racing-themed subjects, including analyzing them as vehicles for political messaging. To counter this, I consider how the ideology of neoliberalism infiltrates three types of racing texts in legible, if indirect, ways. Taking a less direct path, I bookend an actual racing series, Formula One (F1), with the representations of racing found in the film Le Mans and video games. These are distinctly different cultural mediums, arranged to flow topically: first, the film is used to raise the point of examining politics through racing popular culture; next, the issue of globalization is viewed through F1; finally, real racing leads to its simulated form in video games to consider the lesson of social control transmitted through the depiction of driving physics. Much scholarship has been devoted to neoliberalism, yet David Harvey still offers one of the best summaries of the concept: A theory of political economic practices that proposes that human well-being can best be advanced by liberating individual entrepreneurial freedoms and skills within an institutional framework characterized by strong private property rights, free markets, and free
Popular Music and Society, 2013
The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the c... more The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
The Journal of Popular Culture, 2008
ON WHITENESS AND LOS ANGELES PUNK, I interrogated suburban kids who attempt a total break with th... more ON WHITENESS AND LOS ANGELES PUNK, I interrogated suburban kids who attempt a total break with their origins through the subculture; now I want to think about a subset of punks who do not. It has long been a doctrine of popular music studies that music functions as a means of identity construction, yet those subjectivities do not always fit snugly into the descriptions found in books and documentaries, where the quoted commentators given ultimate authority on movements and scenes are usually taken from the ranks of the true believers. 1 When performers mix musical genres they become groundbreaking artists, but what about a fan's identity, beliefs, and values being built on combining antithetical spheres? I will attempt to flesh out one example of this dilemma by contemplating the confluence of two opposing modes of public self-presentation: the preppy and the punk. Specifically, I will theorize the punk preppy as a hybrid figure creating a subjectivity outside the definitional confines of either source. Research in cultural and identity studies has often emphasized the importance of contradiction in grasping how people, culture, and society intermingle. The punk preppy illustrates the point as it dances along the contours of both the margin and the center, balancing roles in subordinate and dominant cultures; thereby reminding us, once again, that the ways and meanings of how consumers use texts can rarely be placed into tidy columns. While punk preppies may be genuine fans of punk there is a limit to how far they are willing to immerse themselves in the subculture and/or its ideologies.
CR: The New Centennial Review, 2007
The problem with applying the term deconstruction to anything is that it raises expectations, per... more The problem with applying the term deconstruction to anything is that it raises expectations, perhaps too high. For all its disdain of totalization, to ever arrive at a final deconstruction (which Derrida would say is impossible) of whatever form of text, medium, or object that is under construction requires a total dismantling by the initial producer or the receiver of the text. This typically results in a contest where one side tries to remove as many footnotes as possible, while the other side tries to find them for the purposes of denying the (brand) label of "pure" deconstruction (another impossibility in Derrida's own construction of the theory). When it comes to music, one can imagine the obstacles that attend making a "new" sound that will dismantle all prior assumptions and foundations upon which the infrastructure of music has been built and thrives. There is always that one sound someone thinks they have heard somewhere before, upending a sense of superiority as a producer or consumer of the new. Eventually, either side finds itself trapped in a locked groove: if the
Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 2007
ince the publication of Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter in 1972, studies of the novel have... more ince the publication of Eudora Welty's The Optimist's Daughter in 1972, studies of the novel have been interested predominately in the theme of memory. The focus is on Laurel Hand's experience of returning to her Mississippi hometown for her father's funeral and the eventual realization that one's memories are the best way to stay connected to the past without being oppressed by it. The novel argues that this occurs only if memory remains fluid and "vulnerable to the living moment" (Welty, Optimist 179). Such readings typically dismiss Laurel's stepmother Fay Chisom McKelva as some variant of "poor white trash." She is a person incapable of understanding Laurel's revelation because she is too selfishly focused on her own present; Fay is merely Laurel's foil. What these readings neglect is the subversive role Fay has in the text, and I believe it is one Welty creates but also criticizes. In fact, during an interview she labeled Fay "evil" (Gretlund 394). In essence, she silences Fay's voice, but I hope to help Fay speak against Welty's intentions. To hear Fay will help us investigate the issues of gender and class in the novel, but more significantly it exposes the metanarrative Welty deploys. Michel Foucault defines transgression as "exposing the limits." An author is actually more concerned with delineating the boundaries that determine how far one is allowed to go in society rather than attempting to move beyond the established restrictions. "The limit and transgression depend on each other for whatever density of being they possess: a limit could not exist if it were absolutely uncrossable and, reciprocally, transgression would be pointless if it merely crossed a limit composed of illusions and shadows" (34). There is no existence beyond the limits because that is the void incapable of narration. Such a project
The Hemingway Review, 2005
when the topic is gender in A Farewell to Arms there is a distinct gap between the critical respo... more when the topic is gender in A Farewell to Arms there is a distinct gap between the critical response and the textual signals Hemingway offers us to answer that inevitable question: How should a reader approach the characterization of Catherine Barkley? 1 As the protagonist's love interest, as one of the "Hemingway women," Catherine is Exhibit A for those aiming to prove Hemingway's misogyny. In the last two decades this reading has occasionally been countered with attempts to salvage Catherine's narrative function, along with Hemingway's authorial intentions. My reading will side with the latter project to argue for an anti-essentialist Hemingway who uses his central female character to critique gender roles and their naturalized social functions. 2 Indeed, the constructed nature of female/feminine identity is such a central issue that it should affect how a reader makes sense of practically every creative element in the novel. A Farewell to Arms offers a sophisticated study of gender-both masculinity and femininity-as a self-conscious performance, yet that idea is filtered through Hemingway's characteristic subtlety and irony. The response to Catherine Barkley has long been mixed. Simone de Beauvoir, a founding postwar voice for the critique of patriarchal ideology, reads Catherine as an anti-mythic representation of a woman. Beauvoir applauds Hemingway for "regard[ing] women as fellow creatures," for creating a female "without mystery" who is a "human being" (295). But even critics in our own time have not always seen it that way. Jamie Barlowe-Kayes offers a brutal summary of the varied ways Hemingway trivializes his female characters: Women are inspiration, muses, sexual temptations and release from sexual tension; they serve as nurturers, solvers of domes-
South Central Review: The Journal of the South Central MLA, 2000
Studies in American Fiction, 2000
Cultural Critique, 2001
Gonna be a white minority All the rest'll be the majority We're gonna feel inferiority I'm gonna ... more Gonna be a white minority All the rest'll be the majority We're gonna feel inferiority I'm gonna be a white minority White pride You're an American I'm gonna hide anywhere I can-Black Flag, "White Minority" Part of popular music's allure is that it offers fans tools for identity construction. Lawrence Grossberg argues that musical choices open sites for people to negotiate their historical, social, and emotional relations to the world; the way fans define and understand themselves-what they believe and value-is intertwined with the varying codes and desires claimed by a taste culture associated with a specific genre (Grossberg, "Another," 31). An example of claiming social and cultural difference through music occurs in Dissonant Identities, Barry Shank's study of the Austin music scene. In explaining her impetus for joining the punk subculture, a fan states, "[I]t really had something to do with just wanting to do something different. With in a way being an outcast but then being accepted.. .. And you were sort of bound together because the other people hated you. I think that [sic] might be part of the attraction, too, is being in a minority. Being in a self-imposed minority" (122). This tactic of selfmarginalization to articulate a politics of dissent is central to the Los Angeles punk scene from (roughly) 1977 to 1983. 1 To resist metanarratives they found static and repressive, in order to form an
Uploads
Papers by Daniel S Traber