Synopses & Reviews
In this exciting new work, David Boucher and Gary Browning explore Bob Dylan's radical and changing engagement with the "political." The contributions deal with various aspects and periods of Dylan's career, including the early protest ballads, the artistic high-point of his mid-sixties electric period in which his songs question the very notion of ordered collective politics, and present alternative disturbing images of a counter-reality. Finally the book explores the more personal and religious songs on issues of identity, alienation and ethical striving. Whereas in the early protest songs the diagnosis and prognosis did not always give rise to answers, the later religious analyses of the world gone wrong appeared to generate a very clear and simple remedy in Jesus.
Synopsis
David Boucher and Gary Browning provide a multi-faceted analysis of the political art of Bob Dylan. The contributions cover Dylan's career as a whole, dealing with such themes as alienation, protest, non-conformity and the American Dream. Dylan's work is examined from a variety of perspectives including the aesthetic theory of Kant, Adorno, Lyotard and Collingwood. The assembled authors are notable specialists in political theory, literary criticism and popular culture. They do not tackle Dylan from a single standpoint but collectively question how Dylan's work relates to the theory and practice of politics.
Synopsis
Notes on the Contributors Preface Introduction; D.Boucher & G.Browning The Drifter's Escape; A.Gamble Bob Dylan's Critique of Judgement: 'Thinkin' about the law'; R.Brown Judas and the Many 'Betrayals' of Bob Dylan; M.Jones The Cry of Humanity: Dylan's Expressionist Period; L.Wilde Dylan & Lyotard: Is it Happening?; G.Browning Images and Distorted Facts: Politics, Poetry and Protest in the Songs of Bob Dylan; D.Boucher Index
About the Author
David Boucher is Professorial Fellow and Assistant Head of School, Research, School of European Studies, Cardiff University, Adjunct Professor of International Relations at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and Director of the Collingwood and British Idealism Centre at Cardiff.
Gary K. Browning is Professor of Politics at Oxford Brookes University.
Table of Contents
Listening to Dylan Politically--D.Boucher & G.Browning * Images and Distorted Facts: Politics, Poetry and Protest--D.Boucher * The Drifter's Escape: The Alienation Theme--A.Gamble * Desolation Row: The Moment of New Expression--L.Wilde * Dylan & Lyotard: Is It Happening?--G.Browning * Dylan's America: location and Dislocation--R.Brown * Against Injustice--M.Jones