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Madonna studies

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For the Christian theological study of Mary, the mother of Jesus, seeMariology.
Madonna on stage at herCelebration tourin 2023

Madonna studies(also calledMadonna scholarship,Madonna-ologyorMadonna Phenomenon) refers to the study of the work and life of American singer-songwriterMadonnausing aninterdisciplinaryapproach incorporatingcultural studiesandmedia studies.In a general sense, it could refer to any academic studies devoted to her. After Madonna's debut in 1983, the discipline did not take long to start up and the field appeared in the mid-1980s, achieving its peak in the next decade. By this time, educatorDavid Buckinghamdeemed her presence in academic circles as "a meteoric rise to academiccanonisation".The rhetoric academic view of that time, majority in the sense ofpostmodernism,generally considered her as "the most significant artist of the late twentieth century"according toThe Nation,thus she was understood variously and as a vehicle to open up issues. Into the 21st century, Madonna continued to receive academic attention.[a]At the height of its developments, authors of these academic writings were sometimes called "Madonna scholars" or "Madonnologists", and bothE. Ann KaplanandJohn Fiskewere classified as precursors.

These studies analyzed several topics, but mostly Madonna studies involved in the study of gender, feminism, race, multiculturalism, sexuality, and the mass media. The wide-ranging resources used included herfilms,songs,live performances,books,interviews or hervideos.National Geographic Societyretrospectively called the field a "controversial" area in 2018; both Madonna studies and its authors received a variety of criticisms from academy and media outlets. Their proponents defended the field in almost equal measure. The Madonna studies played a major role for the direction of the American cultural studies, and brought pop artists to the foreground of scholarly attention.

Terminology

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The field is commonly calledMadonna studies,[5]and that phrase popped up in the late-1980s according to writerMaura Johnston.[6]Although numerous academics likeDavid Gauntlettused that term,[7]scholars such asJanice RadwayandSuzanna Danuta Waltersto journalists likeMaureen Orthhave referred to them also as theMadonna-ology,[8][9]orMadonnalogy.[10]Another group of academics likeE. Ann Kaplancalled them the "Madonna Phenomenon"(MP),[11][12][13]while others used the termMadonna scholarship.[14][15]

The academic literature about Madonna, and its "own industry", was called as "the Madonna industry", "Madonna business" or the "Madonna boom" by a variety of scholars such asSimon FrithandMichael Bérubéor journalists likeJon Pareles.[16][17]Critics likeRobert Christgaucalled the "Madonnathinking" (Madonnathink) to commentaries about the singer, including the academic vein.[18]

Origins and development

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Background

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Literary scholar Luis Cárcamo-Huechante fromHarvard Universityputs the origins of the Madonna studies in thecampsensibility with the concept proposed in the 1960s bySusan Sontag,alluding to the "fascination of artifice and exaggeration" and what Madonna produced and put into circulation on an "industrial" and "planetary scale".[19]Associate professor Diane Pecknold inAmerican Icons(2006) also mentioned the camp sensibility and added that for most of the twentieth century, American scholars subscribed to the idea of an objective anduniversal canonand academics "were applying to Madonna the same sophisticated textual readings".[12]

Chilean literary criticÓscar Contardoset its background with the British cultural studies when the phenomenon of celebrities began to be analyzed from the 1970s.[19]American historianRichard Wolin,observed that the cultural studies approach blossomed during the 1980s, further adding that underFoucault's growing influence as well as thatStuart Halland theBirmingham School,popular culture was viewed as a site of "resistance" to power. It was in this vein that "Madonna studies" blossomed into an academic cottage industry, Wolin said.[20]

InMadonna: A Biography(2007),Mary Crossasserts that "the turmoil of new theory imported from Europe and the culture wars of ideology were bringing huge changes to the American academic world and the college curriculum. Whole departments devoted to popular culture and media studies emerged as well women's studies came into its own. And Madonna seemed to illustrate extremely well what was happening on the embattled cultural ramparts of late twentieth-century American. A perfect example of the whole theory of postmodernism the academic world was suddenly so immersed in".[21]

According to professor Santiago Fouz-Hernández, author ofMadonna's Drowned Worlds(2004), the abundance of critical work on the artist has almost certainly been part of broader developments in methodological trends in academia: the study of popular culture has come a long way sinceDavid Riesmandescribed it in 1960 as "a relatively new field in American social science".[22]During the growth of the Madonna Phenomenon, a reflection of contemporary attitutes were occurring in the perception of popular art, not only among academics but among mainstream pop critics as well.[23]

Spread

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"Madonna has been drafted into the staggeringly implausible role of spokeswoman of the values and professional interests of university instructors..."

—Daniel Harris, fromThe Nation(Make My Rainy Day- June 8, 1992).[23]

Madonna first came to prominence in the mid-1980s, and the discipline did not take long to start up.D Magazinetalked about the Madonna scholarship in 1986.[14]Robert Miklitsch, associate professor ofOhio Universitydates the start of Madonna studies to 1987 andRocking Around The Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism & Consumer CulturebyE. Ann Kaplan.[24]

At this point, scholars like Kaplan andJohn Fiskerepresented Madonna to their academic audiences as a moment in which popular culture imitatescritical theoriesof history, knowledge, and human identity.[25]For them, Madonna quickly served "as a vehicle to open up issues",[17]and she was placed at the center of the debate in the 20th century ofhighand popular culture.[26]Various academicscitedthe point of view of Steven Anderson fromThe Village Voice(1989): "Madonna serves as the repository for our ideas about fame, money, sex, feminism, pop culture, even death".[13]In numerous ways, Madonna was viewed as a multivalent figure, especially onwomen's roles.[27]

"Of all the artists who rose to prominence through MTV, none has garnered more attention among academics than Madonna", wrote Murray Steib inReader's Guide to Music(2013).[28]From other reports, professorMichael Bérubé,asked why Madonna and not others acts (he cited Metallica, for instance). In his lengthy explanation, Bérubé said partly because most citizens of advanced Western democracies tend to be more engaged by and informed about Madonna or blockbuster movies.[16]Other author suggested that "pop culture and Madonna are central to political issues",[29]as by this point in the academic rhetoric, Madonna emerges not simply as a pop star but as "the most significant artist of the late twentieth century", according toThe Nationin 1992.[23]Anne Hullsummarized that the singer come out as the "intrigue of academics, feminists, theologians, Marxists, sociologists, who want to take her apart and slide her under the microscope".[30]Pecknold also wrote that "the fact that not only her work but her person was open to multiple interpretations contributed to the rise of Madonna studies".[12]

Issues and approaches

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See alsoCultural impact of Madonna,for further developed cross-referenced themes

The Madonna studies is aninterdisciplinaryfield ofcultural studies,as wellmediaandcommunication studies.[31][32]Professors Andy Bennett (Griffith University) and Steve Waksman (Smith College), in the bookThe SAGE Handbook of Popular Music(2014) commented that "Madonna studies itself took a variety of forms (and not all of these necessarily counted as cultural studies)".[31]Anne Hullwriting forTampa Bay Timesdescribed the Madonna studies as "highly specialized" field.[30]Miklitsch called it, a "mini-discipline".[24]ForSusan McClaryall of these studies on Madonna was from aniconographicperspective,[33]and for author David Chaney, these academic writings are "explicitly concerned with interpreting the fabrication and representational strategies in the star's persona".[34]

Professor Pamela Robertson Wojcik ofUniversity of Notre Damenoticed that "media attention fuels academic discourse, which in turn fuels media discourse, and ultimately all becomes a part of 'Madonna'".[13]In this line, Hull mentioned that everything "is data".[30]In a review fromDissertation Abstracts International: The humanities and social sciences. A(2008), it was written that the Madonna scholarship focused "solely" on identity politics through formalist readings of cultural texts and their reception to explore the influence of the larger political economic, historical, and cultural contexts of capitalist society.[35]

Madonna studies explored a wide-ranging of scientific discourses.[36]Cathy Schwichtenberg, aUniversity of Georgiaprofessor and editor ofThe Madonna Connection,asserts that served as a "touchstone for theoretical discussions" on issues of morality, sexuality, gender relations, gay politics, multiculturalism, feminism, race, racism, pornography, and capitalism to name a few.[37]Authors ofEncyclopedia of Women in Today's World, Volume 1(2011) also added to the spectrum of topics the subcultural appropriation, politics of representation, consumer culture, the male gaze, body modification, reception studies, and postmodernism.[38]

As with others observers, music professorAntoni Pizà Prohensalso described the kindness of the academic writing discussed on Madonna, describing it as "a long and stretchedet cetera".[39]Among those topics, he added, globalization, immigrant rights, minority rights or sexual liberation.[39]Another observer,Ricardo Bacaadded religion and spectacle.[32]In addition, critic Daniel Harris, provides an overview of the academic reaction and approaches to Madonna studies arguing that "Madonna's work has spawned an entire industry of academic commentary" discussing her impact on music, feminism, sexuality, and dozens of more issues.[13]

Her scholars also encompassed a broad spectrum of resources, including Madonna's work as her videos, performances, her music, films, interviews and so on. This usage was also known as a "texts" in the cultural studies branch.[40]InMadonna's Drowned Worlds,authors stated that "this tendency to turn Madonna into a classroom aid becomes most obvious when one examines the basic methods by which her admirers interpret her songs and videos".[13]

A general overview of approaches on Madonna studies
Illustrative spectrum of topics on Madonna studies
Women's studies[36] Marketing strategy[36] Gender studies[41] Racial studies[36]
Ethnic studies[36] Queer theory[41] Critical theory Feminism[41]
Consumer culture[38] Postmodernism[38] Multiculturalism[37] Popular culture[42]
Celebrity studies[36] Film studies[43] Globalization[39] Sexuality[37]
a Madonna icon

Illustrative examples of reference works

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See also:Bibliography of works on MadonnaandList of academic publishing works on Madonna
In 2015,University of Oviedodedicated a course to Madonna, marking the first time a female artist was studied in the academy.[3]

The Madonna studies saw its developments mostly atacademic conferences,journals,courses,seminars,theses andbooks(includingtextbooks[10]). The first scientific articles about Madonna appeared in 1985, only two years from her debut (1983) and experienced a boost in the early-1990s.[44]According to academic Laurie Ouellette, Madonna scholars "have been leading classroom discussions and filling the pages of academic journals and textbooks since Madonna's early days as theMaterial Girl".[15]Simon Frith,refers to this as the "boom in the academic Madonna business": "The books! the articles! the conferences! the courses".[45][16]

Major American universities dedicated classes to the singer across the nation,[26][30]mostly in the decades of the 1980s and 1990s.[46][39]In this regard, Frenchman scholarGeorges-Claude Guilbertwrote in the bookMadonna as Postmodern Myth(2002),Princeton,Harvard,UCLA,theUniversity of ColoradoandRutgerswere the first to propose courses "about" Madonna.[41]Liberal art colleges, such as7 sistersalso taught courses that examined Madonna's cultural influence.[47]Professor Mathew Donahue lectures about Madonna in many of his classes at theDepartment of Popular Culture(the first Popular Culture department in the United States) ofBowling Green State University.[48]

Although probably the United States saw more classes about Madonna than any other country,[46]internationally various also informed about Madonna's courses in academic syllabus. In early 1990s, American editorAnnalee Newitzcommented that "Madonna occupies a definite place in the post-Western Culturescurriculum at universities everywhere ".[25]TheUniversity of Amsterdamcreated the electiveacademic discipline,Madonna: The Music and the Phenomenon,within the Department ofMusicology.[41]In Finland, Rossi Leena-Maija fromHelsingin Sanomatinformed by 1995 that Madonna became part of "Finnish academic life".[49]Simon Reynoldsmentioned the example of scholars fromFrankfurt,[50]and educatorDavid Buckinghamof theCambridgecampus.[51]In 2015, a group of scholars dedicated a Madonna class at theUniversity of Oviedo,marking the first time Oviedo devoted a course to a female singer.[2][3]

Texts

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InMaterial Girls(1995),Suzanna Danuta Waltersheld these academic writings, has produced at least one major academic text devoted to Madonna.[9]On the report ofEric Weisbard,only Madonna books proliferated in the 1990s (compared to her fellows Michael Jackson and Prince), and the bulk coming from a new group of cultural studies academics, mostly women.[18]According to professorSheila Jeffreysthere exists "a slew of scholarly books in postmodern language" about her.[52]

ProfessorJane DesmondfromUniversity of Illinois Urbana-Champaignheld that "the relevant bibliography is vast" in the Madonna studies, citing examples from Cathy Schwichtenberg (The Madonna Connection) to Lisa Frank and Paul Smith (Madonnarama) both from 1993.[53]Another book from 1993 isDeconstructing Madonna(Fran Lloyd) that articulates Madonna in British rather than an American cultural perspective.[54]Academics fromThomas Ferraroto Santiago Fouz-Hernández have identified others some core originating texts, likeKarlene Faith'sMadonna, Bawdy & Soul(1997) and the others previously mentioned by Desmond.[55][22]For Fouz-Hernández,The Madonna Connection"was arguably a key event in the history of the relationship between the artist and the academy".[22]Professor Pamela Robertson Wojcik also opined that these three books published in 1993, "cemented the institutionalization of a major subdivision of American media studies into Madonna studies".[13]

Weisbard also noted how generalized bibliography on Madonna mixed music criticism with "academic chops" citingMadonna: Like an IconbyLucy O'Brienas an example.[18]In this hybrid critical-academic popular writing about Madonna, Fouz-Hernández also commented that her academic discourse is "periodically amalgamated in volumes such asDesesperately Seeking Madonna(Sexton, 1993),Madonna: The Rolling Stone Files(Rolling Stone,1997) orThe Madonna Companion(Metz and Benson, 1999) ".[22]To Ferraro, the latter book has been "the better resource for Madonna criticism".[55]Bitch She's Madonna,a book published in 2018 by Hispanic academics, was promoted as the first Spanish cultural book dedicated to Madonna, and as an extension of the Madonna studies in Spain.[56]The same year, assistant professor Manav Ratti ofSalisbury University,writing forJournal of American Studieswrote an essay about her bookSexand called it an extension of the "scholarship on Madonna".[4]Some thesis garnered media exposition andcitations,likeMadonna's 'Like a Prayer:' A Critique of a Critique of the Geritol Generationof Chip Wells.[57][30]

Madonna scholars

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"Madonna scholars" was the name given to the academics working on Madonna, but other appellative was "Madonnologists".[58][41]According to French academicGeorges-Claude Guilbert,they worked mostly in areas ofcultural theory,cultural studies, film, media studies, feminism, gender, gay and lesbianism,[15][41][38]generally marked by left wing ideology, radical antiracism, extreme feminism, and lesbian or gay militancy.[41]

In 1986,D Magazinestaff discovered that "Dallas academics, have been among the nation's leaders in the newly born specialty of Madonna scholarship".[14]In 1992, Barbara Stewart fromOrlando Sentinelreported a "growing number of Madonna scholars" in the United States from professors of English, anthropology or communication.[57]One of the earliest studiers of Madonna identified as a "Madonna scholar" wasJohn Fiske.[54]

Opprobrium

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According toEric Weisbard,in the sense of academic and public intellectual writing,bell hooks(pictured) was known as a persuasive "detractor" of Madonna.[18]

Madonna scholars also received criticisms from both academy and mainstream media and some deemed them as a "marginal group".[18]Ouellette traced the height of criticism after the publication of the compendiumThe Madonna Connection"that such scholars became a fashionable target for" concern, condescension, and scorn from progressive quarters ".[15]By this point, articles dedicated to the field were found in publications ranging fromThe NationtoInside EditionandHerald Tribune.[15][57][54][59]More than one author suggested that the branch itself was really not about the singer, and it was motivated by professional factors within the academy; specifically, by many academics' desire to "prove their social relevance".[23]In this point, Ouellette also said that her scholars weren't so much interested in Madonna herself,[15]while Spanish sociologistEnrique Gil CalvofromComplutense University of Madridsimilarly stated that "what scholars want is to take advantage of Madonna's fame".[59]

A concern was that "these professors make Madonna the academic equivalent ofShakespeare".[57]Anne Hullironically said: "A handful of renegade scholars—students and professors—are studying Madonna. While their colleagues explore gender conflicts in Florentine history or Aristotelian metaphysics, they search for higher meaning in Madonna".[30]Hull further notes, "as one might imagine, Madonna scholars are a lonely posse in the high-brow, horn-rimmed world of academics".[30]Harris also expressed that "her academic admirers spend a great deal of time studying how she embodies the fantasies of other people; they devote remarkably little time, however, to discussing how she embodies their own".[13]On the border of academic and public intellectual writing,bell hooksremained Madonna's most persuasive detractor, according toEric Weisbard.[18]

Others were concerned about a bias. In this vein, numerous academics and feminists were accused of "enacting thewannabe syndromeof Madonna fans "according to Carla Freccero writing forDuke University Press.[60]PsychologistAbigail J. Stewartasked why many of her academic critics have chosen to look only "at her triumphs and not at her pain".[61]Stewart goes on to suggest that her academics have made of Madonna, a "solo generator of her image". But she problematizes that "these postmodernist have thus contributed at least as much as Madonna's biographers to her self-generated myth that she as individual is in control" citingSusan McClarywhom claimed that Madonna is "solely responsible for creating her music, which is no the case eve for the two songs McClary analyzes".[61]Contrary to Stewart, Guilbert found that some "Madonnologists", "even seek to appropriate the Madonna text in order to serve an ideology, and reproach Madonna for her failures to promote this or that cause".[41]

Responses

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Some of Madonna studiers were women, and they managed to agree were the subject ofgender bias in academia,describing some of the criticism on them as "derogatory criticisms" used by "male reviewers" as they were the same to describe Madonna that to describe them.[15]For instance, Laurie Schulze ofUniversity of Denverdecried: "We're being treated as the 'sluts' of academia, in ways weirdly analogous to how Madonna herself is viewed ".[15]E. Ann Kaplan,one of the precursors in the Madonna studies,[13]was surprised and troubled in the backlash against Madonna scholars. Kaplan believed it relates to thebacklash against feminismat that time.[15]Chip Wells, another Madonna scholar that received attention from media, responded to critics fromInside Editionwhom taped him saying: "I've readAristotle,Plato,Descartes.And I'm not finding anything in them I'm not finding in Madonna ". In defense, Wells commented" it's not hard to make us look dumb "adding that" whatInside Editiondoesn't know is,Roman Hellenismwas the pop culture of its time ".[57]At one moment, the network of Madonna scholars was described as "a tight unit". In this matters, Wells commented "by the nature of the area we are studying, we have to coalesce".[30]However, others viewed this inter-exchanges, as "who swap bibliographies like 13-year-old girls trade earrings".[30]In response to the charges of fan-biased analyses, Lisa Henderson, an assistant professor said that "one can be a fan and a scholar, they enhance each other".[29]Schulze, later dedicated an inspired-article forThe Velvet Light Trapin 1999 where chronicles the controversy surrounding the Madonna studies and the tag they received as "Madonna's academic wannabes" by left-leaning popular press.[62]

Reception

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"[...] theMinervaof modernity, Madonna Studies, is a sign of the times, a symptomatic figure not only of cultural studies in all its celebratory, cultural-populist excess but of a critical discourse responsive to postmodern culture in all its politically complext mutability "

—Robert Miklitsch, associate professor of English atOhio Universitytalking about "Madonna studies" (1997).[24]

TheNational Geographic Societycalled the Madonna studies "controversial".[42]

The Madonna studies divided the academic world. In this line, Spanish sociologistMaría Ángeles Duránheld that Madonna has been the subject of numerous and diverse studies but "provoking a great controversy of opinions".[33]Charles T. Banner-Haley, a professor of history atColgate Universityalso confirmed this, saying that "the academic world the force of Madonna has caused a division among scholars that has often gone from the sublime to the silly".[63]David Roediger,described: "The idea of studying the popularity of Madonna has been grist for the mills of many critics of trends in scholarship on American culture.[64]National Geographic Societycalled it a "controversial" area.[42]For cultural critics on both the left and right, Madonna studies represented "the first and last word of barbarism", political barbarism for the left, cultural for the right.[24]Professor Robert Miklitsch described the branch as a "political-cultural" phenomenon in 1998,[24]while others labeled the studies as "the ultimate act ofcultural imperialism".[23]

Répertoire International de Littérature Musicalealso commented on its reception inpopular press,noting "the ridicule that Madonna studies has provoked among journalists".[65]Also, given the fact that Madonna's work only occupied consciousness for a mere years during the rise of this branch (she debuted in 1983), Elizabeth Tippens ofRolling Stoneasked in 1990, "Do we wait another fifty years before we dare to deconstruct Madonna? To ask what she is teaching us about ourselves and our culture?".[26]Another premier example of whole articles devoted to the branch from media, include the firmKnight Ridder,as they published a 1991 article on the subject titled "Madonna even controversial for scholars", citing commentaries from various teachers and other media personalities.[66]WhileCBS NewspresidentFred W. Friendlywas also critical about the field, he said that "writing a major paper is supposed to be an intellectual achievement—a serious matter. Madonna is a media freak. How the media made her—I could see studying that".[57]

Madonna's responses

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In 1994,Jon ParelesofThe New York Timesasked Madonna's thoughts about the academic discipline, while she responded, "I laugh. It's amusing [...] It's flattering because obviously I'm on a lot of people's minds".[17]Years prior, in an interview withVanity Fairaccording toGary Goshgarian,she gave a similar answer: "It's flattering to me that people take the time to analyze me and that I've so infiltrated their psyches that they have to intellectualize my very being. I'd rather be on their minds than off".[67]InBoricua Pop(2004),Frances Negrón-Muntanerreflected: "Imagine for a second that you are Madonna... Imagine, that there are theory books about you, and that you are the main theme of dissertations and academic essays. Imagine that feminists discuss whether you are a heroine or a demon".[68]

Criticisms

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The Madonna studies received criticisms among scholars and others commentators, although criticisms against the studies were similar in many ways, according toOn the Issuesin 1993.[15]A decade later, in 2003, Stephen Brown fromUniversity of Ulsterwho studied Madonna as a marketing genius, commented that "when you read some of the stuff that academics have written about her, then you're inclined to conclude that certain scholars should get out more".[10]

The field was criticized because tends "to bejargonladen and prone to over-interpretation ".[15]A denunciation of the branch and its feminist and gay exponents in cultural studies, rails against "a state of intellectual anarchy that sanctions willfully perverse misreadings".[69]Although she also worked on the field,Camille Pagliayears later, referred to the "pretentious terminology" citing examples of words like "intertextual", "significations", "transgressive", "subversive" or "self-representation". She decries: "This would be comical, except for its ill effect on students and an increasingly corrupt career system".[70]Similarly,Robert Christgaubelieves so much of the academic writing on Madonnafeelstranslated.[71]He also noticed that the "Madonnathinking" contrasted of her "overanalyzed" and "overstuffed" videos with her "underanalyzed" pop songs.[18]Similar to Christgau, authors ofMedia and Cultural Theory(2010) found that the problem with Madonna studies from the perspective of musicology is that "very little analysis is focused on the musical text but rather performances and promotional video".[7]In this area, author Andrew Blake provides a "musicological" critique, but overall commented that cultural studies have a "problem" with music itself.[24]

From an educational sense, some reviewers debated about whether Madonna should have a place in curriculums alongside more established and canonical subjects, while argued that she was an "unworthy of academic study" that "adds nothing to the advancement of knowledge".[15]Various commentators described it as "a waste of time and money" for both professors and students.[57]It has also been criticised for adding nothing to students' employment prospects.[72]Another critic said that "neither this study theme sit well with some students of higher education".[57]Roger Kimball,charged Madonna's presence in the classroom with nothing short of "defrauding students of a liberal-arts education".[26]By 1991, Paglia also said: "We do not need awhole coursein Madonna ".[26]

Instructors likeRobert Walserfound that some students reacted skeptical when it comes to Madonna, because "they haven't thought about in certain ways" and "they've trained not to image that there could be anything important going in popular culture, especially in popular culture produced by women".[26]Many years after, Kathryn Murphy-Judy, an associate professor of French atVirginia Commonwealth Universityfound the problem of outdated textbooks.[73]

In the late-1990s, Australian feminist historianBarbara Cainedismissed the field by saying: "While not advocating more Madonna studies (now considerably dated), nor defending them as either scholarly or political, I want to suggest that suchstudies of girlculture are important ".[74]In a similar treatment, American art historianDouglas Crimpsaid: "My hesitancy to participate in the Madonna studies phenomenon is that I generally think and write about things that really do matter to me, and Madonna doesn't matter to me that much".[41]Robert Clay, aUniversity of FloridaEnglish professor called them an "Old Hat".[57]

Responses

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"This type of research is routine.... From an academic point of view, it doesn't seem peculiar to me. Think of it like this: If you're aMartiantrying to figure out what's going on Earth, Madonna is a blip on the planet.... "

—Theodore Clevenger, dean ofFSU's Department of Communicationtalking about "Madonna studies".[57]

Scholars, mainly Madonna studiers defended the field. One of the justification was the importance of studyingmodern culture.Charles Sykes fromMilwaukee Magazinesaid that "there's no subject too ridiculous to be a subject of research in academics".[57]ProfessorThomas FerraroatDuke Universitydescribed the field as "quite academic in focus, language, and ideology".[55]In 1997, in a conversation withThe Wall Street Journal,Matt Wray asserted at that time the field is "past its prime now", but added "a lot of good work was done on the significance of Madonna".[75]

During the height of the field, Jesse Nash, an anthropology professor at Loyola University, said, "it's more conventional to write Madonna off, to write popular culture off. But that's a big mistake. A whole generation is forming opinions based on her".[57]To defenders like Schwichtenberg, "Madonna is a figure that is very important to subcultural groups[...] To say she doesn't deserve to be studied is very condescending to a lot of people".[15]HistorianMarilyn B. Youngalso commented that "pop culture has long been studied in universities" and "Madonna's impact is serious".[57]Nash goes on to suggest that a figure like Madonna is "key to understanding the times in which they live and, by contrast, other eras".[76]

Some made the comparison ofhistorical figureswith Madonna. For instance,Orlando Sentinelreported that some deemed Madonna "is worthy of inquiry [today] asCharles Dickenswas in the 18th century ".[57]Lisa Henderson, an assistant professor pondered that "a dissertation on Shakespeare might have been as laughable 300 years ago as a dissertation on Madonna might be today".[29]Young also felt that to the generation coming up, "Madonna is more important thanLeonard Bernstein".[57]

Harvard University's Lynne Layton, also commented: "Teaching students how to read popular culture critically is as important as teaching them to read high art".[26]Contrary to some student's concerns, Gary Burns and Elizabeth Kizer inMadonna: Like a Dichotomy(1990) found that "students in communication classes find it useful to study Madonna because she is a fascinating and prolific cultural figure".[27]In a class devoted to Madonna in 2008, economist and academicRobert M. Grantcommented that the "familiarity with Madonna means that it is possible for everyone to contribute to the discussion".[77]In regards the criticisms to the field and its authors, Ouellette suggested that "if critics had not been so hostile from the start, and had not spent so much time making scholarly work on Madonna seem ridiculous out of context, they might have been more fair in noting that the essays collected in theMadonna Collection,for instance, are nowhere near uniform celebrations of Madonna as a feminist or even populist idol ".[15]

Ambivalences

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According to others, the field generated unexpected effects. For instance and according to investigative journalistEthan Brownin 2000, the Madonna studies "has obscured what made its subject so appealing in the first place (Madonna)" and blamed to Camilla Plagia to university semiotics departments.[78]Following Brown's description, in the beginning of the 21st century, the flood of theories about Madonna subsided, with a commentator suggesting, "a degree of saturation seems to have been reached".[44]Loughborough University's Jim McGuigan pointed out that in the cultural studies the case of Madonna was so "overworked" that it has reached tedium, as happened in old schools with the historical problem on theCauses of World War I.[79]

Some others defended Madonna's own ambivalences in the perspective of academic writing, while Kaplan proposed that "she is nevertheless a contradictory and complex cultural phenomenon that cannot be simply dismissed".[15]Like Kaplan, scholarDouglas Kellneragreed with this point, adding:

Indeed, Madonna is a provocative challenge to cultural studies. Unpacking the wealth of her artistic strategies, meanings, and effects requires deployment of a full array of textual criticism, audience research, and analysis of the political economy and production of pop culture in our contemporary media society. Her work was become increasingly complex and it is precisely this complexity that has made Madonna a highly controversial object of academic analysis for decades. Madonna allows many, even contradictory, readings, which are grounded in her polysemic and modernist texts and her contradictory cultural effects. At dull gatherings, mention Madonna and you can be sure that there will be violent arguments, with some people passionately attacking and others defending her.[80]

Comparisons

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The field has been analogously used both to defend or criticize other academic trends, and subfields, mostly from the post-Madonna studies era. Danish professor Erik Steinskog, used the field to defend the courses proposed forBeyoncé.[46]Michael Dango also compared the Madonna-ology with the ongoing courses ofTaylor Swiftin 2024.[81]Historian professorDavid Roediger,noticed that in November 1997,The New York Times Magazineridiculedwhiteness studiescalling it as the "silly successor" of theporn studiesand Madonna studies.[82]

Back in the 2000s,Michael Bérubéexplained the related-critics and comparisons, saying that "as long as cultural studies is taken to be identical to Madonna Studies, the critiques of cultural studies follow an altogether predictable path".[16]Writing forThe Chronicle of Higher Education,Bérubé noticed that since the importation of cultural studies to the United States, the field "has basically turned into a branch of pop-culture criticism".[83]In this vein,Stuart Hall,one of the most influential authors in the cultural studies, commented: "I really cannot read another cultural-studies analysis of Madonna orThe Sopranos".[83]According to American writerJulia Keller:"Madonna Studies101[is the] derisive nickname sometimes applied to cultural studies ".[84]

InVamps & Tramps: New Essays(2011), Paglia referred to the "current academic writing on Madonna" and also on American popular culture in general as "deplorably low quality". It is marked by "inaccuracy, bathos, overinterpretation, overpoliticization and grotesquely inappropriate jargon borrowed from pseudotechnical semiotics and moribund French theory".[70]Authors inEvaluating Creativity: Making and Learning by Young People(2000), commented that "whatever one's position on the Madonna debate, she stands as an image for a more general anxiety in the study of culture, and this respect the overall effect of postmodernism has been to unsettle criteria for evaluation in the arts in two ways: the neo-conservative backlash and cultural relativism".[85]

Impact

[edit]

Today, it’s uncontroversial to position the pop star as a coatrack for American mythmaking, racial and gender politics, identity, and occasionally even the history of capitalism [...] We can follow that trend back to Madonna. Her reception coincided with and was amplified by a sea change at American and British universities in the Reagan-Thatcher ’80s that made her a perfect case study. A certain triangular relationship between entertainment, the media, and the academy was forming, marked by one defining question: What’s the point of pop?

—Brandon Sanchez,The Cut(2023)[86]

InMaterialisations of a Woman Writer(2006), Swedish author Maria Wikse fromStockholm Universitycommented "Madonna is no longer in the academic limelight", but stated that "Madonna Studies remains an established field within Cultural Studies".[1]Authors ofReligion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred(2008), commented that "despite the (perhaps misguided)" mocking of the Madonna studies wave, "the period produced some important and groundbreaking work in cultural studies that focused on the music, videos [and] films".[87]

For associate professor Diane Pecknold, the Madonna studies "heralded and hastened the development of American cultural studies".[12]Dutch media scholar Jaap Kooijman, commented that before the Madonna studies, "most scholarly attention was paid to genres and artists that were not considered 'pop'", but she brought 'pop' to the foreground.[88]On a broader scale, "courses offered at such universities as Harvard, Princeton, UCLA and the University of Colorado have been put forth on the premise that celebrities have social significance and are therefore important topics of study".[22]Even, British authorEmma Brockescalled the "post-Madonna" studies era to thosedegree coursesof cultural studies held by best universities, like when Harvard "pioneered" a study on the singer back in the early 1990s.[89]

InMadonna's Drowned Worlds(2004), authors notated that "academic studies and college courses dealing with Madonna's work benefited from the aura of her celebrity through the mid-1990s".[22]In early 1990s,Maureen Orthalso noted how academics made a "brisk trade".[8]Despite critical commentaries, some scholars appeared on talk shows, also gracing a score of national and international newspapers and magazines.[22]Schwichtenberg, once asserted that "writingaboutMadonna and her cultural significance had produced "connections with others outside academe that dissolved the boundaries between public and private, academic and popular, theory and practice".[71]In 2001,Andrew Mortoninformed: "All those college lecturers endlessly debating her impact on racial and gender relations in post-modern society, are still, after twenty years, desperately seeking Madonna".[90]

On Madonna's career

[edit]

Madonna's influence on academic scholarship was not unnoticed.[15]Mary Crosslater described how she become an "exalted star on the unlikely stage of academia".[21]In early 1990s, educatorDavid Buckinghamlabeled it as "a meteoric rise to academiccanonisation".[51]

During the height of the field, professorGregory UlmeratUniversity of Floridalabeled her as "the most studied pop figure in universities".[57]Elizabeth Tippens fromRolling Stonecommented in 1992, that "no female pop-music figure has ever infiltrated the halls of academia as Madonna has".[26]Andreas Häger fromÅbo Akademi Universityciting Schwichtenberg notes: "Hardly any other popular artist has received as much attention from thescientific communityas Madonna ".[91]

Madonna's semiotic and significance was dissected by her pundits each of whom had their own take on her role in society from all-topics discussed. In regard this, Daniel Harris ofThe Nation(1992) held that "there is a Madonna for virtually every theoretical stripe".[23]He extended this idea citing the "Lacanian Madonna"inMarjorie Garber's review, the "Foucauldian Madonna"in Charles Wells's view, the"Baudrillardian Madonna"for Cathy Schwichtenberg, followed by the"Freudian Madonna"ofCindy Pattonand the "Marxist Madonna"by associate professor Melanie Morton.[13]Commentators like Colombian writerJosé Yunis,El País's Lola Galán, and Caroline von Lowtzow fromSüddeutsche Zeitungmade similar observation with Harri's point.[11][59][44]The latter author, also added that this even prompted a parody of these multiple interpretations: a "Postmodernism Generator".[44]Chilean literary criticÓscar Contardocommented that it broke down Madonna's semiotics: "her image, her music, her media appearances, her staging, and her implicit and explicit messages".[19]The critical studies of Madonna also heralded her as a "symbol, image, and brand" according to theEncyclopedia of Women in Today's World(2011).[38]

Measurement of Madonna's critical-academic literature

[edit]

"With Madonna, the extensive tie-in between media scholars [...] has produced an exaggerated metacritical level."

—The Madonna Connection(1993)[71]

Across the decades, various commentators have "measured" and noticed the literature fo Madonna related to the academic world, including authors inGender and Popular Culture(2013).[5]In early 1990s, media scholar David Tetzlaff equated an attempt to collect or read it all to "mapping the vastness of the cosmos" referring both her academic and popular literature.[12]Author David Chaney referred she "generated an enormous academic and popular literature of explanation and comment"[34]Professor Pamela Robertson Wojcik cited that "Madonna is as ubiquitous in academic discourse as she is in the popular media".[13]

Writing forThe Journal of Popular Culturein 2015, José F. Blanco said "it can be argued that Madonna is overexposed inacademic research".[37]InMadonna's Drowned Worlds(2004), Fouz-Hernández similarly argued "scholarly interest has since continued unabated".[22]Australian historiansRobert Aldrichand Garry Wotherspoon called Madonna a "performer of inimitable ubiquity" as she "has saturated the pages of academic journals" in the 1990s.[92]InFashion and Celebrity Culture(2013), Pamela Church Gibson wrote "since the 1980s, there has surely been enough written about Madonna to create a whole new sub-discipline within cultural studies".[93]Alina Simone,author ofMadonnaland(2016), commented while she was working in her book: "I maintained hope of finding some tiny stone left unturned in the giant gravel pit of Madonna studies", but she encountered "there is no dearth of material about Madonna, but an overwhelming excess".[94]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^InMaterialisations of a Woman Writer(2006), Swedish author Maria Wikse fromStockholm University(SU) wrote that "Madonna Studies remains an established field within Cultural Studies".[1]She continued to receive academic discussions, and some courses, essays and journals were presented as an extension of the Madonna studies (University of Oviedo;2018[2][3]) or Manav Ratti (Journal of American Studies;2018).[4]

1. To avoidintertextualitycases, most texts have author's quote attribution.

References

[edit]
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  3. ^abcGarcía, Sergio (October 9, 2015)."Madonna usa los videoclips para dar mensajes diferentes a los de sus canciones".El Comercio(in Spanish). Spain. Archived fromthe originalon April 21, 2020.RetrievedMarch 7,2022.
  4. ^abRatti, Manav (2020)."The Icon and the Text: American Book History and the Construction of the World's Largest-Grossing Illustrated Book, Madonna's Sex (1992)".Journal of American Studies.54(1).Cambridge University Press:184–211.doi:10.1017/S0021875818001391.S2CID149802293.Archived fromthe originalon April 30, 2020.RetrievedMarch 8,2022.
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  6. ^Maura, Johnston(August 16, 2018)."These Are the Best Madonna Books".Pitchfork Media.Archived fromthe originalon August 16, 2018.RetrievedApril 27,2021.
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Bibliography

[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Madonna_studies&oldid=1241990016"