Generation X and the Rise of the Entertainment Subject

Robert Samuels has meticulously, deftly, coherently and precisely written a deeply informative of various narratives of Generation X that have been examined, marketed and commodified by the media, corporations, Hollywood and the larger population. It is a riveting, effervescent work that seamlessly integrates Generation X with popular culture.

-- Elwood Watson, East Tennessee State University

Samuels trenchantly identifies one of the roots of our current media obsessions in Generation X’s early position as what he calls an “entertainment subject,” a subject shaped by the popular culture it was internalizing, while at the same time shaping that culture. Samuels examines how college reveals the cultural shift in authority from traditional figures to authority dominated by entertainment and consumerism. Unpacking such Generation X cultural touchstones as Nirvana, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and Do the Right Thing, among other texts, this book is a piercing interrogation of pop culture’s role in how society’s understanding of authority has shifted.

-- Tom Pace, John Carroll Univer