Heath A. Diehl – författare

Departing from the scholarly treatment of addiction as a form of rhetoric or discursive formation, Wasted: Performing Addiction in America focuses on the material, lived experience of addiction and the ways in which it is shaped by a ’metaphor of waste’, from the manner in which people describe the addict, the experience of inebriation or his or her systematic exclusion from various aspects of American culture. With analyses of scientific and popular cultural texts such as novels and films, scholarly or medical models of addiction, reality television, TV drama, public health and anti-addiction campaigns, and the lives of celebrities who struggled with addiction, this book recovers the sense of materiality in which the experience of substance abuse is anchored, revealing addiction to be a set of socio-cultural practices, historically-contingent events and behaviours. Exploring the ways in which addiction as an identity construct, as a social problem, and as a lived experience is always and already circumscribed by the metaphor of waste, Wasted: Performing Addiction in America advances the idea that addiction constitutes a site of social control beyond the individual, through which American citizenship is regulated and the ’nation’ itself is imagined, demarcated, and contained. As such, it will appeal to scholars of popular culture, cultural and media studies, performance studies, sociology and American culture.

The Embattled Academy delves into the world of contemporary U.S. drama, exploring how the twenty-first-century academy has become a central stage for the Culture Wars and their impact on academic labor and institutionaldynamics.This groundbreaking book examines nine pivotal plays, from David Mamet’s Oleanna (1992) to Emilio Rodriguez’s God Kinda Looks Like Tupac (2022), to trace the evolution of what the author terms “academic plays.” These works reveal how systemic and institutional racism, performative allyship, and virtue signaling intersect with the broader cultural and political conflicts of our time. By analyzing this unique genre, the book not only sheds light on the trajectory of U.S. drama but also challenges readers to reconsider the assumed progressive impact of the Culture Wars on academia. Through its critical lens, The Embattled Academy offers fresh insights into the intersections of race, power, and performance, while addressing the lived realities of historically underrepresented and minoritized groups within and beyond the Ivory Tower. This book is an invaluable resource for faculty, graduate students, and advanced undergraduates studying Theater/Performance Studies, English, Race/Ethnic Studies, American Culture, or Popular Culture. It provides a thought-provoking and timely exploration of how the intersections of drama, academia, and cultural politics influence both contemporary U.S. drama and the academic landscape.

Departing from the scholarly treatment of addiction as a form of rhetoric or discursive formation, Wasted: Performing Addiction in America focuses on the material, lived experience of addiction and the ways in which it is shaped by a ’metaphor of waste’, from the manner in which people describe the addict, the experience of inebriation or his or her systematic exclusion from various aspects of American culture. With analyses of scientific and popular cultural texts such as novels and films, scholarly or medical models of addiction, reality television, TV drama, public health and anti-addiction campaigns, and the lives of celebrities who struggled with addiction, this book recovers the sense of materiality in which the experience of substance abuse is anchored, revealing addiction to be a set of socio-cultural practices, historically-contingent events and behaviours. Exploring the ways in which addiction as an identity construct, as a social problem, and as a lived experience is always and already circumscribed by the metaphor of waste, Wasted: Performing Addiction in America advances the idea that addiction constitutes a site of social control beyond the individual, through which American citizenship is regulated and the ’nation’ itself is imagined, demarcated, and contained. As such, it will appeal to scholars of popular culture, cultural and media studies, performance studies, sociology and American culture.

Since the nineteenth century, the Western realistic novel has persistently represented the addict as a morally toxic force bent on destroying the institutions, practices, and ideologies that historically have connoted reason, order, civilization. Addiction, Representation undertakes an investigation into an alternative literary tradition that unsettles this limited portrayal of the addict. The book analyzes the practices and politics of reading the experimental addiction novel, and outlines both a practice and an ethics of reading that advocates for a more compassionate response to both diegetic and extra-diegetic addicts—an approach that, at its core, is focused on understanding.