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by Madeline Lane-McKinley (Editor), Sean O'Brien (Editor), Annie McClanahan (Afterword by)
"If the '90s announced the end of history--as well as ideology, theory and critique--thankfully, the thinkers in this collection didn't take heed" Beverley Best, author of The Automatic Fetish
"A look into how the dreams and nightmares of the '90s persist in our current popular and political culture ... A certifiable page-turner" Karen Tongson, author of normporn
The 1990s were a cultural watershed, marking a turning point in popular music, television, cinema, literature, and fashion. Nestled between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the 9/11 attacks, the decade witnessed the "end of history" and the birth of the internet, the consolidation of neoliberalism, and a political urgency embodied by the anti-globalization movement. Now in the rearview mirror, this pivotal decade appears as a time to be reckoned with, its history yet to be written, and we have only begun to come to terms with its lasting significance.
This anthology dives into the contemporary fascination with the '90s. Plotting a playful course between sociology and cultural studies on the one hand, and giddy nostalgia on the other, the book charts decisive developments of the decade to fully apprehend its resonances today.
Covering everything from "girl power," Star Trek, and hip-hop, to queer cinema, anarchist counterculture, and the erotic thriller, The Return of the 90s excavates key moments in '90s culture and uncovers its multiple reckonings in the present.
Madeline Lane-McKinley is a writer, editor, and cultural critic. Her books include Comedy Against Work, Solidarity with Children, and Fag/Hag. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Review, The New Inquiry, Protean Magazine, and elsewhere.
Sean O'Brien is a writer and a lecturer at the University of Bristol. His research has appeared in Cultural Critique, Discourse, Polygraph, Science Fiction Studies, Crossings, and the Bloomsbury Companion to Marx.
Author Biography
Madeline Lane-McKinley is a writer, editor, and cultural critic based in Portland, Oregon. Her books include Comedy Against Work: Utopian Longing in Dystopian Times, Solidarity with Children: An Essay Against Adult Supremacy, and Fag/Hag. She is also an editor for Blind Field: A Journal of Cultural Inquiry, a contributor to the Museum of Capitalism. Her writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Boston Review, The New Inquiry, Protean Magazine, and elsewhere.
Sean O'Brien is a writer and educator based in Canada and the United Kingdom. He is lecturer in the department of English at the University of Bristol. His research has appeared in Cultural Critique, Discourse, Polygraph, Science Fiction Studies, Crossings, and the Bloomsbury Companion to Marx.
Annie McClanahan is an Associate Professor of English at University of California, Irvine. She writes about US popular culture, political economy, and contemporary capitalism and is the author of Beneath the Wage: Tips, Tasks, and Gigs in the Age of Service Work.
