Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

the tribe has spoken

My friend Chris just published his first book! Tribal Warfare: ‘Survivor’ and the Political Unconscious of Reality Television is an examination of the popular reality television series through the lens of class politics.

Tribal Warfare thoroughly investigates a central element of the hit reality television show Survivor that the existing literature on reality television has overlooked: class politics. Christopher J. Wright combines textual analysis and survey research to demonstrate that Survivor operates and resonates as a political allegory. Using the work of Fredric Jameson, this book reveals how Survivor frames its “characters” as “haves” and “have-nots.” For those new to Jameson, Wright breaks down the theorist’s complex notion of the political unconscious into easily understandable language. Furthermore, using the results of a survey of Survivor viewers, Tribal Warfare demonstrates that viewers divide along gender, racial, age, and — most significantly — class-related lines in their consumption of, and reaction to, the program. The first book to explore the premise of “Survivor as society,” this unique work serves as both an engaging analysis of a popular television program and a highly readable primer for those new to critical theory.

Chris has been obsessed with Survivor for as long as I’ve known him. Our first semester in CCT, while I wrote my final paper for Critical Theory about Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, he wrote his about Survivor and the “reality” of reality television. And he built on it over the course of his studies, culminating in a thesis, which in turn became the basis for this book.

Congratulations, Chris!

The book is also available for pre-order through the publisher, as well as through Amazon and Barnes and Noble.