Description
Since their first appearance in 1934, comic books enjoyed wide readership, frequently serving as a practical guide to life in booming new cities. Conservative protest against the so-referred to as immorality of these publications, of mass media most often, and of Mexican modernity itself, alternatively, led the Mexican government to establish a censorship workplace that, at the same time as having little affect on the content of comic books, succeeded in directing conservative ire away from government policies and toward the Mexican media. Bad Language, Naked Ladies, and Other Threats to the Nation examines the complex dynamics of the politics of censorship occasioned by Mexican comic books, including the conservative political campaigns against them, government and industrial responses to such campaigns, and the publishers’ championing of Mexican nationalism and their efforts to preserve their publishing empires through informal influence over government policies. Rubenstein’s analysis suggests a new Mexican history after the revolution, one in which negotiation over cultural questions replaced open conflict and mass-media narrative helped ensure political stability.
This book will engage readers with an interest in Mexican history, Latin American studies, cultural studies, and popular culture.