Contents

Rachel Dean-Ruzicka: Eating the Entire Plate: Violence,
Transgression, and an Overindulgence in the Carnivalesque in .What Happens in Vegas,
Stays in Vegas. and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Dr. Alissa Burger: Afraid to Go in the Water: Contested
Masculinities in Steven Spielberg.s Jaws

Cynthia D. Stroud: Manipulating the Spectacle for Change
’08?

Critical Essays

Eating the
Entire Plate: Violence, Transgression, and an Overindulgence in the Carnivalesque in
.What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas. and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation by
Rachel Dean-Ruzicka

Afraid to Go
in the Water: Contested Masculinities in Steven Spielberg’s Jaws by Dr. Allisa
Burger

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 hit film Jaws not only changed the way the movie-going
public looked at the water, but also the way we look at men who come into contact with
those spaces and creatures. In this film, viewers are presented with a range of men
who tackle the problem of the water and its secrets in very different ways: Police
Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider), scientist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), and the
fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw). This article explores the construction and maintenance
of masculinity and identity as a whole, as each man struggles to enforce his authority
over the others, while simultaneously moving toward the camaraderie necessary for the
fight of man against beast. The anxiety raised by these differing performances of
masculinity are focused in three key sites throughout the film: the action and
interaction of the men as they clash against one another and eventually begin to work
together; a cycle of storytelling, taking the form of a cadenced one-upmanship,
punctuated by claims of .I got that beat.; and finally, the treatment of each
individual man.s body, both in the pain suffered through the hunt and the camera.s
approach to each physical form.

Commentary

Manipulating the Spectacle for Change ’08? by Cynthia D. Stroud

Author Cynthia Stroud analyzes media coverage of the 2008 election from a Situationist
perspective.