Susan Aronstein

The Road to Wicked examines the long life of the Oz myth. It is both a study in cultural sustainability— the capacity of artists, narratives, art forms, and genres to remain viable over time—and an examination of the marketing machinery and consumption patterns that make such sustainability possible. Drawing on the fields of macromarketing, consumer behavior, literary and cultural studies, and theories of adaption and remediation, the authors examine key adaptations and extensions of Baum’s 1900 novel. These include the original Oz craze, the MGM film and its television afterlife, Wicked and its extensions, and Oz the Great and Powerful—Disney’s recent (and highly lucrative) venture that builds on the considerable success of Wicked. At the end of the book, the authors offer a foundational framework for a new theory of cultural sustainability and propose a set of explanatory conditions under which any artistic experience might achieve it.

The Road to Wicked examines the long life of the Oz myth. It is both a study in cultural sustainability— the capacity of artists, narratives, art forms, and genres to remain viable over time—and an examination of the marketing machinery and consumption patterns that make such sustainability possible. Drawing on the fields of macromarketing, consumer behavior, literary and cultural studies, and theories of adaption and remediation, the authors examine key adaptations and extensions of Baum’s 1900 novel. These include the original Oz craze, the MGM film and its television afterlife, Wicked and its extensions, and Oz the Great and Powerful—Disney’s recent (and highly lucrative) venture that builds on the considerable success of Wicked. At the end of the book, the authors offer a foundational framework for a new theory of cultural sustainability and propose a set of explanatory conditions under which any artistic experience might achieve it.

The legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table permeate our culture: we find them in novels, movie parodies, and even the American government. Yet beneath and before it all lies a deep literary tradition that has influenced history, art, and culture over the centuries. Examining the legend at its very source, An Introduction to British Arthurian Narrative covers over 400 years and discusses a broad range of romances, histories, and parodies written about King Arthur in Britain during the medieval period. The modern Anglo-American version of the Arthurian tale stems from Sir Thomas Malory's fifteenth-century compendium Le Morte D'Arthur, which was written at the end of the tale's first period of widespread popularity, which began in the early twelfth century. Susan Aronstein demonstrates that, as Arthur's transformation from a ""leader of battles"" in early histories, to a powerful chieftain in Welsh tales, and, finally, into England’s ""once and future king,"" at every point, these tales reflected the ongoing contest for sovereignty over the island of Britain-and the very definition of ""British.