'We Are the Mods': a Transnational History of a Youth Culture
“‘We are the Mods’: A Transnational History of a Youth Culture” by Christine Jacqueline Feldman B.A., Western Washington University, 1993 M.A., Georgetown University, 2003 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Christine Jacqueline Feldman It was defended on January 6, 2009 and approved by Brent Malin, Assistant Professor, Communication Jane Feuer, Professor, English and Communication Sabine von Dirke, Associate Professor, Germanic Languages and Literatures Akiko Hashimoto, Associate Professor, Sociology Dissertation Advisor: Ronald J. Zboray, Professor, Communication ii Copyright © by Christine Jacqueline Feldman 2009 iii “‘WE ARE THE MODS’: A TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY OF A YOUTH CULTURE” Christine Jacqueline Feldman, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2009 Mod youth culture began in the postwar era as way for young people to reconfigure modernity after the chaos of World War II. Through archival research, oral history interviews, and participant observation, this work traces Mod’s origins from dimly lit clubs of London’s Soho and street corners of the city’s East End in the early sixties, to contemporary, country-specific expressions today. By specifically examining Germany, Japan, and the U.S., alongside the U.K., I show how Mod played out in countries that both lost and won the War. The Mods’ process of refashioning modernity—inclusive of its gadgetry and unapologetic consumerism—contrasts with the more technologically skeptical and avowedly less materialistic Hippie culture of the later sixties. Each chapter, which unfolds chronologically, begins with a contemporary portrait of the Mod scene in a particular country, followed by an overview stretching back to its nineteenth- century conceptions of modernity and a section that describes Mod’s initial impact there during the 1960s.
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