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Highway 61 Revisited

Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan’s Road from Minnesota to the World

Edited by Colleen J. Sheehy and Thomas Swiss

New essays consider Dylan’s latest work, his Minnesota roots, and his global reach

312 Pages, 7 x 10 in

  • Paperback
  • 9780816661008
  • Published: May 15, 2009
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Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan’s Road from Minnesota to the World

Edited by Colleen J. Sheehy and Thomas Swiss

ISBN: 9780816661008

Publication date: May 15th, 2009

312 Pages

10 x 7

From Library Journal
This new collection of scholarly articles on Bob Dylan proves that there are new angles from which to approach his life, his artistic evolution, and his unmatched influence on music and culture. Dylan is inarguably one of the most dissected and discussed artists, musical or otherwise, of the last half-century, and these 20 distinctive, thoughtful, and erudite essays by, e.g., Greil Marcus and international academics from a variety of disciplines such as linguistics, music theory, and African American studies are all welcome additions. As Sheehy (director & CEO, Plains Art Museum) and Swiss (coeditor, New Media Poetics) explain, the articles here do not attempt to solve the myriad puzzles surrounding Dylan; rather, the book poses familiar questions in a fresh manner. Contributions about how Bobby Zimmerman from rural Minnesota became international cultural icon Bob Dylan, what influences his songwriting, and how his songs are having a global impact will be of strong interest to scholars and fans alike. —Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia

The young man from Hibbing released Highway 61 Revisited in 1965, and the rest, as they say, is history. Or is it? From his roots in Hibbing, to his rise as a cultural icon in New York, to his prominence on the worldwide stage, Colleen J. Sheehy and Thomas Swiss bring together the most eminent Dylan scholars at work today—as well as people from such far-reaching fields as labor history, African American studies, and Japanese studies—to assess Dylan’s career, influences, and his global impact on music and culture.

The Dylan effect has extended far beyond the United States in recent decades, and the essays here analyze his effect on the people and cultures of the United Kingdom, Italy, and Japan. With a special focus on his Minnesota roots, including Greil Marcus’s spectacular tour of Dylan’s hometown, contributors also take into account his most recent work and Martin Scorsese’s documentary No Direction Home.

The first cultural and historical geography of his dramatic rise, storied career, and unmatched iconic status, Highway 61 Revisited maps the terrain of Bob Dylan’s music in the world.

Contributors: John Barner, U of Minnesota; Daphne Brooks, Princeton U; Court Carney, Stephen F. Austin State U; Alessandro Carrera, U of Houston; Michael Cherlin, U of Minnesota; Marilyn J. Chiat; Susan Clayton; Mick Cochrane, Canisius College; Thomas Crow, New York U; Kevin J. H. Dettmar, Southern Illinois U, Carbondale; Sumanth Gopinath, U of Minnesota; Charles Hughes; C. P. Lee, U of Salford, Manchester, England; Alex Lubet, U of Minnesota; Greil Marcus, U of California, Berkeley; Aldon Lynn Nielsen, Pennsylvania State U; Roberto Polito, The New School; Robert Reginio, Frostburg State U; Heather Stur; Mikiko Tachi, Chiba U, Japan; Gayle Wald, George Washington U; Anne Waldman, Naropa U; David Yaffe, Syracuse U.

Thomas Swiss is professor of culture and teaching at the University of Minnesota. His books include Key Terms in Popular Music and Culture and New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories.