Scaled for Success

Philip Hayward is editor of the journal Shima and holds adjunct professor positions at the University of Technology Sydney and at Southern Cross University. His previous volume, Making a Splash: Mermaids (and Mermen) in 20th and 21st Century Audiovisual Media, was published by John Libbey Publishing/Indiana University Press in 2017.

"This wonderful book asks us to consider the mermaid, a figure that has traveled globally for over two centuries. By tracking the figure across regions, nations, diasporas, and contemporary socio-cultural configurations, the book also serves as a kind of examination of circulatory networks as they move symbolically charged images and ideas out of mythological / folkloric systems into sometimes surprising contexts. With this, the chapters show that mermaids are an extraordinary form with which to understand polyvalency and through which we can understand the usefulness of certain psychoanalytic paradigms across histories and societies. One of the most compelling aspects of the volume is the tracking of the figure from myth to narrative to popular culture in numerous different contexts. Mermaids and Mermen guide the reader through India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and China and across The Middle East and Latin America. They then open windows into contemporary popular culture in Australia and The United States. Each chapter reads the mermaid in tandem with the histories of cultural production more broadly in the se global sites. Beautifully written and richly theorized, the chapters each individually provide insight into circulation, media, and post coloniality. Read together, they offer a map for how to do contemporary cultural studies."—Paige West, Claire Tow Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College, Columbia University"No matter the reader's background (literature, folklore, media or cultural studies, and beyond), there is no denying that this work will be a valuable addition to the library of anyone fascinated with mermaids."—Western Folklore