Analyzing the Ultimate Dude

For every generation, there is a dude. And for every pop-culture phenomenon, there is an academic trying to analyze it to death.

A new book, The Year’s Work in Lebowski Studies, features essays on the Coen brothers’ 1998 slacker hit, The Big Lebowski, which is, without a doubt, the definitive film on the concept of dudeness. It was edited by Edward Comentale, a professor of English at Indiana University, and Aaron Jaffe, an associate professor of English at the University of Louisville.

The book, which includes essays by scholars and fans, grew out of a festival held in honor of the movie, according to The Indiana Daily Student. The editors received 200 essay proposals, which they had to winnow to 21. The authors examine the film’s connection to the first Iraq war, grail legends, and college culture.

It’s hard to know for sure what the scruffy, lazy anti-hero of the film would think of the scholarly attention. He’d probably shrug. –Tom Bartlett