Jonathan Bignell

Using examples such as the Wonderbra advertisements and the film Waterworld, Bignell presents an investigation of the critical approach to contemporary media studies and discusses the challenges posed by post-structuralist theory and postmodernism.

An Introduction, Second Edition

Media Semiotics

Anna McMullan

Pim Verhulst

Despite the steady rise in adaptations of Samuel Beckett’s work across the world following the author’s death in 1989, Beckett’s afterlives is the first book-length study dedicated to this creative phenomenon. The collection employs interrelated concepts of adaptation, remediation and appropriation to reflect on Beckett’s own evolving approach to crossing genre boundaries and to analyse the ways in which contemporary artists across different media and diverse cultural contexts – including the UK, Europe, the USA and Latin America – continue to engage with Beckett. The book offers fresh insights into how his work has kept inspiring both practitioners and audiences in the twenty-first century, operating through methodologies and approaches that aim to facilitate and establish the study of modern-day adaptations, not just of Beckett but other (multimedia) authors as well.

Adaptation, remediation, appropriation

Beckett's afterlives

'An Introduction to Television Studies' is a comprehensive introduction to the field. It provides resources for thinking about key aspects and introduces institutional, textual, cultural, economic, production and audience-centred ways of looking at television.

An Introduction to Television Studies

Faye Woods

This comprehensive textbook, now substantially updated for its fourth edition, provides students with a framework for understanding the key concepts and main approaches to Television Studies, including audiences, representation, industry and global television, as well as the analytical study of individual programmes. This new edition reflects the significant changes the television industry is undergoing in the streaming era with an explosion of new content and providers, whilst also identifying how many existing practices have endured. The book includes a glossary of key terms, with each chapter suggesting further reading. New and updated material includes: Chapters on style and form, narrative, industry, and representation and identity Case studies on Bon Appétit’s YouTube channel, Insecure, British youth television, ABC and Disney+, fixed-rig observational documentary, streaming platforms' use of data to shape audience experience, Chewing Gum, Korean drama and The Marvelous Mrs Maisel Sections on medical drama, YouTube creators, Skam and scripted format sales, the global spread of streaming platforms, prestige TV and period drama With individual chapters addressing television style and form, narrative, histories, industries, genres and formats, realities, production, audiences, representation and identity, and quality, this book is essential reading for both students and scholars of Television Studies.

This ground-breaking study analyses Beckett’s television plays in relation to the history and theory of television. It argues that they are in dialogue with innovative television traditions connected to Modernism in television, film, radio, theatre, literature and the visual arts. Using original research from BBC archives and manuscript sources, the book provides new perspectives on the relationships between Beckett’s television dramas and the wider television culture of Britain and Europe. It also compares and contrasts the plays for television with Beckett’s Film and broadcasts of his theatre work including the recent Beckett on Film season. Chapters deal with the production process of the plays, the broadcasting contexts in which they were screened, institutions and authorship, the plays’ relationships with comparable programmes and films and reaction to Beckett’s screen work by audiences and critics. This book is a major contribution to Beckett scholarship and to studies of television drama. It will be essential reading in literature and drama studies, television historiography and for devotees of Beckett’s work.

The television Plays

Beckett on Screen

Sarah Cardwell

Lucy Fife Donaldson

This collection interrogates the concept of complex TV, and reappraises the value of simplicity in TV, with reference to a range of television programming, including episodic series and serial dramas, sitcoms, science-fiction, animation, horror, thrillers and period dramas.

Moments in Television

Complexity / Simplicity

Stephen Lacey

Popular television drama: critical perspectives' is a collection of essays examining landmark programmes of the last forty years, from 'Doctor Who' to 'The Office', and from 'The Demon Headmaster' to 'Queer As Folk'. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and challenge received wisdom by reconsidering how British television drama can be analysed.Each section is preceded by an introduction in which the editors discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The book is split into three sections, addressing the enduring appeal of popular genres, the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and analysing a range of programmes past and present.Popular television drama: critical perspectives will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama. Its breadth and focus on popular programmes will also appeal to those interested in the shows themselves.

Critical perspectives

Popular television drama

The author discusses the theoretical issues of shows such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer, America's Most Wanted, Sex and the City, The Cosby Show, Dallas, The Sopranos, Crimewatch" and "Big Brother."

This collection of essays examines landmark British television programs of the last forty years, from Doctor Who to The Office, and from The Demon Headmaster to Queer As Folk. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and reconsider how British television drama can be analyzed. This book will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama.

Critical Perspectives

Popular Television Drama

Postmodern Media Culture Analyses The Function Of Media Examples In The Work Of A Number Of Key Theorists Including Adorno, Baudrillard, Benjamin, Habermas, Jameson, Lyotard And Mcluhan, And Discusses Contemporary Media Production, Products And Audiences, To Test And Reorient Theoretical Models Of The Postmodern. The Book Deals With Film, Television, Information Technology, Consumer Products And Popular Literature, And Assesses Challenges To Conceptions Of The Postmodern Based On Gender, Race And Region.The Book Also Addresses The Confusion Of Terms In This Subject Area (Such As Modernity , Postmodernity , Postmodernism , The Postmodern ) And Integrates A Wide-Ranging Analysis Of Contemporary Media Culture With Theories Of The Postmodern. Topics Discussed Include Mass Culture, Technologies Of Media Production And Consumption, Simulation And Spectacle, Apocalypse And The End Of History, The Politics Of Consumption, Media Aesthetics And Politics, Heterogeneity And A Global Village Or A Postmodern Condition.

Postmodern Media Culture

Andrew O'Day

This is the first academic study of the science fiction television devised and written by Terry Nation, who wrote Dalek stories and other serials for Doctor Who, and created the BBC's 1970s post-apocalyptic space adventure series Blake's 7. This illustrated book by academic specialists in television science fiction places Nation's work in the context of its production and contains sustained analysis of key programs. It will be of interest to students of television and enthusiasts of these landmark drama series.

Terry Nation

This collection of essays examines the ways in which writing and cinema can be studied in relation to each other. A wide range of material is presented, from essays which look at particular films, including The Piano and The English Patient, to discussions of the latest developments in film studies including psychoanalytic film theory and the cultural study of film audiences. Specific topics that the essays address also include: the kinds of writing produced for the cinema industry, advertising, film adaptations of written texts and theatre plays from nineteenth century 'classic' novels to recent cyberpunk science fiction such as Blade Runner and Starship Troopers. The essays deal with existing areas of debate, like questions of authorship and audience, and also break new ground, for example in proposing approaches to the study of writing on the cinema screen. The book includes a select bibliography, and a documents section gives details of a range of films for further study.

Jonathan Bignell

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