Contemporary Approaches to Film and Media – serie

Critically analyzes the discursive relationship between cultural value and popular feminism in American television.While American television has long relied on a strategic foregrounding of feminist politics to promote certain programming's cultural value, Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television is the first sustained critical analysis of the twenty-first-century resurgence of this tradition. In Woman Up, Julia Havas's central argument is that postmillennial "feminist quality television" springs from a rhetorical subversion of the (much-debated) masculine-coded "quality television"culture on the one hand and the dominance of postfeminist popular culture on the other.Postmillennial quality television culture promotes the idea of aesthetic-generic hierarchies among different types of scripted programming. Its development has facilitated evaluative academic analyses of television texts based on aesthetic merit, producing a corpus of scholarship devoted to pinpointing where value resides in shows considered worthy of discussion. Other strands of television scholarship have criticized this approach for sidestepping the gendered and classed processes of canonization informing the phenomenon. Woman Up intervenes in this debate by reevaluating such approaches and insisting that rather than further fostering or critiquing already prominent processes of canonization, there is a need to interrogate the cultural forces underlying them. Via detailed analyses of four TV programs emerging in the early period of the "feminist quality TV" trend—30 Rock (2006–13), Parks and Recreation (2009–15), The Good Wife (2009–16), and Orange Is the New Black (2013–19)—Woman Up demonstrates that such series mediate their cultural significance by combining formal aesthetic exceptionalism and a politicized rhetoric around a "problematic" postfeminism, thus linking ideals of political and aesthetic value.Woman Up will most appeal to students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist media studies, television studies, and cultural studies.

Critically analyzes the discursive relationship between cultural value and popular feminism in American television.While American television has long relied on a strategic foregrounding of feminist politics to promote certain programming's cultural value, Woman Up: Invoking Feminism in Quality Television is the first sustained critical analysis of the twenty-first-century resurgence of this tradition. In Woman Up, Julia Havas's central argument is that postmillennial "feminist quality television" springs from a rhetorical subversion of the (much-debated) masculine-coded "quality television"culture on the one hand and the dominance of postfeminist popular culture on the other.Postmillennial quality television culture promotes the idea of aesthetic-generic hierarchies among different types of scripted programming. Its development has facilitated evaluative academic analyses of television texts based on aesthetic merit, producing a corpus of scholarship devoted to pinpointing where value resides in shows considered worthy of discussion. Other strands of television scholarship have criticized this approach for sidestepping the gendered and classed processes of canonization informing the phenomenon. Woman Up intervenes in this debate by reevaluating such approaches and insisting that rather than further fostering or critiquing already prominent processes of canonization, there is a need to interrogate the cultural forces underlying them. Via detailed analyses of four TV programs emerging in the early period of the "feminist quality TV" trend—30 Rock (2006–13), Parks and Recreation (2009–15), The Good Wife (2009–16), and Orange Is the New Black (2013–19)—Woman Up demonstrates that such series mediate their cultural significance by combining formal aesthetic exceptionalism and a politicized rhetoric around a "problematic" postfeminism, thus linking ideals of political and aesthetic value.Woman Up will most appeal to students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist media studies, television studies, and cultural studies.

Examines the role that parenting, as a theme and practice, plays in film and media cultures.Mothers of Invention: Film, Media, and Caregiving Labor constructs a feminist genealogy that foregrounds the relationship between acts of production on the one hand and reproduction on the other. In this interdisciplinary collection, editors So Mayer and Corinn Columpar bring together film and media studies with parenting studies to stake out a field, or at least a conversation, that is thick with historical and theoretical dimension and invested in cultural and methodological plurality.In four sections and sixteen contributions, the manuscript reflects on how caregiving shapes the work of filmmakers, how parenting is portrayed on screen, and how media contributes to radical new forms of care and expansive definitions of mothering. Featuring an exciting array of approaches—including textual analysis, industry studies, ethnographic research, production histories, and personal reflection—Mothers of Invention is a multifaceted collection of feminist work that draws on the methods of both the humanities and the social sciences, as well as the insights borne of both scholarship and lived experience. Grounding this inquiry is analysis of a broad range of texts with global reach—from the films Bashu, The Little Stranger (Bahram Beyzai, 1989), Prevenge (Alice Lowe, 2016), and A Deal with the Universe (Jason Barker, 2018) to the television series Top of the Lake(2013–2017) and Jane the Virgin (2014–2019), among others—as well as discussion of the creative practices, be they related to production, pedagogy, curation, or critique, employed by a wide variety of film and media artists and/or scholars.Mothers of Invention demonstrates how the discourse of parenting and caregiving allows the discipline to expand its discursive frameworks to address, and redress, current theoretical, political, and social debates about the interlinked futures of work and the world. This collection belongs on the bookshelves of students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist and queer media studies, labor studies, filmmaking and production, and cultural studies.

Examines the role that parenting, as a theme and practice, plays in film and media cultures.Mothers of Invention: Film, Media, and Caregiving Labor constructs a feminist genealogy that foregrounds the relationship between acts of production on the one hand and reproduction on the other. In this interdisciplinary collection, editors So Mayer and Corinn Columpar bring together film and media studies with parenting studies to stake out a field, or at least a conversation, that is thick with historical and theoretical dimension and invested in cultural and methodological plurality.In four sections and sixteen contributions, the manuscript reflects on how caregiving shapes the work of filmmakers, how parenting is portrayed on screen, and how media contributes to radical new forms of care and expansive definitions of mothering. Featuring an exciting array of approaches—including textual analysis, industry studies, ethnographic research, production histories, and personal reflection—Mothers of Invention is a multifaceted collection of feminist work that draws on the methods of both the humanities and the social sciences, as well as the insights borne of both scholarship and lived experience. Grounding this inquiry is analysis of a broad range of texts with global reach—from the films Bashu, The Little Stranger (Bahram Beyzai, 1989), Prevenge (Alice Lowe, 2016), and A Deal with the Universe (Jason Barker, 2018) to the television series Top of the Lake(2013–2017) and Jane the Virgin (2014–2019), among others—as well as discussion of the creative practices, be they related to production, pedagogy, curation, or critique, employed by a wide variety of film and media artists and/or scholars.Mothers of Invention demonstrates how the discourse of parenting and caregiving allows the discipline to expand its discursive frameworks to address, and redress, current theoretical, political, and social debates about the interlinked futures of work and the world. This collection belongs on the bookshelves of students and scholars of cinema and media studies, feminist and queer media studies, labor studies, filmmaking and production, and cultural studies.

Explores the ways television documents, satirizes, and critiques the political era of the Trump presidency.In American Television during a Television Presidency, Karen McNally and contributors critically examine the various ways in which television became transfixed by the Trump presidency and the broader political, social, and cultural climate. This book is the first to fully address the relationship between TV and a presidency consistently conducted with television in mind. The sixteen chapters cover everything from the political theater of televised impeachment hearings to the potent narratives of fictional drama and the stinging critiques of comedy, as they consider the wide-ranging ways in which television engages with the shifting political culture that emerged during this period. Approaching television both historically and in the contemporary moment, the contributors—an international group of scholars from a variety of academic disciplines—illuminate the indelible links that exist between television, American politics, and the nation's broader culture. As it interrogates a presidency played out through the lens of the TV camera and reviews a medium immersing itself in a compelling and inescapable subject, American Television during a Television Presidency sets out to explore what defines the television of the Trump era as a distinctive time in TV history. From inequalities to resistance, and from fandom to historical memory, this book opens up new territory in which to critically analyze television's complex relationship with Donald Trump, his presidency, and the political culture of this unsettled and simultaneously groundbreaking era.Undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of film and television studies, comedy studies, and cultural studies will value this strong collection.

Explores the ways television documents, satirizes, and critiques the political era of the Trump presidency.In American Television during a Television Presidency, Karen McNally and contributors critically examine the various ways in which television became transfixed by the Trump presidency and the broader political, social, and cultural climate. This book is the first to fully address the relationship between TV and a presidency consistently conducted with television in mind. The sixteen chapters cover everything from the political theater of televised impeachment hearings to the potent narratives of fictional drama and the stinging critiques of comedy, as they consider the wide-ranging ways in which television engages with the shifting political culture that emerged during this period. Approaching television both historically and in the contemporary moment, the contributors—an international group of scholars from a variety of academic disciplines—illuminate the indelible links that exist between television, American politics, and the nation's broader culture. As it interrogates a presidency played out through the lens of the TV camera and reviews a medium immersing itself in a compelling and inescapable subject, American Television during a Television Presidency sets out to explore what defines the television of the Trump era as a distinctive time in TV history. From inequalities to resistance, and from fandom to historical memory, this book opens up new territory in which to critically analyze television's complex relationship with Donald Trump, his presidency, and the political culture of this unsettled and simultaneously groundbreaking era.Undergraduate and graduate students and scholars of film and television studies, comedy studies, and cultural studies will value this strong collection.

An in-depth examination of sixteen renowned actors and their return to the spotlight later in life.While the comeback film is a well-recognized phenomenon inspiring excitement (or dismay) for cinemagoers and has been consequential to furthering or ending the careers of aging actors, this book is the first to analyze the cultural significance of these films. In this collection of essays, scholars follow the late-career revival projects of international film stars from 1957 to 2019, including renowned actors Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Bette Davis, Amitabh Bachchan, Sessue Hayakawa, Wesley Snipes, and Linda Hamilton. Combining close textual analysis of film moments with the critical reception of each performance, the contributors examine cinematic aging in relation to gender and sexuality, camp and consumption, star continuity and discontinuity, and nostalgia and longing. Their work reveals the unique circumstances of each actor's comeback trajectory as they seek to understand the consequences of aging in a largely sexist and ageist film industry, while providing new ways of conceptualizing films featuring comeback stars.

An in-depth examination of sixteen renowned actors and their return to the spotlight later in life.While the comeback film is a well-recognized phenomenon inspiring excitement (or dismay) for cinemagoers and has been consequential to furthering or ending the careers of aging actors, this book is the first to analyze the cultural significance of these films. In this collection of essays, scholars follow the late-career revival projects of international film stars from 1957 to 2019, including renowned actors Joan Crawford, John Travolta, Bette Davis, Amitabh Bachchan, Sessue Hayakawa, Wesley Snipes, and Linda Hamilton. Combining close textual analysis of film moments with the critical reception of each performance, the contributors examine cinematic aging in relation to gender and sexuality, camp and consumption, star continuity and discontinuity, and nostalgia and longing. Their work reveals the unique circumstances of each actor's comeback trajectory as they seek to understand the consequences of aging in a largely sexist and ageist film industry, while providing new ways of conceptualizing films featuring comeback stars.

Drawing on sound studies and performance theory, scholar Shikha Jhingan explores the discursive nature of the female playback voice in Bombay film songs. Mapping the production, circulation, and reception of the voices of singing stars—notably Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle—Jhingan situates the singing voice as a cinematic object with limitless possibilities of distribution and dispersal. She employs the perspectives of a diverse range of listeners across a vast media landscape to illustrate how the affective charge of the female playback voice, combined with developments in audio technology, has led to a gradual expansion of opportunities for women in film, popular music, and media and audio production. With nuanced exploration of the way the human voice becomes intertwined with devices such as the microphone, radio, cassettes, and digital technologies, Jhingan argues for the sonic excess of the female voice beyond the narrative and visual. The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema is an authoritative addition to the field of sound studies with implications for gender studies, performance studies, and cinema studies.

How contradictory sensory experiences of horror films appeal to audiences. Diffrient's strikingly original work mounts an intersensorial critique of the horror film, bringing disability studies, affect theory, and phenomenology together to evaluate how assistive technologies, such as audio description and subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, become sites for interrogating embodied experiences of cinematic spectatorship. Exploring a broad range of case studies, from Carnival of Souls (1962) to Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Scream VI (2023), this book questions how audiovisual features unique to the motion picture medium implicate perceptions of touch, taste, and smell and serve as a principal way for people to establish belief in otherwise unbelievable phenomena. Longtime horror fans as well as newcomers to the genre will find much to savor in this eye-opening—and ear-opening—intervention in contemporary media culture.

How contradictory sensory experiences of horror films appeal to audiences.Diffrient's strikingly original work mounts an intersensorial critique of the horror film, bringing disability studies, affect theory, and phenomenology together to evaluate how assistive technologies, such as audio description and subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, become sites for interrogating embodied experiences of cinematic spectatorship. Exploring a broad range of case studies, from Carnival of Souls (1962) to Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Scream VI (2023), this book questions how audiovisual features unique to the motion picture medium implicate perceptions of touch, taste, and smell and serve as a principal way for people to establish belief in otherwise unbelievable phenomena. Longtime horror fans as well as newcomers to the genre will find much to savor in this eye-opening—and ear-opening—intervention in contemporary media culture.

Placing Bourdain's legacy in cinema—not the kitchen.Anthony Bourdain is best known as a celebrated chef, author, international traveler, and TV personality. However, this book argues why Bourdain is best understood first and foremost as a filmmaker and that his cinematic legacy is just as relevant. Studying Bourdain's travelogues, documentaries, and food films in the context of film history, film criticism, and cultural studies emphasizes the ways that his work evokes questions of authenticity within documentary filmmaking, reimagines ethnographic filmmaking as a practice, and deconstructs the Western male gaze. This book also positions episodes from his television shows, such as Parts Unknown and No Reservations, within and between genres, where Bourdain employed a variety of techniques to tell the passionate and vibrant stories that were so beloved by viewers. In this accessible and detailed account, Bourdain's body of work is reenvisioned as genre-bending and influential in the evolution of documentary film.

Placing Bourdain's legacy in cinema—not the kitchen.Anthony Bourdain is best known as a celebrated chef, author, international traveler, and TV personality. However, this book argues why Bourdain is best understood first and foremost as a filmmaker and that his cinematic legacy is just as relevant. Studying Bourdain's travelogues, documentaries, and food films in the context of film history, film criticism, and cultural studies emphasizes the ways that his work evokes questions of authenticity within documentary filmmaking, reimagines ethnographic filmmaking as a practice, and deconstructs the Western male gaze. This book also positions episodes from his television shows, such as Parts Unknown and No Reservations, within and between genres, where Bourdain employed a variety of techniques to tell the passionate and vibrant stories that were so beloved by viewers. In this accessible and detailed account, Bourdain's body of work is reenvisioned as genre-bending and influential in the evolution of documentary film.