Gender and Seriality
Practices and Politics of Contemporary US Television
Published on 5. December 2022
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-1-4744-7396-5 (ISBN)
Description
The notion of seriality and serial identity performance runs as a strong undercurrent through much of the fields of gender studies, feminist theory and queer studies, although the explicit analysis of a serial enactment of gender is surprisingly rare. Whereas media studies and cultural studies-based seriality scholarship can often overlook gender as an ongoing process, this book defines gender as a serial and discursively produced, intersectional entanglement of different practices and agencies. It argues that serial storytelling offers such complex negotiations of identity that it is never adequate to consider the 'results' of televisual gender performances as separate from the processes that produce them. As such, gender performances are not restricted to individual television programmes themselves, but are also located in official paratexts, such as making-of documentaries, interviews with writers and actors, as well as in cultural sites like online viewer discussions, recaps and fan fiction. With case studies of series such as Girls, How to Get Away With Murder and The Walking Dead, this book seeks to understand how gender as a practice is generated by television narratives in the overlapping of text, reception and production, and explores which viewer practices these narratives seek to trigger and draw on in the process.
Reviews / Votes
In this timely, important, intervention in gender and media studies, Maria Sulimma focuses on television's re-positioning in recent years as a site of great gender complexity and virtuosic seriality. She works from a very full definition of the medium that encompasses DVD extras, interviews, recaps and fan discourse. * Diane Negra, University College Dublin * Gender and Seriality is a provocative text, offering an interdisciplinary, intersectional methodology that deepens both the disciplines of gender studies and media studies through sophisticated analyses of seriality. Its accessible language, cogent formulations, and stimulating proposals will make excellent reading for anyone interested in gender and media. -- Briand Gentry * Global Storytelling * This is a densely argued book, weaving a complex tapestry of concepts and metaphorical categories which Sulimma uses to explore 'the processes by which serial television develops gendered identities and how these processes rely on different modes of audience feedback' (p. 217). It is beautifully written and all three case studies are satisfyingly detailed and nuanced. -- Sofia Bull * Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies * [Offers a] compelling study of the social impact of seriality and serves as a starting point to inspire further scholarship in the multidisciplinary study of serial television. -- Briand Gentry * Global Storytelling * Sulimma convincingly argues that each show encourages different forms of audience engagement and fan practices through distinct uses of seriality and gendered character portrayals. -- Sofia Bull * Critical Studies in Television *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
24 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 155 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
386 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4744-7396-5 (9781474473965)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Maria Sulimma is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen.
Content
Introduction: Serial Genders, Gendered Serialities
Serial TV Criticism and Girls
1. The Thinkpiece Seriality of Girls
2. Carousel: Gendering through Controversy
3. Navigating Discourses of Universality and Specificity: 'The (Feminist) Voice of a Generation?'
Television Audience Engagement and How to Get Away with Murder
4. The Looped Seriality of How to Get Away with Murder
5. Outward Spiral: Gendering through Recognisability
6. Evoking Discourses of Progressivism, Social Activism, and Identity Politics: 'Such an Important Episode!'
Television Authorship and The Walking Dead
7. The Paratext Seriality of The Walking Dead
8. Palimpsest: Gendering through Accountability
9. Neoliberalising Discourses of Serialised Survivalism: 'You make it ... until you don't'
Conclusion: Archiving Snapshots
Serial TV Criticism and Girls
1. The Thinkpiece Seriality of Girls
2. Carousel: Gendering through Controversy
3. Navigating Discourses of Universality and Specificity: 'The (Feminist) Voice of a Generation?'
Television Audience Engagement and How to Get Away with Murder
4. The Looped Seriality of How to Get Away with Murder
5. Outward Spiral: Gendering through Recognisability
6. Evoking Discourses of Progressivism, Social Activism, and Identity Politics: 'Such an Important Episode!'
Television Authorship and The Walking Dead
7. The Paratext Seriality of The Walking Dead
8. Palimpsest: Gendering through Accountability
9. Neoliberalising Discourses of Serialised Survivalism: 'You make it ... until you don't'
Conclusion: Archiving Snapshots