Scenes from the Suburbs
The Suburb in Contemporary US Film and Television
Published on 8. April 2014
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-7486-9166-1 (ISBN)
Description
Suburbia. Say the word and a stream of images pass before your eyes: white picket fence, neatly mowed lawns, winding roads nicely lined with trees, pastel-tinted bungalows, bored housewives, conspicuous consumption. We all know what the suburbs are about. Or do we?
This book looks again at the filmic and televised spaces we think we know so well. How are these spaces built up? What is it that makes us recognize them as suburbs? How do they function? By exploring in detail the hometowns of Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Happiness, Pleasantville, Brick and Chumscrubber, Scenes from the Suburbs examines what it means to be suburban today.
An essential read for academics concerned with the ways in which our understandings of space and place change, this book will be particularly relevant for students and researchers in Suburban Studies, Film and Television Studies and Urban Geography.
This book looks again at the filmic and televised spaces we think we know so well. How are these spaces built up? What is it that makes us recognize them as suburbs? How do they function? By exploring in detail the hometowns of Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Happiness, Pleasantville, Brick and Chumscrubber, Scenes from the Suburbs examines what it means to be suburban today.
An essential read for academics concerned with the ways in which our understandings of space and place change, this book will be particularly relevant for students and researchers in Suburban Studies, Film and Television Studies and Urban Geography.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Edinburgh
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
22 black and white illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 243 mm
Width: 164 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
453 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7486-9166-1 (9780748691661)
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
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
04/2014
1st Edition
Edinburgh University Press
€92.49
Available for download
E-Book
04/2014
Edinburgh University Press
€0.00
Available for download
Person
Timotheus Vermeulen is Professor of Media, Culture and Society at the University of Oslo. He has published widely on screen media, contemporary art and cultural theory. Books include Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism (2017), edited with Robin van den Akker and Alison Gibbons, Anmerkungen zur Metamoderne, (2015), Scenes from the Suburbs (2014) and New Suburban Stories (2013), edited with Martin Dines. Vermeulen is a regular contributor to Frieze.
Content
Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; Introduction: Scenes from the Suburbs; 1. Pleasantville: The Suburb as World; 2. Happiness: The Suburb and Film Style; 3. The Simpsons and King of the Hill: The Suburb as Texture; 4. Desperate Housewives: The Suburb as Social Space; 5. Teen Noir: The Suburb as Lived Space; Conclusion: 'Upward Yet Not Northward'; Bibliography; Filmography; Teleography; Notes.