Television drama : agency, audience, and myth /

Tulloch takes up debates around popular culture, audience, and authorship, which define the academic field of cultural studies, and applies them to the broad area of television drama. One of the author's stated intentions is to bring critical theory into closer dialogue with "radical practitioners" within the field. The volume opens with an analytical and theoretical survey of popular television drama, touching on many different genres, such as soap operas, police shows, science fiction, and "serious drama." Although the examples are primarily British, the cross-cultural travel and influence of TV drama necessitates a discussion of production from other countries (most notably, the US) but also a consideration of how works from one country are "read" in another. Tulloch then offers an analysis of what he terms "radical realism"--socially conscious dramas by practitioners such as Trevor Griffiths, John McGarth, and Ken Loach. The final section of the book examines issues of audience and reception, emphasizing subcultural and resistant readings of television. Appropriate for graduate and upper-division undergraduate students. -A. Goldson, Brown University