Feminist Television Criticism

The first edition of this book immediately became a defining text for feminist television criticism, with an influence extending across television, media and screen studies - and the second edition will be similarly agenda-setting. Completely revised and updated throughout, it takes into account the changes in the television industry, the academic field of television studies and the culture and politics of feminist movements. With fifteen of the eighteen extracts being new to the second edition, the readings offer a detailed analysis of a wide range of case studies, topics and approaches, including genres, audiences, performers and programmes such as 'Sex and the City', 'Prime Suspect', Oprah and Buffy.

With a new introduction to the volume tracing developments in the field and introductions to each thematic section, the editors engage in a series of debates surrounding the main issues of feminist television scholarship. They explore how television represents feminism and consider how critics themselves have created feminism and post-feminism as historical categories and political identities. Readings consider women who are engaged in various aspects of television production on both sides of the camera and examine how television targets and imagines its female audience, as well as how women respond to and use television in their everyday lives.

"Feminist Television Criticism" is inspiring reading for film, media, cultural and gender studies students.

"Contributors: Ien Ang, Jane Arthurs, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Karen Boyle, Marsha F. Cassidy, Geok-lian Chua, Bonnie J. Dow, Joanne Hollows, Deborah Jermyn, Annette Kuhn, Elizabeth MacLachlan, Purnima Mankekar, Tania Modleski, Laurie Ouellette, Yeidy M. Rivero, Lee Ann Roripaugh, Beretta E. Smith-Shomade, Kimberly Springer, Ksenija Vidmar-Horvat, Susan J. Wolfe."

Charlotte Brunsdon is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick, UK. Her books include Screen Tastes: Soap Opera to Satellite Dishes and The Feminist (1997), the Housewife and the Soap Opera (2000).

Lynn Spigel is a professor and the Frances E Willard Chair of Screen Cultures at Northwestern University, Illinois, USA. She is author of Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America (1992) and co-editor of Television after TV: Essays on a Medium In Transition (2004).