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      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        June 2021

        Genre and performance: film and television

        by Christine Cornea

        Looking at contemporary film and television, this book explores how popular genres frame our understanding of on-screen performance. Previous studies of screen performance have tended to fix upon star actors, directors, or programme makers, or they have concentrated upon particular training and acting styles. Moving outside of these confines, this book provides a truly interdisciplinary account of performance in film and television and examines a much neglected area in our understanding of how popular genres and performance intersect on screen. Each chapter concentrates upon a particular genre or draws upon generic case studies in examining the significance of screen performance. Individual chapters examine contemporary film noir, horror, the biopic, drama-documentary, the western, science fiction, comedy performance in 'spoof news' programmes and the television 'sit com' and popular Bollywood films.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2007

        Public issue television

        World in Action' 1963–98

        by Peter Goddard, John Corner, Kay Richardson

        Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada's World in Action, celebrated for its tough journalism, visual directness and public impact, functioned and developed over its run across 35 years between 1963 and 1998. In a succession of chapters looking at different periods in the series' development and at key dimensions of its distinctive identity, it gets deep inside the making of factual television and examines how a particular culture of production works within broader conditions of possibility and constraint. In particular, it charts the interwoven processes of change - technological, professional, aesthetic, institutional, economic, social and political. As well as discussing achievement and success, it examines the tensions, the debates and open conflicts that formed part of the context within which the series was made and transmitted across four decades. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2025

        The Jacobites and the Grand Tour

        Educational travel and small-states' diplomacy

        by Jérémy Filet

        In the first monograph to fully examine the intersecting networks of Jacobites and travellers to the continent, Filet considers how small states used official diplomacy and deployed soft power - embodied by educational academies - to achieve foreign policy goals. This work uses little-known archival materials to explain how and why certain small states secretly supported the Jacobite cause during the crucial years surrounding the 1715 rising, while others stayed out of Jacobite affairs.At the same time, the book demonstrates how early modern small states sought to cultivate good relations with Britain by attracting travellers as part of a wider trend of ensuring connections with future diplomats or politicians in case a Stuart restoration never came.This publication therefore brings together a study of Britain, small states, Jacobitism, and educational travel, in its nexus at continental academies.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2025

        A grand strategy of peace

        Britain and the creation of the United Nations Organization, 1939-1945

        by Andrew Ehrhardt

        A grand strategy of peace is the first detailed account of Britain's role in the creation of the United Nations Organization during the Second World War. As a work of traditional diplomatic history that brings in elements of intellectual history, the book describes how British officials, diplomats, politicians, and writers - previously seen to be secondary actors to the United States in this period - thought about, planned for, and helped to establish a future international order. While in the present day, many scholars and analysts have returned to the origins of the post- 1945 international system, this book offers an exhaustive account of how the statesmen and more importantly, the officials working below the statesmen, actually conceived of and worked to establish a post-war world order.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2020

        Fictional television and American politics

        by Jack Holland

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        August 2018

        The Grand Canal

        by Xia Jianyong

        As the longest canal in the world, the Grand Canal connects five rivers in the land of China. This human-made river not only witnessed history of several dynasties, but also made great contribution to the economic, cultural, and political unification of the southern and northern China. This title explores large amount of historical materials concerning the Grand Canal, picturing a complete record of the canal during 2000 years.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        September 2008

        Entertaining television

        The BBC and popular television culture in the 1950s

        by Su Holmes

        Entertaining television challenges the idea that the BBC in the 1950s was elitist and 'staid', upholding Reithian values in a paternalistic, even patronising way. By focusing on a number of (often controversial) programme case studies - such as the soap opera, the quiz/ game show, the 'problem' show and programmes dealing with celebrity culture - Su Holmes demonstrates how BBC television surprisingly explored popular interests and desires. She also uncovers a number of remarkable connections with programmes and topics at the forefront of television today, ranging from talk shows, 'Reality TV', even to our contemporary obsession with celebrity. The book is iconclastic, percipient and grounded in archival research, and will be of use to anyone studying television history. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Popular culture
        July 2015

        Experimental British television

        by Martin Hargreaves

        Throughout its history, British television has found a place, if only in its margins, for programmes that consciously worked to expand the boundaries of television aesthetics. Even in the present climate of increased academic interest in television history, its experimental tradition has generally either been approached generically or been lost within the assumption that television is simply a mass medium. Avaible for the first time in paperback, Experimental British television uncovers the history of experimental television, bringing back forgotten programmes in addition to looking at relatively more privileged artists or programme strands from fresh perspectives. The book therefore goes against the grain of dominant television studies, which tends to place the medium within the flow of the 'everyday', in order to scrutinise those productions that attempted to make more serious interventions within the medium.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        May 2015

        Experimental British television

        by Laura Mulvey, Martin Hargreaves, Jamie Sexton

        Throughout its history, British television has found a place, if only in its margins, for programmes that consciously worked to expand the boundaries of television aesthetics. Even in the present climate of increased academic interest in television history, its experimental tradition has generally either been approached generically or been lost within the assumption that television is simply a mass medium. Avaible for the first time in paperback, Experimental British television uncovers the history of experimental television, bringing back forgotten programmes in addition to looking at relatively more privileged artists or programme strands from fresh perspectives. The book therefore goes against the grain of dominant television studies, which tends to place the medium within the flow of the 'everyday', in order to scrutinise those productions that attempted to make more serious interventions within the medium. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        August 2005

        Popular television drama

        Critical perspectives

        by Jonathan Bignell, Stephen Lacey, Susan Williams

        'Popular television drama: critical perspectives' is a collection of essays examining landmark programmes of the last forty years, from 'Doctor Who' to 'The Office', and from 'The Demon Headmaster' to 'Queer As Folk'. Contributions from prominent academics focus on the full range of popular genres, from sitcoms to science fiction, gothic horror and children's drama, and challenge received wisdom by reconsidering how British television drama can be analysed. Each section is preceded by an introduction in which the editors discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The book is split into three sections, addressing the enduring appeal of popular genres, the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and analysing a range of programmes past and present. Popular television drama: critical perspectives will be of interest to students and researchers in many academic disciplines that study television drama. Its breadth and focus on popular programmes will also appeal to those interested in the shows themselves. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        November 2013

        Popular television in authoritarian Europe

        by Peter Goddard

        This lively and ground-breaking collection brings together work on forms of popular television within the authoritarian regimes of Europe after World War Two. Ten chapters based on new and original research examine approaches to programming and individual programmes in Spain, Greece, Czechoslovakia, Romania, the USSR and the GDR at a time when they were governed as dictatorships or one-party states. Drawing on surviving archives, scripts and production records, contemporary publications, YouTube clips and interviews with producers and performers, its chapters recover examples of television programming history unknown beyond national borders and often preserved largely in the memories of the audiences who lived with them. The introduction examines how television can be considered 'popular' in circumstances where audience appeal is often secondary to the need for state control. Published in English, Popular television in authoritarian Europe represents a significant intervention in transnational television studies, making these histories available to scholars for the first time, encouraging comparative enquiry and extending the reach - intellectually and geographically - of European television history. There is a foreword by John Corner and an informative timeline of events in the history of television in the countries covered. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        May 2025

        A new genre for television?

        Creativity in historical drama documentary

        by Justin Hardy

        In A New Genre for Television?, filmmaker Justin Hardy argues the dramatised history documentaries broadcast by British public service channels in the 2000s constituted a distinct television genre. Offering a vital distinction between docudramas and drama documentaries, Hardy contributes to the field of television history through exclusive interviews with key figures from BBC and Channel 4 - many of whom have never been publicly interviewed before - and envisions a future model for the portrayal of national histories on screen.

      • Trusted Partner
        Children's & YA

        Escondida (Hidden)

        by Adolfo Córdova, Amanda Mijango

        A poem and two lyrical voices intertwine in this book that invites the reader to get closer to the secret life of a girl who, with her voice, tells us about the complexity and richness of her inner world. A world that although it is not visible to the adult, has grown within her. On the other hand, there is the voice of the adult, who approaches and distances the girl, recognizing that inner world and its uniqueness. This poem written by Adolfo Córdova is extremely delicate and finds its counterpart in the work of Amanda Mijangos, who with pencil, oil monotype on paper, watercolour, and digital work, shows us that inner world with visual metaphors. The book contains a wonderful surprise: it is an accordion book (with a hardback spine) that allows the two voices and images of nature to be traversed. A book that talks about the intimate life of childhood and the relationship between this and adulthood.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        October 2014

        Theorising Media

        Power, form and subjectivity

        by John Corner

        In this book, John Corner explores how issues of power, form and subjectivity feature at the core of all serious thinking about the media, including appreciations of their creativity as well as anxiety about the risks they pose. Drawing widely on an interdisciplinary literature, he connects his exposition to examples from film, television, radio, photography, painting, web practice, music and writing in order to bring in topics as diverse as reporting the war in Afghanistan, the televising of football, documentary portrayals of 9/11, reality television, the diversity of taste in the arts and the construction of civic identity. Theorising media brings together concepts both from social studies and the arts and humanities, addressing a readership wider than the sub-specialisms of media research. It refreshes ideas about why the media matter and how understanding them better remains a key aim of cultural inquiry and a continuing requirement for public policy. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2023

        Now that's what I call a history of the 1980s

        by Lucy Robinson

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2025

        Screening Sherlock

        A cultural history of the Great Detective on film and television

        by James Chapman

        Screening Sherlock is the first book-length academic study of the film and television career of the most famous detective in fiction. Chapman explores the contexts, adaptation strategies and critical reception of Sherlock Holmes (and Dr Watson) on film and television in Britain and the United States. The book includes case studies of such famous Holmes impersonators as William Gillette, Basil Rathbone, Peter Cushing, Jeremy Brett and Benedict Cumberbatch, as well as charting a path through many lesser-known productions. From early cinema to the Hollywood studio system, and from heritage drama to contemporary postmodern television, Screening Sherlock is an indispensible work for all aficionados of Arthur Conan Doyle's consulting detective of Baker Street.

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