Women And Soap Opera. A Study Of Prime Time Soaps

Cover Type: Softcover
Book Condition: Fine
Jacket Condition: None Issued
Publisher: Polity Press
Publisher Place: Cambridge. Uk
Publisher Year: 1991
Edition: First Edition

Description: 211 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in Fine condition throughout.

Publishers Description: This is the first major study of the roles of women in prime timesoap operas. In a comparative analysis of British and NorthAmerican television soaps, Christine Geraghty examines therelationship between the narratives on the screen and the womenviewers who make up the traditional soap audience.Within the structure of many of the most popular soaps, such asDallas, Dynasty, Coronation Street and EastEnders, the splitbetween public and personal life, reason and emotion, work andleisure is turned into a lynchpin of the plot. The author arguesthat these themes are also linked to broader social divisionsbetween men and women, divisions which soap operas both questionand develop as a source of pleasure.Geraghty analyses the critical role of women characters in thefamilies and communities of soaps and suggests that the utopianpossibilities of soaps can be used not just to maintain the statusquo, but to promote change and influence attitudes and prejudices.She examines the way in which soaps have been transformed in thelast decade, looking at how issues of class, race, sexualorientation and feminism have been handled in the programmes. Sheargues that in pursuing new audiences more recent soaps such asBrookside may have put at risk the pleasures they havetraditionally offered their women viewers.Women and Soap Opera is a detailed, thoughtful and wide-ranginganalysis which will become a central work in women's studies andmedia and cultural studies courses.

ISBN: 9780745605685