Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime Time Soaps - Hardcover
This is a study of the role of women in prime time soap operas. In a comparative analysis of British and North American television soaps, Christine Geraghty examines the relationship between the narrative on screen and the women who make up the traditional soap audience. Within the structure of many of the most popular soaps such as "Dallas", "Dynasty", "Coronation Street" and "Eastenders", the split between public and personal life, reason and emotion, work and leisure is turned into the lynch-pin of the plot. Geraghty discusses images of the family, the way in which women's roles in the community are portrayed, the character of the independent woman, and how sexual orientation, class and race are dealt with by the soaps. Finally she examines the possibility of using soap operas to promote change and influence attitudes and prejudices.
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From the Back Cover:
This is the first major study of the roles of women in prime time soap operas. In a comparative analysis of British and North American television soaps, Christine Geraghty examines the relationship between the narratives on the screen and the women viewers who make up the traditional soap audience.
About the Author:
Within the structure of many of the most popular soaps, such as Dallas, Dynasty, Coronation Street and EastEnders, the split between public and personal life, reason and emotion, work and leisure is turned into a lynchpin of the plot. The author argues that these themes are also linked to broader social divisions between men and women, divisions which soap operas both question and develop as a source of pleasure.
Geraghty analyses the critical role of women characters in the families and communities of soaps and suggests that the utopian possibilities of soaps can be used not just to maintain the status quo, but to promote change and influence attitudes and prejudices. She examines the way in which soaps have been transformed in the last decade, looking at how issues of class, race, sexual orientation and feminism have been handled in the programmes. She argues that in pursuing new audiences more recent soaps such as Brookside may have put at risk the pleasures they have traditionally offered their women viewers.
Women and Soap Opera is a detailed, thoughtful and wide-ranging analysis which will become a central work in women’s studies and media and cultural studies courses.
Christine Geraghty is a lecturer in Media and Communications Studies at Goldsmith's College.
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- PublisherPolity Pr
- Publication date1991
- ISBN 10 0745604897
- ISBN 13 9780745604893
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages211
- Rating
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