Distributed for Intellect Ltd
Sensing the City through Television
Urban Identities in Fictional Drama
How do fictional representations of the city contribute to our sense of identity? Does this feed back into how we see cities and their cultures?
This in-depth analysis with five case studies provides the basis for a critique on the political, sociological and cultural implications of this strand of popular programming. The book features:
Queer as Folk
The Cops
Holding On
Homicide-Life on the Street
Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City
Each programme is discussed in terms of structure, content, characterisation, and narrative, and each is placed within a specific ideological context. The case studies represent a broad range of British and American cities and city sub-cultures, while the book draws on the author’s exclusive interviews with Tony Garnett, Tony Marchant, and David Snodin.
The author further extends his analysis to investigate the intrinsic issues related to the implications of popular and high drama and culture.
As one of the first substantial investigations of the city in television drama, this book reflects and contributes to a growing general interest in the politics of representation. This is suitable for accommodation into the popular academic courses on drama and film/media studies both as a textbook and for supplementary reading.
Table of Contents
Sensing the City - Navigating a Journey
An Introduction
1 Policing the Imagination
Tony Garnett’s ’The Cops’
2 The City as a Site of Redemptive Struggle
Tony Marchant’s ’Holding On’
3 The Fabled City
The San Francisco of Armistead Maupin’s ’Tales of the City’
4 A Manchester Heterotopia?
’Queer as Folk’
5 ’Homicide - Life on the Street’
Sensing the City - Centres and Margins
A Conclusion