Epic / Everyday - (Television) by Sarah Cardwell & Jonathan Bignell & Lucy Fife Donaldson (Hardcover)

About the Book

This collection explores the presence within television of the epic and the everyday, with reference to a range of fictional television programming, including episodic series and serial dramas, sitcoms, science-fiction, spy dramas, children's TV and detective shows.

Book Synopsis

This collection explores the presence within television of the epic and the everyday, with reference to a range of fictional television programming, including episodic series and serial dramas, sitcoms, science-fiction, spy dramas, children's TV and detective shows.

From the Back Cover

The 'Moments in Television' collections celebrate the power and artistry of television and the excitement that particular televisual moments can engender, while simultaneously interrogating current concepts and debates within TV studies.

Each book is organised around a binary theme that engages with key concepts in television studies. Epic / everyday explores how both the epic and the everyday inform creative practice in television, arguing that a fuller consideration of these two modes can revitalise TV criticism and interpretation, enabling fresh perspectives on the value of television, its essential qualities and aesthetic significance.

The chapters in Epic / everyday are inspired by moments drawn from an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Sustained, sensitive attention to features of the epic and the everyday persuasively illuminate the book's chosen programmes in new ways. Contributors from diverse perspectives expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Each chapter attends to one carefully chosen programme, evoking its particular qualities and appraising its achievements, while situating it within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. The programmes examined here are The Incredible Hulk, Game of Thrones, Detectorists, Community, Doctor Who, The Second Coming, Years and Years, The Americans, Columbo and Lost.

Epic /everyday is essential reading for those interested in how closer attention to the presence of the epic and the everyday might enhance our critical appreciation and enjoyment of television.

Review Quotes

'In this addition to the "Moments in Television" series from Manchester University Press, the authors of this essay collection employ varying definitions of "epic" (e.g., the hero's journey, grandeur, a sweeping narrative) and "everyday" (e.g., omnipresence of television in everyday life, representations of everyday life) to compare and contrast how the concepts play out in a number of television texts. For example, the chapter on Lost contrasts mundane tasks like laundry with an overarching epic narrative that includes a monster, the afterlife, and time travel. In the chapter on Columbo, the central question of life and death serves as the epic canvas, but the detective uses the disruption of daily routine, like a misplaced bath towel, to uncover the murderer. Other texts explored in these essays include Game of Thrones, The Incredible Hulk, Doctor Who, The Detectorists, and The Americans.'
CHOICE
(Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.)

About the Author

Sarah Cardwell is Honorary Fellow in the School of Arts at the University of Kent

Jonathan Bignell is Professor of Television and Film at the University of Reading

Lucy Fife Donaldson is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of St. Andrews