Mediating the Family - by Estella Tincknell (Paperback)

About the Book

Taking as its starting point the 'problem' of how the family has been
mediated in popular film, television, literature and social policy over
the last 50 years, this book explores the ways in which struggles over sexuality,
identity, gender and power have informed the conceptualisation and
representation of the family as an institution.

Book Synopsis

Taking as its starting point the 'problem' of how the family has been
mediated in popular film, television, literature and social policy over
the last 50 years, Mediating the Family: Gender, Culture and
Representation explores the ways in which struggles over sexuality,
identity, gender and power have informed the conceptualisation and
representation of the family as an institution and as a site of
discursive complexity.

Mediating the Family: Gender,
Culture and Representation 'unpacks the family', looking in detail at
the different generational and identificatory components: motherhood,
fatherhood, adolescence and childhood. Using theoretical and critical
frameworks from cultural studies, sociology, textual analysis and
cultural history, and drawing on original research, case studies and
critical analysis from a range of sources from around the world, the
book examines the relationship between the intersecting discourses of
youth; childhood innocence; post-war companionate marriage; 'bad'
families; and entrepreneurial femininity in the 1980s in order to
interrogate the representation - and - reinvention of the family.

Mediating
the Family: Gender, Culture and Representation is an important
intervention in debates about family relationships and will be essential
reading for scholars and students of cultural, film and media studies,
sociology and cultural history.

Review Quotes

"Mediating the Family is incisively written... The book is valuable for bringing together a range of different sources about post-war life and media, and for conveying a sense of the profound shifts in gender relations in the last few decades." --Rosalind Gill, King's College, London, in the International Journal of Cultural Studies

"Estella Tincknell's book offers a comprehensive analysis of ...representations of the family and its complexities. Her knowledge of popular culture is extensive and her choice of examples enriches her theoretical discussion." --Gordana Rabrenovic, Northeastern University, Boston, USA, in the European Journal of Communication

About the Author

Estella Tincknell is Associate Head of the School of Cultural Studies at the University of the West of England.