Gilmore Girls And The Politics Of Identity

This work examines the Gilmore Girls from a post-feminist perspective, evaluating how the show's main female characters and supporting cast fit into the classic portrayal of feminine identity on popular television. The book begins by placing Gilmore Girls in the context of the history of feminism and feminist television shows such as Mary Tyler Moore and One Day at a Time. The remainder of the essays look at series' portrayal of traditional and non-traditional gender identities and familial relationships. Topics include the hyper-real utopia represented by Gilmore Girls' fictional Stars Hollow; the faux-feminist perspective offered by Rory Gilmore's unfulfilling (and often masochistic) romantic relationships; the ways in which "mean girl" Paris Geller both adheres to and departs from the traditional archetype of female power and aggression; and the role of Lorelai Gilmore's oft-criticized marriage in destroying the show's central theme of single motherhood during its seventh season. The work also studies the role of food and its consumption as a narrative device throughout the show's development, evaluating the ways in which food negotiates, defines, and upholds the characters' gendered and class performances. The work also includes a complete episode guide listing the air date, title, writer, and director of every episode in the series.

This book explores how language is used to create characters in fictional television series. To do so, it draws on multiple case studies from the United States and Australia. Brought together in this book for the first time, these case studies constitute more than the sum of their parts. They highlight different aspects of televisual characterisation and showcase the use of different data, methods, and approaches in its analysis. Uniquely, the book takes a mixed-method approach and will thus not only appeal to corpus linguists but also researchers in sociolinguistics, stylistics, and pragmatics. All corpus linguistic techniques are clearly introduced and explained, and the book is thus accessible to both experienced researchers as well as novice researchers and students. It will be essential reading in linguistics, literature, stylistics, and media/television studies.

Affect has become something of a buzzword in cultural and feminist theory during the past decade. References to affect, emotions and intensities abound, their implications in terms of research practices have often remained less manifest. Working with Affect in Feminist Readings: Disturbing Differences explores the place and function of affect in feminist knowledge production in general and in textual methodology in particular. With an international group of contributors from studies of history, media, philosophy, culture, ethnology, art, literature and religion, the volume investigates affect as the dynamics of reading, as carnal encounters and as possibilities for the production of knowledge. Working with Affect in Feminist Readings asks what exactly are we doing when working with affect, and what kinds of ethical, epistemological and ontological issues this involves. Not limiting itself to descriptive accounts, the volume takes part in establishing new ways of understanding feminist methodology.

On its 150th anniversary, discover the story of the beloved classic that has captured the imaginations of generations. Soon after publication on September 30, 1868, Little Women became an enormous bestseller and one of America’s favorite novels. Its popularity quickly spread throughout the world, and the book has become an international classic. When Anne Boyd Rioux read the novel in her twenties, she had a powerful reaction to the story. Through teaching the book, she has seen the same effect on many others. In Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, Rioux recounts how Louisa May Alcott came to write Little Women, drawing inspiration for it from her own life. Rioux also examines why this tale of family and community ties, set while the Civil War tore America apart, has resonated through later wars, the Depression, and times of changing opportunities for women. Alcott’s novel has moved generations of women, many of them writers: Simone de Beauvoir, J. K. Rowling, bell hooks, Cynthia Ozick, Jane Smiley, Margo Jefferson, and Ursula K. Le Guin were inspired by Little Women, particularly its portrait of the iconoclastic young writer, Jo. Many have felt, as Anna Quindlen has declared, “Little Women changed my life.” Today, Rioux sees the novel’s beating heart in Alcott’s portrayal of family resilience and her honest look at the struggles of girls growing into women. In gauging its current status, Rioux shows why Little Women remains a book with such power that people carry its characters and spirit throughout their lives.

No longer just a cult classic, Gilmore Girls is a cultural staple for TV fans. Airing from 2000–2007, Gilmore Girls focused on the relationship between thirty-something single mom Lorelai and her teenage daughter, Rory. While exploring themes of family, romantic love, friendship, and life’s choices, this quirky show featured fast-paced dialogue, funny quips, and a steady stream of pop-culture references. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), Gilmore Girls served as a launching pad for the careers of its stars—including Lauren Graham, Melissa McCarthy, Alexis Bledel, Jared Padalecki, and Milo Ventimiglia. The series’ popularity was so enduring that ten years after its initial run, a revival season was released on Netflix. In Gilmore Girls: A Cultural History, Lara C. Stache and Rachel Davidson offer an engaging analysis of the popular series. The authors examine how the show serves as a representation of American culture and politics, reflects complexity within multiple mother-daughter dynamics, and employed literature, movies, and music to drive the dialogue and plot. They also explore how the choices made in the series reflect social values of the time, reinforce and challenge traditional ideas of gender and feminism, and unpack the cultural significance of this endearing series. As both a mirror and a construction of contemporary American culture, the series achieved critical accolades and became a cult classic, at once both unassuming and dynamic. This book offers new ways for fans to appreciate the appeal and value of this binge-worthy favorite as part of the larger culture in which it exists. Gilmore Girls: A Cultural History will be of interest to fans of the show as well as to scholars and students of television, media, and American popular culture.

"Revisiting soothing network dramedies like Parenthood, Gilmore Girls, This is Us, and their late-80s precursor, thirtysomething, with a detour into True Blood (the funhouse mirror to these normy worlds), Normporn mines the nuanced pleasures, and attraction-repulsion queer TV viewers experience through liberal family shows-the outlets for our "spontaneous overflow of basic feelings.""--

Gender, Race, and Class in Media provides students a comprehensive and critical introduction to media studies by encouraging them to analyze their own media experiences and interests. The book explores some of the most important forms of today’s popular culture—including the Internet, social media, television, films, music, and advertising—in three distinct but related areas of investigation: the political economy of production, textual analysis, and audience response. Multidisciplinary issues of power related to gender, race, and class are integrated into a wide range of articles examining the economic and cultural implications of mass media as institutions. Reflecting the rapid evolution of the field, the Sixth Edition includes 18 new readings that enhance the richness, sophistication, and diversity that characterizes contemporary media scholarship. Included with this title: The password-protected Instructor Resource Site (formally known as SAGE Edge) offers access to all text-specific resources, including a test bank and editable, chapter-specific PowerPoint® slides.