"A well written and well researched book that opens new prospects for television researchers on the history and the future of the medium." - Nahuel Ribke (H-France, H-Net Reviews) "<i>Television Cities</i> is relatively short . . . but it packs in a wide range of thought-provoking issues without losing its focus. . . . An engaging and rewarding read for anybody interested in fictions for small, and not-so-small, screens. It will no doubt succeed in its aim of encouraging debate in these domains." - Robin Nelson (Critical Studies in Television)

In Television Cities Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of metropolitan spaces to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban. Brunsdon shows how the BBC's presentation of 1960s Paris in the detective series Maigret signals British culture's engagement with twentieth-century modernity and continental Europe, while various portrayals of London-ranging from Dickens adaptations to the 1950s nostalgia of Call the Midwife-demonstrate Britain's complicated transition from Victorian metropole to postcolonial social democracy. Finally, an analysis of The Wire’s acclaimed examination of Baltimore, marks the profound shifts in the ways television is now made and consumed. Illuminating the myriad factors that make television cities, Brunsdon complicates our understanding of how television shapes perceptions of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.
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Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of Paris, London, and Baltimore to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban and showing how television shapes our perception of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.
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Acknowledgments  vii
Introduction: Does the FlÂneur Watch Television  1
1. The Modernity of Maigret's Paris  24
2. Living-Room London  65
3. Portable Cities: Baltimore  116
Notes  165
Bibliography  195
Index  211
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Product details

ISBN
9780822368946
Published
2018-02-07
Publisher
Duke University Press
Weight
431 gr
Height
210 mm
Width
149 mm
Age
P, 06
Language
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Number of pages
277

Biographical note

Charlotte Brunsdon is Professor of Film and Television Studies at the University of Warwick and the author of several books, including London in Cinema: The Cinematic City Since 1945 and The Feminist, the Housewife, and the Soap Opera.