MEVIT4117 – Contemporary TV fiction

Course content

TV is dead. There is too much TV. We hear both statements regularly. We can watch television anywhere—on our computers, phones, tablets, sometimes in cinemas, and if, you take this course, in seminar rooms. For many of us, television is not only almost everywhere but it has always been. It has not only been ever-present in our own lives but is woven into our social interactions and cultural understandings. We use television to start conversations; to laugh together; to discuss topics difficult to broach; to see experiences we might not otherwise. We quote from television to find our crowds. We talk about, through, and with television. But how does television fiction function? How does it, as an aesthetic and cultural form, make meaning??

Contemporary Television Fiction is designed to critically engage with TV scholarship, as well as the discourse surrounding television and related media trends, and consider how contemporary television presents visual narratives that reflect, interrogate, inform, and represent different cultural, political, and social realities. Through key television theory, recent research in television studies, and—most importantly—examples drawn from television itself, this course will seek to understand television as an important contemporary fictional form. This course unpacks television’s formal components and presents critical contexts and lenses for its analysis.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

After completing the course, student