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Mothers on American television

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This book offers a psychoanalytical, Marxist, feminist approach to the way motherhood is portrayed in quality American television series and how that affects the position of mothers in neoliberal A...
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  • 03 June 2025
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Mothers on American television takes an in-depth look at how motherhood is represented on some of the most popular television series produced this century. Adopting a feminist, Marxist, cultural studies and psychoanalytical approach, the book offers a history of the positioning of mothers within American society. It provides detailed analysis of The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Handmaid’s Tale and more, while reflecting on the newspaper ‘mommy wars’, employment patterns and alternative views of motherhood.
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Price: £25.00
Pages: 216
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Publication Date: 03 June 2025
ISBN: 9781526191182
Format: Paperback
BISACs:

PERFORMING ARTS / Television / History & Criticism, Film, television, radio genres: Drama, PERFORMING ARTS / Television / Genres / Drama, PERFORMING ARTS / Television / Genres / Comedy, Film, television, radio genres: Comedy and humour, Gender studies: women and girls

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'Akass (Rowan Univ.) interrogates the representation of mothers and motherhood in prestigious American television series. She argues that despite the existence of more women showrunners and more television series featuring women, the objectification of women and the reinforcement of patriarchal norms and women’s inequality have not diminished.'
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'Akass’s central theoretical framework is feminist psychoanalysis and, drawing on a range of thinkers including Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Karen Horney, Luce Irigaray, and Dorothy Dinnerstein, she uses it to assess the state of motherhood on American television and to diagnose the malaise running through many televisual depictions of motherhood...’
Critical Studies in TV

Introduction
Part I: Mothers on network television
1 Motherhood, culture and society
2 Motherhood on network television, 1940s to 1980s
3 Motherhood on network television, 1980s onwards
Part II: Original dramas
4 Sex and The City (HBO, 1998-2004)
5 The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007)
6 Six Feet Under (HBO, 2001-5)
7 Deadwood (HBO, 2004-6)
Part III: Adaptations
8 The Killing (AMC/Fox/Netflix, 2011-14)
9 Game of Thrones (HBO, 2011-19)
10 The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu, 2017-)
11 Big Little Lies (HBO, 2017-19)
Conclusion
Select bibliography
Index