The Dynasty Years by Jostein Gripsrud (9780415085991)

Description - The Dynasty Years by Jostein Gripsrud

"The Dynasty Years" documents and analyses in detail the "Dynasty phenomenon", an event in 1980s television which heralded a profound transformation of European television. From the operatic camp of Krystle and Alexis' fight in the lily-pond or the Moldavian wedding massacre to the unprecedented gay sub-plot, "Dynasty" represented, in the words of co-producer Esther Shapiro, "the ultimate dollhouse fantasy for middle-aged women". Using evidence from audience survey results, newspaper and magazine clippings and letters to broadcasters and drawing on semiotics, psychoanalysis, feminism and critical social theories, Jostein Gripsrud examines every aspect of "Dynasty's" production, reception and context. The result is a groundbreaking critical approach to the study of media communication, integrating political economy, textual analysis and audience studies. Jostein Gripsrud offers a theoretical but empirically grounded critique of many central positions in media studies, including notions of "audience resistance" and the "sovereign" audience and its freedom in meaning-making, arguing against what he perceives as the uncritical celebrations of the soap-opera genre.

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