Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Introduction (To Emotional Expressionism), E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

The primary purpose of Emotional Expressionism: Television Serialization, The Melodramatic Mode, and Socioemotionality is to explore the forms, functions, and nuances of emotions in popular, mediated narratives. Clearly, emotions constitute a key means by which audiences experience and make sense of narrative media, in that mediated stories make compelling arguments or take up resonant positions through their emotional methods and meanings. The value of developing an emotional template for screen media lies in generating new analytical and interpretative approaches to narrative aesthetics, especially in terms of their pains and pleasures. As this study seeks to demonstrate, emotional analysis opens up …

Victims, Heroes, And Villains: Imaginary Beings In Contemporary Television Serials, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

This chapter traces melodrama’s historical triumvirate of characters – victims, heroes, and villains – to examine how they are applied in contemporary television serial dramas. Looking in particular at the examples of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, the author argues that the characterological trio now often exists within singular protagonists who follow a narrative trajectory from victim through hero to arrive, ultimately, at villainy. Collapsing the characterological triad into single protagonists marks a late modern version of melodrama in which the possibilities for heroism are circumscribed, leaving characters able to opt only for victimization or villainy.

Ensemble Storytelling: Dramatic Television Seriality, The Melodramatic Mode, And Emotions, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

This chapter considers seriality in contemporary television dramas in light of arguments that most popular culture falls within melodrama as modality (to include legal shows, police and detective programs, westerns, and medical series), instead of narrow genres, such as soap operas. The recent success of fully serialized dramas is a noteworthy development, producing highly popular and highly regarded programming. The traditions of melodrama, including its deep commitment to the uses of emotionality, address story worlds and audiences in terms of social relations, in contrast to psychological realism’s more individualized and inward turning tendencies. “Ensemble Storytelling” explores three specific strategies available …

The Power Of Virtual Space, Katherine G. Schmidt Ph.D., Derek C. Hatch

Faculty Works: TRS (2010-2022)

The following essay emerges from the consultation of Evangelical Catholics and Catholic Evangelicals at the 2016 convention of the College Theology Society, which brings together Catholica and Protestant voices concerning a shared topic. In 2016, the theme of liturgy and contemporary social and communications media was in focus. As panelists, we offered complementary papers that have become two sections of this essay. In the first section, Katherine Schmidt provides a theological account of media from a Catholic perspective. Through reflections on the mediatory character of the incarnation, she argues that para-liturgical or extra-liturgical spaces are integral to the Eucharistic assembly …

How 9/11 Changed The Movies: The Tony Scott Barometer, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Publications: Communication

In an essay written some years ago on the 1945 film, Mildred Pierce, Linda Williams raises the intriguing question, why does the narrative frequently allude to but refrains from ever specifically mentioning World War II (22)? Williams’ assessment is that certain films are capable of addressing the most significant political events of the era in ways they could not have had they chosen to use direct depictions (24). Released in October 1945, following the end of U.S. involvement in the war, Mildred Pierce coincided with a period of demobilization and the economic and social reintegration of the returning American, largely …

Episode 9: Mike Boland, Thomas Kenny Mphil

Podcasts - Streaming

Professor Tom Kenny speaks with friend, colleague, & mentor Mike Boland. Mike worked for over 30 years with NBC and also worked 5 Olympics, one of which happened after his retirement.

Feeling Bad: Emotions And Narrativity In Breaking Bad, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Works: COM (1993-2016)

In an interview that took place in January 1984, five months before his death, Michel Foucault relates an anecdote to illustrate what he means by 'relations of power':

For example, the fact that I may be older than you, and that you may initially have been intimidated, may be turned around during the course of our conversation, and I may end up being intimidated before someone precisely because he is younger than I am. (292)

His is a simple, almost offhand anecdote but one that has lingered in my mind precisely because of the inadequate means we possess to explain …

Emotions, Genre, Justice In Film And Television: Introduction And Chapter 1, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Works: COM (1993-2016)

In many ways film and television studies are ideally suited for detailed analyses of the place of emotions in narrative and social discourses and practices. Emotions always have been central to how popular culture "works," how it creates its impact and meanings. Popular culture's complex, intricate deployments of emotion are a primary means by which it achives its status as popular. Cultural theorists have moved toward the analysis of popular culture precisely because it has mass emotional appeal and resonance. Herein lies its significance.

Cold Comfort: Emotion, Television Detection Dramas, And Cold Case, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Works: COM (1993-2016)

To speak about emotions is to attempt to address a notoriously challenging and vast category of cultural existence, aking to undertaking an analysis of "the body" or "reason." But as contemporary work in cultural studies and poststructuralism has shown, undertaking explorations of the body and reason are extremely pressing and productive areas of critical inquiry. Culturalist approaches to emotions, however, have only recently begun to emerge as a distinct area of investigation. A useful entry point into the complexities of emotion as a sociocultural category is Raymond Williams' concept, structure of feeling.

Viewer Discretion Advised: Moral And Emotional Codes In Nypd Blue, E. Deidre Pribram Ph.D.

Faculty Works: COM (1993-2016)

NYPD Blue's opening shot is a white-on-black warning label: "This police drama contains adult language and partial nudity. Viewer discretion is advised." A self-imposed rating on the part of ABC, the show's broadcaster, it originated in response to the police drama's "controversial" use of (limited) profanity and partial nudity, a singular departure for conservative, "family-oriented" U.S. television networks and their advertisers. The addition of a viewer advisory, initiated by network and advertising caution, played on the show's controversial status, turning it to promotional advantage. From its debut, the series began to be watched by many viewers curious about the fuss, …