This book takes an intersectional approach to explore gender, race, ethnicity and social class in television series and films produced by English-speaking countries. Starting from Kimberlé Crenshaw’s 1989 concept of intersectionality, and encompassing film studies, television studies, cultural studies, gender studies, Queer theory, African American studies, and post-colonial studies, this volume sheds light not only on revealing intersectional elements of on-screen fiction, but also on the very nature of intersectional criticism.

Now in its sixth edition, this essential guide for students provides accessible definitions of a comprehensive range of genres, movements, world cinemas, theories and production terms. This fully revised and updated book includes new topical entries that explore areas such as film and the environmental crisis; streaming and new audience consumption; diversity and intersectionality; questions related to race and representation; the Black Lives Matter movement; and New Wave Cinemas of Eastern European countries. Further new entries include accented/exilic cinema, border-cinema, the oppositional gaze, sonic sound and Black westerns. Existing entries have been updated, including discussion of #MeToo, and more contemporary film examples have been added throughout. This is a must-have guide for any student starting out on this fascinating area of study and arguably the greatest art form of modern times.

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,3, University of Tubingen, course: Marriage, Sex, Adultery: Gender relations in the 19th Century, language: English, abstract: Slavery pertains to the woeful history of America as a calculated and colossal example of man's inhumanity. It is a grievous monument, full of hatred and brutality, about which stories emerged early. The slave history of America has produced various narratives. In this paper I will analyse the novel "12 years a slave" and its film adaption with regard to the theory of intersectionality. I will examine two different responses to the idea of representing the brutal behaviour of human beings bought, sold and used up like property in literature and film. In my analysis I will make use of Kimberlé Crenshaw's theory of intersectionality and its constituents such as race, gender, ethnicity and class, which are defining dimensions of inequality in this context. The primary aim is to examine how various axes of the term construct one another and how inequalities are articulated and connected with differences between human beings. This will be done by illustrating the multidimensional character of the various axis of the intersectional perspective.

Anglo-American Stage and Screen Drama analyses and discusses the contemporary role of stage and screen drama as a critical forum for progressive thinking in an increasingly polarised geopolitical world. The book addresses the cultural politics of socially engaged 21st century stage plays and films, and makes the case for drama as a sociopolitical forum, in which the complex and contentious issues that confront society can be explored and debated. It conceives of Anglophone political drama as a significant intervention in today’s culture wars, representing the latter as a convenient distraction from the ongoing depredations of neoliberalism. In the main part of the book selected case-study plays and films from each of the first two decades illustrate drama’s capacity to influence critical debate on social justice issues. All of the case-study texts under discussion express a powerful aesthetics of resistance to right-wing ideology, and promote inclusive and enlightened values. This broader orientation underlines drama’s role as a channel for critical agency in today’s putative post-socialist, post-democratic climate.

Horror has found a resurgence on television in the post-millennial years. This book will investigate the changing and challenging roles that gender has undergone in TV horror, examining a range of shows, including Hannibal, American Horror Story, The Walking Dead, Penny Dreadful, Supernatural, The Exorcist, iZombie, and Bates Motel.

Women Who Kill explores several lines of inquiry: the female murderer as a figure that destabilizes order; the tension between criminal and victim; the relationship between crime and expression (or the lack thereof); and the paradox whereby a crime can be both an act of destruction and a creative assertion of agency. In doing so, the contributors assess the influence of feminist, queer and gender studies on mainstream television and cinema, notably in the genres (film noir, horror, melodrama) that have received the most critical attention from this perspective. They also analyse the politics of representation by considering these works of fiction in their contexts and addressing some of the ambiguities raised by postfeminism. The book is structured in three parts: Neo-femmes Fatales; Action Babes and Monstrous Women. Films and series examined include White Men Are Cracking Up (1994); Hit & Miss (2012); Gone Girl (2014); Terminator (1984); The Walking Dead (2010); Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); Contagion (2011) and Ex Machina (2015) among others.

Feminism is one of the most important perspectives from which visual culture has been theorised and historicised over the past 30 years. This book brings together a wide array of writings, including classic texts and polemical new pieces.