CALL FOR PAPERS

British television drama and US imports: Aesthetics, Institutions,
Histories. Friday 24 March 2006.

A one-day symposium organised by the Centre for Television Drama Studies at
the University of Reading, under the auspices of the AHRC-funded project
British TV Drama and Acquired US Programmes 1970-2000.

While the study of British television drama and US television drama
respectively continues to thrive, little work exists on the
interconnections between British and US television. American television
programmes have been extremely popular in Britain, yet they are frequently
omitted from critical discourse on British television. On the basis that a
nation's television landscape never consists merely of indigenous
production, this symposium aims to explore how British television drama is
affected by the import of television drama from the USA.

In particular (though not exclusively) we welcome papers that address the
following questions:

• What shapes the selection processes involved in the acquisition of US TV
drama? What are the institutional and practical factors involved in this
acquisition (e.g. regulation, package deals, scheduling and cost)?

• How are US imports used by, and how do they work as part of, British
broadcasting (especially in terms of scheduling, promotion, channel
identity and public service)? What are the aesthetic consequences of these
broadcast processes?

• How do the meanings of television texts change because of their
transatlantic journey?

• How has the import of US television drama influenced aesthetic forms,
genres, representations (e.g. gender, class, race), and production
practices of British domestic television drama?

• How have US imports affected the viewing experience of British television
audiences?

• What may be the national specificity of television drama from Britain and
the US, and what may be shared? How does television drama locate this
specificity?

• How do the different histories, institutions and evaluative schemas in
the US and Britain inflect the term quality differently and contribute to
the quality debate?

• Conversely, how are British programmes exported to the US? How are they
used, scheduled, received, and what is their influence?

The day is expected to run from 10am – 5pm. Papers should be no more than
20 minutes in length (including any audio-visual extracts). Please send
abstracts of 250 words by Monday 16 January 2006 to Simone Knox via email
(s.knox_at_reading.ac.uk) or post: Simone Knox, University of Reading,
Department of Film, Theatre & Television, Bulmershe Court, Woodlands
Avenue, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 1HY.

Visit the symposium website at
www.rdg.ac.uk/fd/research/BritishTVdramaandUSimports.htm

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Received on Tue Nov 08 2005 - 17:13:33 EST