Bonkbusters and Soap Operas: Representing Sex, Glamour, and Melodrama on Screen 

Saturday 21st June 2025 

Falmouth University 

This freein-person symposium will be an interdisciplinary and global exploration of Bonkbusters, Soap Operas and Made-for-TV Melodramas. 

While better known as novels, the Bonkbuster spawned numerous melodramatic mini-series and film adaptations, including Shirley Conran’s Lace (1984), Jackie Collins’The Stud (1978); Judith Gould’s Sins (1984); and Judith Krantz’s Scruples (1980). These adaptations, along with original made-for-TV melodramas, sprawled across TV screens in the 1970s-80s alongside glamorous and scandalous soap operas like Dallas (1978-91) and Dynasty (1981-89). These texts bothreflected and shaped attitudes toward popular cultural concerns, including the AIDS panic and the Porn Wars, as well as engaging with and challenging contemporary discourses on feminism, the ageing female body, race, class, capitalism, power, celebrity, sexuality and ‘acceptable’ female desire within their plot driven narratives and often highly glamorous locations.  

As we moved into the 21st century, Footballers Wives (2002-2006) became popular viewing, although, despite its ‘glamour’ and ruthless and sexy older heroine, Tanya Turner, it was arguably more often the subject of laughter than titillation. 1980s’ soap legends, Dynasty (2017-2022) and Dallas (2012-2014) were resurrected, albeit to a much more muted reception. 

But, once again, the Bonkbuster adaptation is currently in the midst of a revival with the recent release of Jilly Cooper’s Rivals (October 2024) on Disney+ to much critical and popular acclaim. In the post-#metoo era and with the threats of austerity and the roll-back of hard-earned women’s rights looming, this new production is having to navigate questions of gender, race, sexuality, and political sensibilities in a vastly different political and cultural climate. 

This one-day in-person symposium will explore sex, scandal, and glamour in Bonkbusters, Soap Operas, and Made-for-TV Melodramas from the 1960s-present, questioning how they engage with contemporary issues, including politics, gender, race, class, sex and sexuality, economics, celebrity, and power.It will explore their impact, bothglobally and historically, while asking ‘what’s next for melodrama on our screens?’.  

We hope you will join us for this exciting event, which will bring together scholars, researchers, students, and enthusiasts to share their research, insights, and perspectives in an open and inclusive atmosphere. We welcome submissions for individual twenty-minute papers as well as for full panels and workshops. Subjects can include (but are not bound by): 

• The portrayal and evolution of melodrama 

• Representing power 

• Wealth and poverty 

• Cultural, historical, and social contexts 

• Global soap operas and melodramas 

• Celebrity, fans, and representations 

• Race, class, gender 

• Sex and desire                       

• Pleasure and the popular 

• Bonkbusters, Romance, and Erotica 

• Bonkbusters, soap operas, and melodrama and the market 

• Representingsex and relationships in the pre- and post-#MeToo landscape 

• Writing drama 

• Youth and ageing 

• Costume, sets, and cinematography 

• Material culture 

• Politics, economics, and social perspectives 

• Box office and sales 

• Femininities and masculinities 

• Queer representations 

• Sex and sexualities on screen 

• Audiences 

We will also be holding a film screening and wine reception on the Friday before the conference. 

Submissions: 

Proposals should include a title, an abstract of 250–300 words, a brief biographical note (up to 100 words), and contact details. Panel proposals are very welcome. 

Please submit your proposals in a Word document to the team atsensationconference@gmail.comby23rd May2025. We encourage submissions from scholars at all stages of their careers, including early career researchers, and postgraduate students. Interdisciplinary approaches and innovative methodologies are welcome. 

 
This event has kindly been sponsored by the British Association of Film, Television, and Screen Studies