ABSTRACT
Potboilers looks at the many forms of popular narrative - in print, film and TV. It considers the ways in they have been analysed in literary criticism, sociology, communications, media and cultural studies.
The book introduces and summarizes two decades of debate about mass-produced fictions and their position within popular culture. It assesses the methods that have been used in these debates, focussing both on narrative analysis and the communications process. It explores generic conventions, the role of commercial strategies, and the nature of the audience with reference to crime fiction, soap opera, romance and TV sitcom.
Distinctions between `high' and `low' culture have relegated many popular forms to the trash-can of `great' literature. This book takes stock of the methods and concepts used to analyse popular culture and argues for a non-elitist approach to the study of literature, film and television.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |12 pages
Introduction
part |115 pages
Concepts and methods
chapter |25 pages
Approaches to popular fiction
chapter |8 pages
Narrative grammar
chapter |19 pages
Narrative and connotative processes
chapter |19 pages
The speaking/reading subject
chapter |14 pages
Narrative and ideology
chapter |9 pages
Hegemony and subject position
chapter |16 pages
Genre
part |70 pages
Case studies