ABSTRACT

Teleology brings together John Hartley's work on television. The book draws on current critical theory in cultural studies to develop a wide-ranging and thought-provoking view of television broadcasting in Britain, Australia and the USA.
Neighbours, Hancock's Half Hour, Dallas, Monty Python, Miami Vice, Beverly Hillbillies and Bonanza are among the examples of TV art that are discussed in Hartley's exploration of cultural politics. He takes in TV truth and propaganda; populism in the news; mythologies of the audience; TV drama as a `photopoetic' genre in the tradition of Shakespeare; Kylie Minogue, Madonna and gardening shows.

chapter 1|18 pages

Tele-ology

chapter 2|24 pages

Television and the power of dirt*

chapter 4|11 pages

Consciousness razing*

chapter 6|18 pages

Invisible fictions*

chapter 7|7 pages

The real world of audiences*

chapter 8|10 pages

Out of bounds*

chapter 9|11 pages

Regimes of pleasure: a fragment*

chapter 10|11 pages

The politics of photopoetry*

chapter 11|23 pages

Continuous pleasures in marginal places*

chapter 12|12 pages

A state of excitement*

chapter 13|9 pages

Local television: from space to time*