ABSTRACT

Teresa de Lauretis in Technologies of Gender in 1987 develops Michel Foucault's ideas about the 'technology of sex' to theorise gender beyond the limits of sexual difference. She develops theories from poststructuralism which see the subject as multiple, contradictory and divided. One of the most recently established disciplines, television studies draws on both the humanities and the social sciences for its theoretical structures. Though broadcast television began in the UK it was first established as a mass form in the USA in the immediate post-war period. Institutional histories and industrial structures approaches both assume the unity of television, including all the processes, personnel and productions that constitute it, privileging access to discourses specific to national examples as well as inviting comparative studies across national boundaries. Feminist critics have tended to conflate testimonial literature with personal writing. For much of western theatre history, women were excluded from the stage and prevented from using theatre's cultural power.