TV Transformations & Transgressive Women - From Prisoner: Cell Block H to Wentworth

«Just like Prisoner and Wentworth, this book is an instant cult classic. Written with love by a collective of expert aca-fans, TV Transformations & Transgressive Women takes us on a fascinating journey through the cultural legacies of Australia's favourite prison TV dramas. Contributors use a rich palette of methods, from genre analysis to production research, to unpack the significance of these shows. An exemplary textual study, this richly multi-perspectival collection is essential reading for anyone interested in television genres.» (Ramon Lobato, Associate Professor, RMIT University)
«This collection is a wonderful example of how certain TV shows can have tremendous impact, not only in the time of their making, but for several decades, when suddenly there's the opportunity to travel even further in an on-demand age and meet new audiences, academics and analytical approaches. The chapters offer a wide range of interesting interpretations and discussions, not the least on the way women have been represented on screen then and now. A good read for academics, fans and aca-fans.» (Eva Novrup Redvall, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen)

A deep dive into iconic 1980s Australian women-in-prison TV drama Prisoner (aka Cell Block H), its contemporary reimagining as Wentworth, and its broader, global industry significance and influence, this book brings together a range of scholarly and industry perspectives, including an interview with actor Shareena Clanton (Wentworth's Doreen Anderson). Its chapters draw on talks with producers, screenwriters and casting; fan voices from the Wentworth twitterverse; comparisons with Netflix's Orange is the New Black; queer and LGBTQ approaches; and international production histories and contexts. By charting a path from Prisoner to Wentworth, the book offers a new mapping of TV shifts and transformations through the lens of female transgression, ruminating on the history, currency, industry position and cultural value of women-in-prison series.

List of contents

Contents: Radha O'Meara, Tessa Dwyer, Stayci Taylor and Craig Batty: Breakout Women: Introduction to TV Transformations, Gender and Transgression - On the Inside: Voices from Industry - Interview with Shareena Clanton: Representation, Responsibility and Racism: A Courageous Conversation with Shareena Clanton - Tessa Dwyer and Philippa Burne: Repeat Offender: TV Remakes, Reboots and Revival from Prisoner to Wentworth and beyond - Radha O'Meara: Scriptwriting on the Inside: The Streamlined System of Prisoner and the Collaborative Community of Wentworth - Helen Milte: «I Want to See Rit' Connors. I Want to See Her Now!»: The TV Series Guest Performer as Intertextual Messenger - She's Got Form: Narrative, Genre and Motif - Kim Yen Howells-Ng: Women in the System: Narrative Modes and Rhetoric in Wentworth and Orange is the New Black - Niall Brennan: Flashbacks and Morality in Women's Prison TV Drama - Kate Warner: Gothic Themes in Australian TV's Women's Prison Dramas - Corrine E. Hinton and Cathrine Hoekstra: «You Want to See Your Daughter? You Tell Me What Happened»: Motherhood and the Market Economy in Wentworth - Tough Love: Punishment, Power and Identity - Jessica Ford: Orange is the New Black, Wentworth and Contemporary Media Feminisms: Systemic Inequality and Individual Responsibility - Josie Rose Atkinson: Prison Blues and Token Truths: Inside the Reality and Fantasy of First Nations Representations in Australian Women's Prison Drama Wentworth - Whitney Monaghan: Doing (Queer) Time in Wentworth - Sam McCracken: «And Then They Confiscate Her Hormones»: Trans Incarceration and/ in Wentworth and Orange is the New Black - Diana Sandars: The Motherless Teenage Daughter: Lock Her Up or Send Her Away - Alex Bevan: The Stone- Cold Power Dame: TV Women in Power, State Security and National Discourse - On the Outside: Fandom, Activism and Afterlives - Olympia Barron, Catherine Gillam and Alexander Gionfriddo: Telling It Like It Was: Independent Activist Filmmaking, Australian Prison Systems and Prisoner - Craig Haslop and Craig Batty: From Boys to Men via Cell Block H: Prisoner, Queer Identities and Productive Fan Nostalgia - Amanda K. Allen: «It's Not My Fault I Help Girls Realize They're Lesbians»: Compulsory Homosexuality as Communication in Online Wentworth Fandom - Renee Middlemost and Stayci Taylor: Competing Desires, Competing Interests: Opening the Dialogue between Wentworth, Fans and Industry - Alexa Scarlata: Recommending Wentworth to the World: How Netflix «Changed the Show» and Australian TV Drama Production.

About the author

The editors of this volume are screen studies and screenwriting scholars with specialist skills in a range of areas and practices, including script development, gender studies and television studies. Radha O'Meara is Lecturer in Screenwriting at the University of Melbourne. Her critical research concentrates on serial storytelling and industrial authorship in contemporary film and television. Tessa Dwyer is Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies, Monash University. Her research focuses on screen media and language difference, and she has published the monograph Speaking in Subtitles (2017). Stayci Taylor is Senior Lecturer, Master of Media, RMIT University. Her research focuses on screenwriting practice, and she has co-edited two books on script development. Craig Batty is Professor and Dean of Research (Creative) at the University of South Australia. He has published fifteen books and many articles on screenwriting and creative practice research.

Product details

• Assisted by: Craig Batty (Editor), Craig Batty et al (Editor), Anne Brewster (Editor), Tessa Dwyer (Editor), Tessa Dwyer et al (Editor), Radha O¿Meara (Editor), Radha OMeara (Editor), Radha O'Meara (Editor), Radha O'Meara et al (Editor), Stayci Taylor (Editor), Stayci Taylor et al (Editor)
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2022
• EAN: 9781789975062
• ISBN: 978-1-78997-506-2
• No. of pages: 474
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 32 mm x 235 mm
• Weight: 818 g
• Illustrations: 3 Abb.
• Series: Australian Studies: Interdisciplinary Perspectives
• Subject: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet