Television and the Genetic Imaginary (Palgrave Studies in Science and Popular Culture)

This book examines the complex ways in which television articulates ideas about DNA in the early 21st century. Considering television’s distinct aesthetic and narrative forms, as well as its specific cultural roles, it identifies TV as a key site for the genetic imaginary. The book addresses the key themes of complexity and kinship, which function as nodes around which older essentialist notions about the human genome clash with newly emergent post-genomic sensibilities. Analysing a wide range of US and UK programmes, from science documentaries, science fiction serials and crime procedurals, to family history programmes, sitcoms and reality shows,__Television and the Genetic Imaginary__illustrates the extent to which molecular frameworks of understanding now permeate popular culture. "This book examines the complex ways in which television articulates ideas about DNA in the early 21st century. Considering television's distinct aesthetic and narrative forms, as well as its specific cultural roles, it identifies TV as a key site for the genetic imaginary. The book addresses the key themes of complexity and kinship, which function as nodes around which older essentialist notions about the human genome clash with newly emergent post-genomic sensibilities. Analysing a wide range of US and UK programmes, from science documentaries, science fiction serials and crime procedurals, to family history programmes, sitcoms and reality shows, Television and the Genetic Imaginary illustrates the extent to which molecular frameworks of understanding now permeate popular culture"--Back cover Front Matter ....Pages i-xii Introduction: A Cultural Forum on Genetics (Sofia Bull)....Pages 1-29 Front Matter ....Pages 31-31 Microscopic CGI: Imaging Molecular Worlds (Sofia Bull)....Pages 33-76 Complex Seriality: Genetic Science As Narrative Device (Sofia Bull)....Pages 77-115 Front Matter ....Pages 117-117 Genealogical Intimacy: Materialising Genetic Kinship (Sofia Bull)....Pages 119-158 TV Families: Normalising Assisted Reproduction (Sofia Bull)....Pages 159-203 Front Matter ....Pages 205-205 Televisual Clones (Sofia Bull)....Pages 207-219 Back Matter ....Pages 221-239