The West Wing: The American Presidency As Television Drama

by Peter C. Rollins (Editor), John E. O'Connor (Editor)

Overview

Informed by historical scholarship and media analysis, this book takes a critical look at the award-winning show from a wide range of perspectives. Media scholars Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor make an important contribution to the field with an eclectic mix of essays, which translate the visual language of the onscreen politics of the series.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815630319
Publisher:	Syracuse University Press
Publication date:	04/28/2003
Series:	The Television Ser.
Pages:	295
Sales rank:	578,139
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.74(d)

About the Author

Peter C. Rollins is regents professor of English and American film studies at Oklahoma State University and editor-in-chief of Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies. He is coeditor of Television Histories, and editor of The Columbia Companion to American History on Film.

John E. O'Connor, professor of history at New Jersey Institute of Technology, is the coeditor of numerous books, including Hollywood in World War I and Hollywood's Indian. He is the cofounder, with Martin A. Jackson, of the Historians Film Committee.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction


Focusing on Issues

1. The West Wing: White House Narratives That Journalism Cannot Tell

2. The White House Culture of Gender and Race in The West Wing: Insights from the Margins

3. The West Wing (NBC) and The West Wing (D.C.): Myth and Reality in Television's Portrayal of the White House

4. The King's Two Bodies: Identity and Office in Sorkin's West Wing


Language and Structure in The West Wing

5. Dialogue, Deliberation, and Discourse: The Far-Reaching Politics of The West Wing

6. The West Wing's Textual President: American Constitutional Stability and the New Public Intellectual in the Age of Information

7. The Left Takes Back the Flag: The Steadicam, the Snippet, and the Song in The West Wing's "In Excelsis Deo"

8. From The American President to The West Wing: A Scriptwriter's Perspective


Perceptions of The West Wing

9. The Sincere Sorkin White House, or, The Importance of Seeming Earnest

10. The West Wing as a Pedagogical Tool: Using Drama to Examine American Politics and Media Perceptions of Our Political System

11. Victorian Parliamentary Novels, The West Wing, and Professionalism


Critical Responses: West Wing Press Reviews

12. Inside The West Wing's New World

13. The Feel-Good Presidency: The Pseudo-Politics of The West Wing

14. The Liberal Imagination


Bibliographical Overview

15. The Transformed Presidency: People and Power in the Real West Wing

Works Cited

Index

Editorial Reviews

A colorful book about a remarkable television series. . . . It enhances the study of the American presidency while quietly illuminating a lifetime collaboration of two remarkable film/history scholars. [The West Wing] should be acquired by every public and university library for they will be of interest both to the expert and to the general reader.

Film and History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies