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Scenes from the SuburbsThe Suburb in Contemporary US Film and Television

By Timotheus Vermeulen

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£19.99

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About this book

A study of suburban space in American film and television

Suburbia. Say the word and a stream of images pass before your eyes: white picket fence, neatly mowed lawns, winding roads nicely lined with trees, pastel-tinted bungalows, bored housewives, conspicuous consumption. We all know what the suburbs are about. Or do we?

This book looks again at the filmic and televised spaces we think we know so well. How are these spaces built up? What is it that makes us recognize them as suburbs? How do they function? By exploring in detail the hometowns of Desperate Housewives, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Happiness, Pleasantville, Brick and Chumscrubber, Scenes from the Suburbs examines what it means to be suburban today.

An essential read for academics concerned with the ways in which our understandings of space and place change, this book is particularly relevant for students and researchers in Suburban Studies, Film and Television Studies and Urban Geography.

Table of contents
Acknowledgements; List of Illustrations; Introduction: Scenes from the Suburbs; 1. Pleasantville: The Suburb as World; 2. Happiness: The Suburb and Film Style; 3. The Simpsons and King of the Hill: The Suburb as Texture; 4. Desperate Housewives: The Suburb as Social Space; 5. Teen Noir: The Suburb as Lived Space; Conclusion: 'Upward Yet Not Northward'; Bibliography; Filmography; Teleography; Notes.
About the author

Timotheus Vermeulen

Timotheus Vermeulen is Professor of Media, Culture and Society at the University of Oslo. He has published widely on screen media, contemporary art and cultural theory. Books include Metamodernism: Historicity, Affect and Depth after Postmodernism (2017), edited with Robin van den Akker and Alison Gibbons, Anmerkungen zur Metamoderne, (2015), Scenes from the Suburbs (2014) and New Suburban Stories (2013), edited with Martin Dines. Vermeulen is a regular contributor to Frieze.