Television Characters, Genre and Emotion

Investigates viewer engagement with fictional and non-fictional television characters across a wide range of genres

• Explores a wide range of modern television texts (e.g., Game of Thrones, Vanderpump Rules, Welcome to Wrexham, South Park, WWE Wrestling) in relation to character engagement
• Considers the audience’s relationship with fictional and non-fictional television characters
• Reveals how seriality and long-term viewer engagement guide character-based emotional responses such as sympathy and antipathy
• Employs an interdisciplinary methodological approach that is rooted in television studies and cognitive media theory

Relating to television characters on an emotional level is one of the principal pleasures of watching television. Yet how exactly programmes from different genres elicit feelings for their characters remains an understudied subject. Television Characters, Genre and Emotion investigates the relationship between television viewers and characters from a wide range of contemporary genres (e.g., animation, drama, sports, reality TV). This book is driven by the argument that our affective response to television characters emanates from the distinct narrative and aesthetic arrangement of individual television texts and our long-term engagement with said texts. Television Characters, Genre and Emotion broadens the academic discourse on television temporality and emotion while providing readers with an overview of theoretical approaches for the study of television narration, aesthetics and affect. In doing so, this book fosters a deeper understanding of the emotional appeal of watching television, provides more insight into the impact of seriality on popular culture and demonstrates what constitutes televisual pleasure in a contemporary context.