Indian Accents: Brown Voice and Racial Performance in American Television and Film by Shilpa S. Davé

2016 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theresa A. Kulbaga
Keyword(s):  
American Television ◽  
Racial Performance

Being Realistic About American Television

1981 ◽  
Vol 26 (9) ◽  
pp. 679-680
Author(s):  
Robert M. Liebert
Keyword(s):  
American Television

“Don’t You See What’s Going on Here?” Seinfeld and Badiou on Situations and Events

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 493-509
Author(s):  
Rohan Kalyan
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Structural Level ◽  
Situation Comedy ◽  
Modern Life ◽  
American Television

Far from being merely “a show about nothing,” this article argues that the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989-1998) managed to develop a sophisticated theory of situations and events in modern life. The show explored a rich and humorous multiplicity of everyday situations and events that took its main characters and audience members alike to the very limits of their conventional lives. Yet Seinfeld consistently stopped short of raising larger political stakes in these explorations. In other words, Seinfeld never took its critique of everyday modern life to a structural level, that is, to the historical forces and social relations that shape contemporary situations and events. By bringing Seinfeld into an intellectual encounter with communist philosopher Alain Badiou’s work on situations and events, I argue that we can gain a deeper appreciation of both sides and rethink the political and aesthetic potential of situation comedy.

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