British TV Comedies ― Cultural Concepts, Contexts and Controversies

This collection offers an exciting overview of British TV comedies, ranging from the beginnings of sitcoms in the 1950s to the current boom of 'Britcoms'. It provides in-depth analyses of major comedies, systematically addressing their aesthetic properties, filmic history, humour politics and cultural impact. Understanding TV comedies as powerful cultural media, the volume explores their role in the often provocative negotiation of social controversies and cultural concepts such as class, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, family and work. Some of the key questions that are addressed include: How does comedy use symbolic codes and images to negotiate new social and cultural issues? How and to what end is humour used? How do the dynamics of seriality connect to media and popular culture? And what is the role of the British television industry and marketing strategies? By examining these and other questions, the volume opens new vistas in the field of media and television studies. The volume brings together international experts in the field and represents essential reading for those interested in British TV comedy or in theories of comedy and television.

Juergen Kamm taught at the Universities of Wuppertal and Dresden before moving to the University of Passau, Germany, where he has been teaching English literature and culture since 1996. His research interests include english literature (especially comedy), cultural studies and media studies, especially film and television. He is editor of Twentieth-Century Theatre and Drama in English (1999) and was co-editor of the Journal for the Study of British Cultures (2002-2009).

Birgit Neumann is Professor of Anglophone Literatures at the University of Duesseldorf, Germany; she had guest professorships at the Universities of Cornell/Ithaca and Wisconsin-Madison, USA. She is editor of Cultures of Emotion in 18th-Century Britain (2015, with Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp), A History of British Poetry (2015, with Sibylle Baumbach and Ansgar Nunning), A History of British Drama (2011, with Sibylle Baumbach and Ansgar Nunning), Cultural Ways of Worldmaking: Theories, Narratives and Media (2011, with Ansgar Nunning and Vera Nunning) and Travelling Concepts in English Studies (2009, with Frederick Tygstrup).