[Commlist] Call for Chapters: American Television in the Trump Era

*Call for Chapters: American Television in the Trump Era*

*Editor: Karen McNally*

*Deadline for Submission of Abstracts: 30 June 2019*

Donald Trump’s emergence in the field of American politics has had an 
undeniable and wide-ranging impact on contemporary American television. 
As a medium television has been quick to respond to the extraordinary 
climate and fast-paced news environment created by the roller-coaster of 
events and political strategies that have defined the Trump 
administration. CBS drama /The Good Fight/, for example, explicitly ties 
the unfolding events of the Trump presidency to its characters’ 
professional and personal lives, while the dystopian narrative of /The 
Handmaid’s Tale/ seems an updated warning of the continuing threats to 
women’s legal and cultural rights. Each genre from the satirical show to 
reality television has demonstrated the centrality of contemporary 
politics to viewers’ everyday experience, assuming an atypical awareness 
of current events amongst diverse members of the American public. At the 
same time, television has been forced to confront its role in the 
construction of a media-driven celebrity presidency, as it provides 
24-hour breaking-news coverage and makes celebrities out of the various 
press secretaries entering and exiting Trump world. Whether it’s the 
challenge of depicting the fictitious car crash politics of /Veep/ with 
the backdrop of a White House reportedly in disarray, or news analysis 
shows wading through the concepts of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative 
facts’, the balance between representation, critique, entertainment, 
fiction and fact has become the site of television’s negotiation with 
the current era.

This volume seeks a range of essays aiming to address the ways in which 
the political climate of the Trump era has revealed itself on American 
television. The political setting might be defined as much by movements 
such as #MeToo, Time’s Up and Black Lives Matter as by the various 
branches of federal government, or political moments such as 
Charlottesville or the release of the Mueller Report. Similarly, authors 
might choose to examine individual television shows or particular 
genres, and themes including celebrity politics, backlash culture, 
journalism as entertainment, genre hybridity, amongst a variety of topics.

Chapter proposals should be submitted as a 300-400 word abstract by 30 
June 2019 to the editor, Karen McNally, at 
(TrumpEraTelevisionthebook /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(TrumpEraTelevisionthebook /at/ gmail.com)>. Please include a full 
author biography and contact details. Final chapters will be 5,000 to 
6,000 words and due by 15 November 2019. Please feel free to email also 
with any queries prior to submission of abstracts. A major publisher is 
being sought for the volume.

*Dr Karen McNally* is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies 
at London Metropolitan University and a specialist in Hollywood cinema 
and American television and culture. She is the author of /When Frankie 
Went to Hollywood: Frank Sinatra and American Male Identity /(University 
of Illinois Press, 2008) and /The Stardom Film: Hollywood and the Star 
Myth/ (Columbia University Press, forthcoming). She is also the editor 
of /Billy Wilder, Movie-Maker: Critical Essays on the Films/ (McFarland, 
2011) and co-editor of /The Legacy of Mad Men: Cultural History, 
Intermediality and American Television /(Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).

Contact Details: (TrumpEraTelevisionthebook /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(TrumpEraTelevisionthebook /at/ gmail.com)>


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