View : Journal of European Television History and Culture, 2013
Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as fo... more Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as forgettable and guilty of undermining memory. In a recent series of oral history interviews I asked British women of different generations to tell me their memories of television in the period 1947 to 1989. This article presents some of their memories to demonstrate how, far from undermining memory, television is used a type of memory text for particular life stages.
Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as fo... more Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as forgettable and guilty of undermining memory. In a recent series of oral history interviews, British women of different generations shared their recollections of television in the period between 1947 and 1989. This article presents some of these narratives to demonstrate how, far from undermining memory, television’s domestic presence has enabled women to use everyday television in their memory work across the life course. The findings suggest that in the process of memory work itself, at least for these women viewers, the metaphor of television memory as ‘wallpaper’ needs to be developed since it is precisely these narratives located within everyday and the quotidian that are loaded with most emotional significance.
Season 10 marked a decade of RPDR, with RuPaul and other celebrities framing the show as a worldw... more Season 10 marked a decade of RPDR, with RuPaul and other celebrities framing the show as a worldwide phenomenon promoting love, inclusivity, acceptance and Drag. This aspect of RPDR is foregrounded in much existing scholarship on the reality show which considers the inclusivity and visibility that it offers. Although RPDR brings an area of gay culture and history into the mainstream, we argue that the Queen and Herstory that is promoted and validated is RuPaul Herself. Within the show, contestants often refer to RuPaul as ‘Mama Ru’, in reference to historical drag family relationships. In this article, we argue that RuPaul is positioned as the Ultimate Queen rather than Drag Mother, reflecting the more transactional relationship between head judge and contestants that we argue is constructed in the show. RuPaul as Ultimate Queen is achieved through using the themes of history and authenticity to support a commodification of RuPaul which reinforces celebrity, cultural capital and aut...
View : Journal of European Television History and Culture, 2013
Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as fo... more Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as forgettable and guilty of undermining memory. In a recent series of oral history interviews I asked British women of different generations to tell me their memories of television in the period 1947 to 1989. This article presents some of their memories to demonstrate how, far from undermining memory, television is used a type of memory text for particular life stages.
Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as fo... more Memory is theorised as constructive and unreliable, while television has been characterised as forgettable and guilty of undermining memory. In a recent series of oral history interviews, British women of different generations shared their recollections of television in the period between 1947 and 1989. This article presents some of these narratives to demonstrate how, far from undermining memory, television’s domestic presence has enabled women to use everyday television in their memory work across the life course. The findings suggest that in the process of memory work itself, at least for these women viewers, the metaphor of television memory as ‘wallpaper’ needs to be developed since it is precisely these narratives located within everyday and the quotidian that are loaded with most emotional significance.
Season 10 marked a decade of RPDR, with RuPaul and other celebrities framing the show as a worldw... more Season 10 marked a decade of RPDR, with RuPaul and other celebrities framing the show as a worldwide phenomenon promoting love, inclusivity, acceptance and Drag. This aspect of RPDR is foregrounded in much existing scholarship on the reality show which considers the inclusivity and visibility that it offers. Although RPDR brings an area of gay culture and history into the mainstream, we argue that the Queen and Herstory that is promoted and validated is RuPaul Herself. Within the show, contestants often refer to RuPaul as ‘Mama Ru’, in reference to historical drag family relationships. In this article, we argue that RuPaul is positioned as the Ultimate Queen rather than Drag Mother, reflecting the more transactional relationship between head judge and contestants that we argue is constructed in the show. RuPaul as Ultimate Queen is achieved through using the themes of history and authenticity to support a commodification of RuPaul which reinforces celebrity, cultural capital and aut...
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Papers by Hazel Collie