Language and Representation in Contemporary TV Series: Exploring Characterization, Diversity, and Gender

This book offers a new perspective on how language in television series reflects cultural narratives. Its collection of articles analyse style, diversity and gender representation with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. Piazza´s paper proposes a non-discriminatory approach to filmmaking for Gypsies and Travellers and calls for a reinterpretation of Kress and van Leeuwen´s gaze model. Herriman and Bednarek examine the language in The Warriors tracing some relevant sociolinguistic nuances of indigenous storytelling. Moreno-Ortiz uses advanced techniques in sentiment analysis to compare the characters in Archer and Friends with a focus on how gender stereotypes are challenged. Maiz-Arévalo reveals the pragmatics of coming-out speeches while Castellano-Ortolá debates the troubling romanticization of gender-based violence in true-crime narratives. Melchiorre exposes the gaps in the representation of lesbian in eight different TV series. Gender is also the focus of Tello-Barbé, who applies corpus-methods that help reveal how Shrill redefines social narratives around fat-acceptance. All in all the essays in this collection draw attention to the cultural significance of telecinematic discourse.