Television and Repetition

Resisting some of the negative connotations that repetition can attract, this book illustrates how it has been used as a catalyst for creative expression across a range of television genres.

Divided into two parts, the first three chapters contextualise repetition within related media and critical debates, before locating it as an important facet of television that is worth exploring in detail. The final three chapters discuss specific television shows that incorporate repetition creatively within their narrative structure and aesthetic composition, ranging from The Royle Family and Doctor Who to I May Destroy You and This is Going to Hurt. In each case, James Walters argues that repetition emerges as crucial to the expression of key themes and ideas, thus becoming a structural and compositional element itself.

Exploring the ways in which repetition has featured in the work of figures such as Umberto Eco, Raymond Bellour and Bruce Kawin, and has influenced the approaches of television scholars like Raymond Williams, Roger Silverstone and John Ellis, this book is essential reading for scholars and students of film, television and media studies.

James Walters is Reader in Film and Television Studies at the University of Birmingham. He is the author and editor of many books in these fields, and his work has appeared in numerous collections and academic journals.