Introduction

Abstract

The editors situate the rise of transatlantic television drama within the history of transnational cultural exchange, theories of transnationalism, and scholarship on the topic within the field of media studies. They argue that broadcasting is uniquely entangled with tensions over national culture and identity to which scholars have responded with three distinct “waves” of thought. The first wave centered on fears of “Americanization,” the second focused on the “globalization” of culture via international trade, while the third has shifted to a transnational approach that is concerned with complex flows of influence and meaning. Theories of transnationalism put forward by Arjun Appadurai, Mette Hjort, Ien Ang, and others are brought to bear on considerations of international industries, texts, and fandom today, with particular attention to the transatlantic sphere. Finally, the key themes of transnational coproduction, new transnational relationships, and transnational representations are traced across and between the volume’s three parts.

Shakespeare and the new discourses of television: quality, aesthetics, and The Hollow Crown

“…15 Such a development allows for discussion of the double manoeuvre required of broadcasters -an engagement with the global marketplace that, at one and the same time, involves the mobilisation of 'national meanings and brandings that can circulate successfully on a transatlantic and a global stage'. 16 When Pippa Harris, an executive producer of The Hollow Crown and a founder of Neal Street Productions, states that the series is 'Shakespeare for a worldwide audience', she is working in a register beyond that of the Shakespearean platitude and inside an economic system premised on global sales and demand. 17 Rather than pointing up Shakespearean universality, Harris here signals content with the potential to move across borders and the global hinterland in which The Hollow Crown ideally participates.…”

“…In turn, this has meant that television studies' traditional emphasis on the importance of national programming has ceded place to a '"third wave" of scholarship' that prioritises 'transnational' approaches. 15 Such a development allows for discussion of the double manoeuvre required of broadcasters -an engagement with the global marketplace that, at one and the same time, involves the mobilisation of 'national meanings and brandings that can circulate successfully on a transatlantic and a global stage'. 16 When Pippa Harris, an executive producer of The Hollow Crown and a founder of Neal Street Productions, states that the series is 'Shakespeare for a worldwide audience', she is working in a register beyond that of the Shakespearean platitude and inside an economic system premised on global sales and demand.…”

“…35 But if the tracery of the woodwork compels the eye to explore inner recesses, meanings accrue, too, from what the camera selects for spectator involvement -the rood invites a process of complex seeing whereby we are encouraged to recall the play's figurative construction of Richard as Christ-like (he likens himself to Christ in allusions to Judas and Pilate and quotations from the Gospels [4.1.171-2, 4.1.239-42, 5.5. [16][17]). The film will build upon these identifications in the final images of the protagonist in a loincloth, a costuming detail that brings the connection full circle.…”