Degree
Master of Arts
Program
Theory and Criticism
Supervisor
Allan Pero
Abstract
This thesis explores the current branding of "post-television" according to Lacanian theories of enjoyment as they inform a definition of contemporary fandom. Written in part from the perspective of the viewer, this project takes television’s fantasies of itself as a taste-system half-seriously in order to examine deadlocked desire, the context of superegoic enjoyment, and their relevance to critical consumption. For a medium conventionally considered trivial and idiotic, television’s current self-importance provides a perverse and critical occasion to consider the urgency surrounding our stuff–loving.
Recommended Citation
Bernstein, Rebecca Erin, "Very Pressing Television and Other Imaginary Things" (2016). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 3887.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/3887