The Unexpected Prime Minister: Politics, Class and Gender in Television Fiction

• Autores: Aristotelis Nikolaidis
• Localización: Parliamentary affairs: A journal of representative politics, ISSN 0031-2290, Vol. 64, Nº 2, 2011, págs. 296-310
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article addresses the significance of television fiction in the public communication process on the basis of a comparative analysis of the television dramas A Very British Coup and The Amazing Mrs Pritchard. The narratives converge in their depiction of unconventional characters becoming Prime Ministers after achieving major electoral victories. Furthermore, both texts locate their characters within both political and personal crises, in the context of which they confront the dilemma of resignation. The article discusses the differences between the two narratives in terms of political ideology, reflects upon their portrayals of the institutional field of politics, as well as their depiction of gender and the division between the public and the private. It argues that both articulate conceptual understandings of the political and in their different ways touch upon the core concept of popular sovereignty.