Illuminating Torchwood: Essays on Narrative, Character and Sexuality in the BBC Series

by Andrew Ireland (Editor), Donald E. Palumbo (Editor), C.W. Sullivan III (Editor)

Overview

Created in 2006 as a spinoff of Doctor Who, the internationally popular BBC television series Torchwood is a unique blend of science fiction and fantasy, with much more of an adult flavor than its progenitor. The series' "omnisexual" protagonist, maverick 51st-century time agent Captain Jack Harkness, leads a team of operatives from the present-day Torchwood Institute, a secret organization dedicated to battling supernatural and extraterrestrial criminals. With its archetypal characters, adult language, subversive humor and openly homosexual and bisexual storylines, Torchwood provides a wealth of material for scholarly analysis and debate.

Using Torchwood as its focal point, this timely collection of essays by a range of experts and enthusiasts provides an interpretive framework for understanding the continually developing forms and genres of contemporary television drama.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786445707
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Series:	Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy , #21
Pages:	251
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew Ireland is the associate dean for undergraduate students in the Media School of the United Kingdom’s Bournemouth University. In 2004 he was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction - Reading the Rift Andrew Ireland 1

Part I Narrative and Torchwood

1 Playing to the Crowd: Torchwood Knows We're Watching Andrew Ireland 11

2 Existentialism and Christian Symbolism R.C. Neighbors 22

3 Policing the Rift: The Monstrous and the Uncanny Susan J. Wolfe Courtney Huse Wika 30

4 Touching the Other: Alien Contact and Transgressive Touch Ria Cheyne 43

5 More Than Just a Hero's Journey: Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins, and Captain Jack Harkness Valerie Estelle Frankel 53

6 Screwing Aliens and Screwing with Aliens: Torchwood Slashes the Doctor Richard Berger 66

Part II Character and Torchwood

7 The Eternal Vigil: Captain Jack as Byronic Hero G. Todd Davis 79

8 Gwen-s Evil Stepmother: Concerning Gloves and Magic Slippers Valerie Estelle Frankel 90

9 Transgressive Torch Bearers: Who Carries the Confines of Gothic Aesthetics Daniel J. Rawcliffe 102

10 The Alien Woman: Othering and the Oriental Carrie Dunn 113

11 Outside the Heroic Paradigm Tom Powers 121

Part III Sexuality and Torchwood

12 "Love the coat": Bisexuality, the Female Gaze and the Romance of Sexual Politics Christopher Pullen 135

13 Fashioning Masculinity and Desire Sarah Gilligan 153

14 Sexual Relations and Sexual Identity Issues: Brave New Worlds or More of the Old One? Sherry Ginn 165

15 "Loving the Alien": The Erotics of Technology Paul Winters 181

16 Cyberwomen and Sleepers: Rereading the Mulatta Cyborg and the Black Woman's Body Elspeth Kydd 191

17 No Consent Necessary: A Feminist Perspective on Non-Consensual Penetration Carrie Dunn 203

18 Out in Space: Masculinity, Sexuality and the Science Fiction Heroics of Captain Jack Lee Barron 213

Episode Guide 227

About the Contributors 231

Index 235