Edinburgh University Press

Reality TV

Misha Kavka

February 2012 · 200 S. · Geb. · 9780748637225 · GBP £ 65,00

Paperback · 9780748637232 · GBP £ 17,99

The rise and development of reality TV

This book is a study of the Reality TV format which, in less than a decade, has transformed network programming schedules, branded satellite and digital stations, become a favourite target for anti-television campaigners, and turned viewers into savvy readers of (and participants in) the mechanics of television production. The impact of this form of unscripted programming, for which no
term existed until the early 1990s, is undeniable. Yet, despite reality television’s comparatively short tenure on our screens, its history is already in the process of being distorted, fictionalised or forgotten by viewers, commentators and even television scholars.

Misha Kavka is a Lecturer in Film, Television & Media Studies at the University of Auckland.

The Truth About William Shakespeare

Fact, Fiction and Modern Biographies

David Ellis

März 2012 · 208 S. · Gebunden · 9780748646661 · GBP £ 60,00

A polemical attack on the ways recent Shakespeare biographers have disguised their lack of information

How can biographies of Shakespeare continue to appear when so little is known about him? And when what is known has been in the public domain for so long? Why have the majority of the biographies published in the last decade been written by distinguished Shakespeareans who ought to know better? To solve this puzzle, David Ellis looks at the methods that Shakespeare’s biographers have used to hide their lack of knowledge. At the same time, by exploring eff orts to write a life of Shakespeare along traditional lines, it asks what kind of animal ‘biography’
really is and how it should be written.

David Ellis is Professor of English Literature at the University of Kent at Canterbury.