Skip to navigation Skip to content
HFS Books
  • About HFS
    • Contact HFS
  • How to Order
    • Exam/Desk Copy Information
    • Ebook Information
    • Wholesale Information
    • Sales Representation
  • Privacy
  • View Cart
  • Our Publishers
    • Catholic University of America Press
    • Central European University Press
    • Family Development Press
    • Georgetown University Press
    • Indiana University Press
    • Johns Hopkins University Press
    • The Maryland Center for History and Culture
    • Modern Language Association of America
    • Mount Sinai Health System
    • Northeastern University Press
    • University of Alberta Press
    • University of New Orleans Press
    • University of South Carolina Press
    • University of Washington Press
    • University Press of Kentucky
    • Wayne State University Press
    • Wesleyan University Press
  • Our Catalog
    • Browse Titles
    • Browse Contributors
    • Browse Publishers
    • Browse Series
    • Browse Subjects
  • Special Collections
    • Dance
    • Food & Drink
    • Health & Fitness
    • History
    • Languages
    • Literary Criticism
    • Poetry
    • Political Science
    • Regional Titles
    • Religion
    • Women
  • Recent Titles
  • Forthcoming Titles
  • Our Publishers
  • Our Catalog
  • Special Collections
  • Bestsellers
  • Recent Titles
  • Forthcoming Titles
  • Contact HFS
  • Privacy
  • View Cart

9780813184470 : consuming-pleasures-hayward
Electronic book text
232 Pages
$35.00 USD
Add to Cart
9780813192826 : consuming-pleasures-hayward
Paperback / softback
232 Pages
$25.00 USD
Add to Cart
Paperback / softback
November 4, 2009
9780813192826
English
232
illus
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
.8 Pounds (US)
$25.00 USD
v2.1 Reference
Electronic book text
October 21, 2021
9780813184470
English
232
illus
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
$35.00 USD
v2.1 Reference

Consuming Pleasures

Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from Dickens to Soap Opera

By Jennifer Hayward
University Press of Kentucky
"To be continued . . ." Whether these words fall at the end of The Empire Strikes Back or a TV commercial flirtation between coffee-loving neighbors, true fans find them impossible to resist. Ever since the 1830s, when Charles Dickens's Pickwick Papers enticed a mass market for fiction, the serial has been a popular means of snaring avid audiences.

In Consuming Pleasures jennifer Hayward establishes serial fiction as a distinct genre-one defined by the activities of its audience rather than by the formal qualities of the text. Ranging from installment novels, mysteries, and detective fiction of the 1800s to the television and movie series, comics, and advertisements of the twentieth century, serials are loosely linked by what may be called, after Wittgenstein, "family resemblances." These traits include intertwined subplots, diverse casts of characters, dramatic plot reversals, suspense, and such narrative devices as long-lost family members and evil twins.

Hayward chooses four texts—Dickens's novel Our Mutual Friend (1864-65), Milton Caniff's comic strip Terry and the Pirates (1934-46), and the soap operas All My Children (1970-) and One Life to Live (1968-)—to represent the evolution of serial fiction as a genre, and to analyze the peculiar draw serials have upon their audiences.

Although the serial has enjoyed great marketplace success, traditional literary and social critics have denounced its ties to mass culture, claiming it preys upon passive fans. But Hayward argues that active serial audiences have developed identifiable strategies of consumption, such as collaborative reading and attempts to shape the production process.

About the Author

Jennifer Hayward is an assistant professor of English at the College of Wooster.

Reviews

"This remarkable study gives us, for the first time, the full story of serial fiction from the point of view of its audiences. By taking the long, historical view, Consuming Pleasures shows what we have missed in focussing on the local, short-term evolution of serial genres. Many of the cherished assumptions of genre criticism may need to be revised in light of this book's findings."—Andrew Ross, NYU

"An excellent and much-needed study. . . . an important contribution to the study of genre as an interaction between texts and their readers."—Choice

"Hayward's section on Dickens is of substantial importance to readers of Dickens."—Dickens Quarterly

"Hayward's work breaks new ground in discussing the serial text."—JASAT

"Hayward aims to establish common features of mass-market serials across historical eras and genres, and to counteract scholarly dismissal of mass culture forms like soap operas, by elucidating audiences' active roles. She succeeds in both aims."—Nineteenth-Century Literature

"Hayward's thesis is a provocative one . . . a strong case is made here for the value of studying popular fiction in all its forms."—Ohioana Quarterly

University Press of Kentucky
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social (589 Titles)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture (220 Titles)
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE / Sociology / General (191 Titles)

Paperback / softback
November 4, 2009
9780813192826
English
232
illus
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
.8 Pounds (US)
$25.00 USD
v2.1 Reference
Electronic book text
October 21, 2021
9780813184470
English
232
illus
9.00 Inches (US)
6.00 Inches (US)
$35.00 USD
v2.1 Reference
9780813184470 : consuming-pleasures-hayward
Electronic book text
232 Pages
$35.00 USD
Add to Cart
9780813192826 : consuming-pleasures-hayward
Paperback / softback
232 Pages
$25.00 USD
Add to Cart

Other Titles in SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social

9780813182919 : so-wise-were-our-elders-mcdowell

"So Wise Were Our Elders"

Mythic Narratives from the Kamsá
John Holmes McDowell
Mar 2025 - University Press of Kentucky
$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback
$12.95 USD - Electronic book text
9780253071033 : read-in-the-name-of-your-lord-mouftah

Read in the Name of Your Lord

Islamic Literacy Development in Revolutionary Egypt
Nermeen Mouftah
Nov 2024 - Indiana University Press
$80.00 USD - Hardback
$30.00 USD - Paperback / softback
9780253070968 : living-in-heritage-zhang

Living in Heritage

Tulou as Vernacular Architecture, Global Asset, and Tourist Destination in Contemporary China
Lijun Zhang
Oct 2024 - Indiana University Press
$80.00 USD - Hardback
$35.00 USD - Paperback / softback
See All 589 Titles in SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social


Post navigation

Previous post: Eye of the Taika
Next post: Urban Cascadia and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice
Popular Subjects
  • ARCHITECTURE
    • General
    • Design, Drafting & Presentation
    • History of Architecture
    • Landscape
    • Urban & Land Use Planning
    • more…
  • ART
    • American
    • Asian
    • Australian & Oceanian
    • Art History
    • Individual Artists
    • Native American
    • more…
  • BIOGRAPHY
    • Historical
    • Literary Figures
    • Memoirs
    • Performing Arts
    • Political
    • Women
    • more…
  • BUSINESS & ECONOMICS
    • Corporate & Business History
    • Economic Development
    • Economic History
    • Government & Business
    • Labor
    • more…
  • EDUCATION
    • Higher
    • Education History
    • Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects
    • Policy & Reform
    • more…
  • FICTION
    • Historical
    • Literary
    • Science Fiction
    • Short Stories
    • Women
    • more…
  • FOREIGN LANGUAGES
    • Arabic
    • French
    • Spanish
    • more…
  • HEALTH & FITNESS
    • Alzheimer’s & Dementia
    • Cancer
    • Children’s Health
    • Healthy Living
    • Women’s Health
    • more…
  • HISTORY
    • Africa
    • Ancient
    • Asia
    • Europe
    • Latin America
    • Middle East
    • Social History
    • United States
    • more…
  • LANGUAGE ARTS
    • Journalism
    • Linguistics
    • Rhetoric
    • Study & Teaching
    • more…
  • LAW
    • General
    • Criminal Law
    • Jurisprudence
    • Legal History
    • more…
  • LITERARY CRITICISM
    • American
    • Ancient & Classical
    • European
    • Poetry
    • Semiotics & Theory
    • Women Authors
    • more…
  • MEDICAL
    • Caregiving
    • Ethics
    • Genetics
    • Health Policy
    • Medical History
    • Public Health
    • more…
  • MUSIC
    • Classical
    • Country & Bluegrass
    • Ethnomusicology
    • Folk & Traditional
    • History & Criticism
    • Jazz
    • Opera
    • more…
  • PERFORMING ARTS
    • Dance
    • Film
    • History & Criticism
    • Individual Director
    • Theater
    • more…
  • PHILOSOPHY
    • Ancient & Classical
    • Ethics
    • Individual Philosophers
    • Medieval
    • Modern
    • Political
    • more…
  • POETRY
    • African American
    • American
    • Anthologies
    • Canadian
    • English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
    • European
    • more…
  • POLITICAL SCIENCE
    • American Government
    • Comparative Politics
    • History & Theory
    • International Relations
    • Public Policy
    • Security
    • more…
  • PSYCHOLOGY
    • General
    • Mental Health
    • Psychoanalysis
    • more…
  • RELIGION
    • Catholicism
    • Church History
    • Christian Theology
    • Islam
    • Religion, Politics & State
    • more…
  • SCIENCE
    • Biology
    • Ecology
    • History of Science
    • Natural History
    • Physics
    • more…
  • SOCIAL SCIENCE
    • African American Studies
    • Cultural & Social Anthropology
    • Asian American Studies
    • Native American Studies
    • Sociology
    • Women’s Studies
    • more…
  • TECHNOLOGY
    • Aeronautics
    • Agriculture
    • History of Technology
    • Military Science
    • more…

© HFS Books 2021

ONIX-enabled by BiblioMeta