the Feminist, Housewife, and Soap Opera

This is a history of the feminist engagement with soap opera which uses a wide range of sources including fascinating interviews with key soap opera scholars. It is the story of why feminists were interested in soap opera, and who they thought watched it. The Feminist, the Housewife, and the Soap Opera traces the history of the feminist engagement with soap opera using a wide range of sources from programme publicity to interviews with key soap opera scholars. The book reveals that feminist scholarship on soap opera was a significant site of which the identity 'feminist intellectual' was produced in dialogue with her imagined other, the soap opera watching housewife. The book integrates personal autobiographical accounts within a broader history which traces both the move from 'women's liberation' to 'Feminism', and the acceptance of soap opera as a serious object of study.