Fleabag, Modernism, and New Television

Bibliographic Data

ID8895459
AuthorsMartin Shuster (0000-0001-7543-1188, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume51
Issue3
Pages324-336
Publication date2021-02-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cras-2020-013
OpenAlexW3128095067
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited31

This article reflects on the recent prominence of direct address—characters speaking directly to the camera—within new television. With particular reference to Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s Fleabag (BBC Three, 2016–19), the phenomenon of direct address is in this context situated amid the broader history of pictorial art, especially painting and the problem of theatricality first introduced by Denis Diderot in the eighteenth century and taken up in the last century by Michael Fried. The article concludes by showing how Fleabag’s use of direct address both fits neatly into this art history and moves beyond it, showing especially how Fleabag’s use of direct address substantially comments on modernity, on the status of art (especially new television), and even on the status of religion

Aesthetics · Art · Art history · Bridge (graph theory · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Literature · Modernism (music · Modernity · Painting · Phenomenon · Situated · Computer Science · Gothic Literature and Media Analysis · History · Philosophy · Public Spaces through Art · Visual Culture and Art Theory

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