Adventures in Shondaland

Identity Politics and the Power of Representation

Edited by Rachel Alicia Griffin and Michaela D.E. Meyer

Rutgers University Press

Innovator Award for Edited Collection from the Central States Communication Association (CSCA)

Shonda Rhimes is one of the most powerful players in contemporary American network television. Beginning with her break-out hit series Grey’s Anatomy, she has successfully debuted Private Practice, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder, The Catch, For The People, and Station 19. Rhimes’s work is attentive to identity politics, “post-” identity politics, power, and representation, addressing innumerable societal issues. Rhimes intentionally addresses these issues with diverse characters and story lines that center, for example, on interracial friendships and relationships, LGBTIQ relationships and parenting, the impact of disability on familial and work dynamics, and complex representations of womanhood. This volume serves as a means to theorize Rhimes’s contributions and influence by inspiring provocative conversations about television as a deeply politicized institution and exploring how Rhimes fits into the implications of twenty-first century television.

Full of sophisticated analysis, this comprehensive and robust edited collection explores a diverse range of topics, including identity, representation, fandom, the media industry, and reception/meaning-making. Adventures in Shondaland is an impressive, necessary contribution to scholarship. Robin R. Means Coleman, coeditor of Fight the Power! The Spike Lee Reader

This is a must-read collection of research and essays on the showrunner whose shows have transformed must-see TV in the age of social media. Insightful, critical—and fun. Catherine R. Squires, author of The Post-Racial Mystique: Media and Race in the Twenty-First Century

Chronicle of Higher Education new scholarly books weekly book list, by Nina C. Ayoub Chronicle of Higher Education

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With Good Reason Radio 'The Shondaland Revolution' interview with Michaela D. E. Meyer With Good Reason Radio

Offers a thorough account of the complex politics of representation in Shondaland and offers important insights for readers in television studies, feminist media studies and critical race studies. Critical Studies in Television

RACHEL ALICIA GRIFFIN is an associate professor of race and communication at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

MICHAELA D.E. MEYER is a professor in the department of communication at Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia.

Contents
Introduction: Riding Shondaland’s Rollercoasters: Critical Cultural Television Studies in the 21st Century
Michaela D. E. Meyer and Rachel Alicia Griffin

Part I: Quality Television’s Cultural Dominance: The Auteur Comes to Television Studies
Chapter 1: Trauma, Spin, and Murder: The Carnival Spectacle in Shondaland
Richard G. Jones, Jr. and Emily Vajjala

Chapter 2: Wounded Detachments, Differential Alliances: Beyond Identity & Telos in Shondaland’s Heterotopia
Joan Faber McAlister

Chapter 3: Abortion in Shondaland: Daring Departures from Oppressive Industry Conventions
Jessica L. Furgerson

Chapter 4: Soundtracking Shondaland: Televisual Identity Mapped Through Music
Jennifer Billinson and Michaela D.E. Meyer

Part II: Shondaland’s Paradoxical Identity Politics and the Fantastical “Post-”
Chapter 5: Race (Lost and Found) in Shondaland: The Rise of Multiculuralism in Primetime Network Television
Jade Petermon

Chapter 6: Emb(Race)ing Visibility: Callie Torres’s (Im)Perfect Operation of Bisexuality on Grey’s Anatomy
Shadee Abdi and Bernadette Marie Calafell

Chapter 7: The Problematics of Postracial Colorblindness: Exploring Cristina Yang’s Asianness in Grey’s Anatomy
Stephanie L. Young and Vincent Pham

Chapter 8: Interracial Intimacies: From Shondaland to the Post-racial Promised Land
Myra Washington and Tina M. Harris

Part III: Consumption, Ethics, and Morality: Shondaland Fandom as Cultural Meaning Making
Chapter 9: #BlackLivesMatter on Scandal: Analyzing Divergent Fan Reactions to ‘The Lawn Chair’ Episode
Mark P. Orbe

Chapter 10: Blurring Production Boundaries with Fan Empowerment: Scandal as Social Television
Mary Ingram-Waters and Leslie Balderas

Chapter 11: Media Criticism & Morality Policing on Twitter: Fan Responses to How to Get Away with Murder
Melissa Ames

Chapter 12: Dying for the Next Episode: Living and Working Within Shondaland’s Medical Universe
Sean Swenson

Notes on Contributors
Index

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