Table of Contents

Introduction
Films and Dreams
Film Dreams
Filming Dreams
Dreaming Films
Television and Dreams
Chapter I: Dreams that Begin Narratives
Chapter II: Dreams that Develop Narratives
Case Study: The Sopranos
Chapter III: Dreams that Culminate Narratives
Case Study: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Chapter IV: Dreams that end Narratives
Chapter V: Television Critiques its Dreams
Post Morpheum
Works Cited
Appendix: Television Dream Episodes

Promotional Information

First ever extensive examination of the multiple functions of dreams in television stories.

About the Author

Cynthia Burkhead, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of North Alabama, US. She is the author of the Student Companion to John Steinbeck and the coeditor of Joss Whedon: Conversations and Grace Under Pressure: Grey's Anatomy Uncovered.

Reviews

In this deftly written, cogent, comprehensive, and pioneering study, a must read for every fully conscious TV scholar, Cynthia Burkhead not only wakes up television studies to the neglected oneirics of its intricate narratology but provides some dreamy interpretations of the most engaging and essential televisual reveries.
*David Lavery, author of Joss Whedon: A Creative Portrait from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Marvel’s The Avengers*

Dreams in American Television Narratives: From Dallas to Buffy is a pioneering study of a cutting-edge topic. This book offers an engaging examination of ‘television dreaming’ in American-produced TV drama, showing how dreams function not only to deepen and extend TV drama stories, but also as vehicles for the psychological probing of television’s most intriguing characters. Focusing on TV dramas of the last three decades – from the 1990s ‘quality’ era to the most audacious examples of ‘complexity’ from recent years – this study demonstrates that the increased prevalence and significance of dreams in American TV drama owe much to the multi-layered, serialised modes of storytelling that increasingly define this once formulaic and episodic programme category.
*Trisha Dunleavy, Associate Professor of Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and author of Television Drama: Form, Agency, Innovation*