Watching Dallas

By Ien Ang,

Book cover of Watching Dallas: Soap Opera and the Melodramatic Imagination

Book description

Dallas, one of the great internationally-screened soap operas, offers us first and foremost entertainment. But what is it about Dallas that makes that entertainment so successful, and how exactly is its entertainment constructed?

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Why read it?

1 author picked Watching Dallas as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’m cheating a little here, but I made the rules and there’s a little clause in the rules I made that says I can break them as long as I announce that I am breaking them. Herewith, I announce. 

This isn’t a book about readers. It’s a book about watchers—specifically the Dutch audience for the soap opera Dallas. But this book is so good and so wild, it changed forever the way I think about “reception,” including reading. I recommend this book all the time and if you want to understand the freedom and creativity of readers, you have to…

From Daniel's list on reading about reading.

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