This book explores fictional representations and narrative functions of animal characters in animated and live-action film and television, examining the ways in which these representations intersect with a variety of social issues. Contributors cover a range of animal characters, from heroes to villains, across a variety of screen genres and formats, including anime, comedy, romance, horror, fantasy, and science fiction. Aesthetic features of these works, along with the increased latitude that fictionalized narratives and alternative worlds provide, allow existing social issues to be brought to the forefront in order to effect change in our societies. By incorporating animal figures into media, these screen narratives have gained the ability to critique actions carried out by human beings and explore dimensions of both the human/animal connection and the intersectionality of race, culture, class, gender, and ability, ultimately teaching viewers how to become more human in our interactions with the world around us. Scholars of film studies, media studies, and animal studies will find this book of particular interest.

Children's Film in the Digital Age: Essays on Audience, Adaptation and Consumer Culture consists of essays by scholars who engage in the interpretation of American and international films produced for and about children. Divided into sections that focus on multiple audiences, film adaptation as well as nationalism, globalism and consumer culture, this volume explores how children's film must be re-examined alongside recent developments in the production of film for young cinephiles. These analyses of recent children's films take into account the effect of multi-media strategies on the child audience and the role of participatory opportunities and their pedagogical implications. Essays in this collection also address how childhood is inscribed within film and linked to various national/cultural and consumer contexts. Films over the last fifteen years, which have been released in a multiplicity of formats, reflect a reconceptualization of film genres, audiences and the impact of technological advances upon adaptation.

This timely volume takes stock of the discipline of comparative literature and its theory and practice from a Canadian perspective. It engages with the most pressing critical issues at the intersection of comparative literature and other areas of inquiry in the context of scholarship, pedagogy and academic publishing: bilingualism and multilingualism, Indigeneity, multiple canons (literary and other), the relationship between print culture and other media, the development of information studies, concerted efforts in digitization, and the future of the production and dissemination of knowledge. The authors offer an analysis of the current state of Canadian comparative literature, with a dual focus on the issues of multilingualism in Canada’s sociopolitical and cultural context and Canada’s geographical location within the Americas. It also discusses ways in which contemporary technology is influencing the way that Canadian literature is taught, produced, and disseminated, and how this affects its readings.

In the late 1980s, the rave phenomenon swept the youth culture of the United Kingdom, incorporating the generations' two newest social stimulants: modern electronic dance music and a notorious designer drug known as Ecstasy. Although the movement began in rebellion against mainstream culture, its underground dynamism soon attracted the interest of novelists, screenwriters, and filmmakers who attempted to reflect the phenomenon in their works. Through artistic and commercial popularization, the once obscure subculture was transformed into a pop-culture behemoth with powerful links to the entertainment industry. This study deals with the transformative effects of film, television and literature on club culture. Chapters furthermore reflect club culture's own effect on crime, ethnicity, sexuality and drug use. As the study traces artistic depictions of club culture's development, each chapter focuses on individual books, films and television shows that reflect the transformation of the club culture into what it is today.

In 1998, the series "Charmed", the story created by Constance M. Burge of three sisters who discover that they are powerful witches, first aired on the WB network. The series ran for eight series and into top-rating DVDs, and has established a continuing presence as cult TV. The world of "Charmed" is distinctively one of female solidarity, with sisters Piper, Prudence, Phoebe and, with the death of Pru, half-sister Paige making up the 'power of three'. In their crusade against the demonic population of their home city of San Francisco, the Halliwell sisters have also inherited their powers and "The Book of Shadows" through the female line. The expert contributors to "Investigating 'Charmed'", all of them fans of the show, explore its nature as ground breaking TV. They debate the status of "Charmed" as third wave feminist narrative, as well as its upturning of notions of sexuality, and its creation of alternative forms of family life. The San Francisco setting is explored as is "Charmed's" brand of witchcraft and fantasy, its mythological antecedents and female heroes. Looking also at the fans' relationship to the show, as well as its novelizations, fan fiction and blogs, the book on this fantastic magical show concludes with a complete Episode Guide.

In 1997, the series "Stargate SG-1" first aired on American cable television and over the course of nearly nine seasons has developed its own unique mythological superstructure. "Stargate SG-1" focuses on the dynamic relationships among the show's main characters, the four-person first-contact team: SG-1. Each week they are taken to new planets where ancient human civilizations have been seeded as slave populations by the show's arch-villains, the parasitic, body-snatching Goa'uld. The series' concerns therefore range from ancient cultures and contemporary politics, to aliens and advanced technologies, all given life with award-winning special effects and anchored by the central icon of the Stargate. "Stargate SG-1" has blossomed into a series driven by fierce fan loyalty, with lively internet discussion groups, growing 'textual poaching' in fan fiction and art, and popular annual conventions. It has also generated a spin-off, "Stargate: Atlantis". In this welcome critical celebration, contributors discuss "Stargate SG-1's" characters, cinematic techniques, its themes and its place within science fiction television and film, along with its interaction with fan fiction, its Canadian setting, its ideological framing in the American point-of-view, and the tensions between its humanistic morality and its representation of military/political objectives. There is also assessment of the currently fledgling "Stargate: Atlantis". Written for both fans and scholars, the book also includes an episode guide to the first eight seasons of "Stargate SG-1" and to the first season of "Stargate: Atlantis", as well as a glossary of terms.