Overview

This book examines Downton Abbey’s dramatic narrative and visual aesthetics to interrogate centrality of power and privilege in narrative structuring and to understand audiences’ uncritical acceptance of a hierarchical universe, even as social and economic inequalities continue to run rampant. Combining textual analysis with audience research and focusing primarily on audiences in the United States and India – both former British colonies – Khan poses critical questions surrounding the meaning of nostalgic performance, the growing prevalence of injustice-inspired critique, and the underlying motives for circulating an idealized, though irrecoverable, British imperial past. Examining the contemporary relevance of these picturesque representations, which reduce history to a spectacle, Khan juxtaposes the present-day media environment with that of legacy media and highlights the construction of culture and ideology at a juncture of major changes in production, distribution, and consumption of popular culture ushered by new communication technologies. Khan posits that notwithstanding the drama’s enthusiastic reception, it does not necessarily entail an endorsement of iniquitous socio-economic-political status quo within neoliberal democracies. Rather, this book demonstrates how, in the contexts of mounting employment insecurities and economic injustices, audiences seek stability and security as reflected in the deep bonds between employer and employee and in the ideals of Liberal Paternalism which animate Downton Abbey’s dramatic universe. Ultimately, this book argues that although hegemonic ideology continues to be reconfigured and redeployed in diverse contexts for capitalistic gain, the popularity of the series is representative of both an affirmation and a critique of contemporary neoliberalism.

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9781793654731

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Reviews

Ruhi Khan’s trenchant analysis of the popularity of Downton Abbey persuasively interrogates the stakes of our obsession with lavish period dramas, showing that our desire to immerse ourselves within Edwardian splendour has much to do with neoliberal austerity and the economic precarity it produces. Offering a fantasy of stability and community, even as it naturalizes class and race hierarchies as both natural and just, the series rewrites the past as a way to foreclose our capacity to imagine the future. Khan’s superb reading of the series and its political implications shows us how powerfully the show can speak to our desire to inhabit a space of mutuality and decency, and at the same time she cogently demonstrates how Downton Abbey also gives cover to neoliberal projects that erode the very possibility of such social relations. Khan’s discerning critique offers both a nuanced reading of Downtown Abbey’s political repercussions and a model for further work at a cultural moment when political discourse fictionalises history in the mode of a period drama. * Sherryl Vint, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Riverside, USA *

Ruhi Khan’s trenchant analysis of the popularity of Downton Abbey persuasively interrogates the stakes of our obsession with lavish period dramas, showing that our desire to immerse ourselves within Edwardian splendour has much to do with neoliberal austerity and the economic precarity it produces. Offering a fantasy of stability and community, even as it naturalizes class and race hierarchies as both natural and just, the series rewrites the past as a way to foreclose our capacity to imagine the future. Khan’s superb reading of the series and its political implications shows us how powerfully the show can speak to our desire to inhabit a space of mutuality and decency, and at the same time she cogently demonstrates how Downton Abbey also gives cover to neoliberal projects that erode the very possibility of such social relations. Khan’s discerning critique offers both a nuanced reading of Downtown Abbey’s political repercussions and a model for further work at a cultural moment when political discourse fictionalises history in the mode of a period drama. * Sherryl Vint, Professor, University of California, Riverside, USA *

Author Information

Tabassum ""Ruhi"" Khan is Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at University of California, Riverside.

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