Overview
- Examines the ways that women in Danish fiction are problematised because of their relationships to motherhood
- Foregrounds the importance of studying trends in narratives and themes across production methods and genres.
- Argues that the way mothers are represented on screen in Denmark interacts with Danish cultural and social policy.
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender (PSRG)
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Table of contents (7 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This book combines content analysis of film and television cases, the examination of policy documents, and first-hand interview material with Danish industry professionals, tracing the pivotal moments in media and welfare state history to unite these two overlapping spheres: welfare state social policy and media imagery. In doing so, it addresses a gap in existing academic and policy documents to demonstrate how motherhood and femininity are presented in contemporary state-supported Danish screen fiction.
As an industry premised on state funding and public service values, Danish screen fiction plays a cogent role in shaping and communicating cultural norms and provides a space for the cultivation of belonging and a sense of a shared identity. For this reason, it is vital to identify and examine representational trends and patterns in popular media formats. This book argues that the political narrative of gender equality, democracy and universal social support that permeatesDanish state policy is undermined in screen fiction, wherein working mother characters are problematised and the welfare system’s integrity is challenged. This book asserts that the framing of femininity, motherhood and citizenship in many contemporary Danish films and television dramas indicates a cultural concern about the welfare state’s institutionalisation of caregiving and presents absent mothers as an indirect cause of crime, trauma or social unrest.
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Djuna Hallsworth is an early career researcher with a PhD in Gender and Cultural Studies from the University of Sydney. She received her PhD for her thesis entitled “Motherhood in the Danish Welfare State” which was accepted without conditions in 2020. Her research spans welfare state policy, media representations, feminist theory, disability studies and female sexuality. Though born and raised in Australia, Djuna has spent much time in Denmark and is interested in studying the small nation’s film and television production methods, and how these interact with Danish social and cultural policy. With a background in lecturing and tutoring students across a range of ages and abilities, Djuna produces research that is accessible and engaging. She has published studies of public service broadcasting in Denmark and the representation of mental illness in Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House, and has lectured in cultural policy at the University of Sydney.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Danish Mothers On-Screen
Authors: Djuna Hallsworth
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in (Re)Presenting Gender
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-88579-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88578-6Published: 20 November 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-88581-6Published: 21 November 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-88579-3Published: 19 November 2021
Series ISSN: 2662-9364
Series E-ISSN: 2662-9372
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XI, 207
Topics: Media and Communication, European Cinema and TV, Popular Culture , Cultural Studies