Goosebumps, YTV, and Canadian Children's Television Pat Bonner A
Reading Against the Goo: Goosebumps, YTV, and Canadian Children’s Television Pat Bonner A Thesis In The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Presented in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts (Film Studies) at Concordia University Montréal, Quebec, Canada August 2019 ©Pat Bonner, 2019 ii CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY School of Graduate Studies This is to certify that the thesis prepared By: Pat Bonner Entitled: Reading Against the Goo: Goosebumps, YTV, and Canadian Children’s Television and submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Film Studies) complies with the regulations of the University and meets the accepted standards with respect to originality and quality. Signed by the final Examining Committee: __________________________________________Chair Catherine Russell, PhD __________________________________________ Examiner (Internal) Marc Steinberg, PhD __________________________________________ Examiner (External) Charles Acland, PhD __________________________________________ Supervisor Joshua Neves, PhD Approved by __________________________________________ Chair of Department or Graduate Program Director __________ 2019 _______________________________________ Dean of Faculty, Dr. Rebecca Duclos iii ABSTRACT This thesis examines the oversight of Canadian children’s television through the Canadian-American co-venture Goosebumps (1995-1998) and the Canadian specialty children’s network YTV. Grounding Goosebumps within the North American post-network television landscape, this thesis argues that the show anticipates hypercommercialism, a term used to define “the way in which advertisers tend to colonize media spaces” (Asquith 2012). This thesis proposes that by detaching YTV and Goosebumps from the threatening connotations of hypercommercialism, scholars can better engage with the show’s reception. It further contends that Goosebumps is imbued with sensorial and perceptual operations which can help children achieve the “mastery of intertextuality” (Kinder 1999).
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