Abstract
This essay begins with a discussion of the primacy of the nuclear family in American drama. Our best playwrights have been strikingly preoccupied with domestic life, consistently portraying the family as a dream of solidarity and a nightmare of enmeshment. Daytime serial dramas are also stories about American domestic life, privileging a conservatively defined nuclear family and imaging conflicting hopes and fears around it. In serious as well as popular drama, illness is frequently the catalyst for familial destruction and restoration. The middle portion of the essay is devoted to a definition and history of American soap opera, providing readers with a knowledge base for the final portion, a descriptive survey of the representation of medical and social issues on daytime drama.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Alexander, Alison and Rodney Andrew Carveth. “Investigating Gender Differences in College Student Soap Opera Viewing.” Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Frentz. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992. 3-18.
Allen, Robert C. Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1985.
Allen, Robert C. “Introduction.” To Be Continued...: Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Robert C. Allen. New York: Routledge, 1995. 3-26.
Archer, Jane. “The Fate of the Subject in the Narrative Without End.” Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Frentz. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992. 89-95.
Brown, Mary Ellen. Soap Opera and Women's Talk: The Pleasures of Resistance. London: Sage Publications, 1994.
Brunsdon, Charlotte. “The Role of Soap Opera in the Development of Feminist Television Scholarship.” To Be Continued.... Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Robert C. Allen. New York: Routledge, 1995. 49-65.
Buckman, Peter. All For Love: A Study in Soap Opera. London: Salem House, 1984.
Butler, Jeremy G. “‘I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV’: Characters, Actors and Acting in Television Soap Opera.” To Be Continued...: Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Robert C. Allen. New York: Routledge, 1995. 145-163.
Carveth, Rodney Andrew. “Exploring the Effects of ‘Love in the Afternoon’: Does Soap Opera Viewing Create Perceptions of a Promiscuous World?” Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Frentz. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992. 3-18.
Cassata, Mary and Thomas Skill. Life on Daytime Television: Tuning-In American Serial Drama. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1983.
Edmondson, Madeleine and David Rounds. The Soaps: Daytime Serials of Radio and TV. New York: Stein and Day, 1973.
“Expert Opinion.” Soap Opera Digest 26 Sept. 1995: 101-109.
Fuqua, Joy V. “‘There's a queer in my soapl’: The Homophobia/AIDS Story-line of One Life to Live.” To Be Continued.... Soap Operas Around the World. Ed. Robert C. Allen. New York: Routledge, 1995. 199-212.
Geraghty, Christine. Women and Soap Opera: A Study of Prime Time Soaps. Cambridge, MA: Polity Press, 1991.
Kalisch, Philip A. and Beatrice J. Kalisch. Images of Nurses on Television. New York: Springer, 1983.
McPherson, Scott. Marvin's Room. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1989.
“Love it, Hate it.” Soap Opera Digest 10 October 1995: 74-75.
Miller, Arthur. “The Family in Modern Drama.” Modern Drama: Essays in Criticism. Ed. Travis Bogard. New York: Galaxy, 1965.
Modleski, Tania. Loving With A Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women. Hamden, CT: Archon, 1982.
Mumford, Laura Stempel. Love and Ideology in the Afternoon: Soap Opera, Women, and Television Genre.” Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
O'Neill, Eugene. Long Day's Journey Into Night. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1956.
Rittenhouse, Gilah. “The Nuclear Family is Alive and Well: As The World Turns.” Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Frentz. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992. 48-53.
Rogers, Deborah D. “AIDS Spreads to the Soaps, Sort Of.” Staying Tuned: Contemporary Soap Opera Criticism. Ed. Suzanne Frentz. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1992. 57-59.
Turow, Joseph. Playing Doctor: Television, Storytelling, and Medical Power. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
West, Cheryl. Before It Hits Home. New York: Dramatists Play Service, 1993.
Williams, Carol Traynor. “It's Time For My Story”: Soap Opera Sources, Structure, and Response. Westport: Praeger, 1992.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jones, T. As the World Turns on the Sick and the Restless, So Go the Days of Our Lives: Family and Illness in Daytime Drama. Journal of Medical Humanities 18, 5–20 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025654508687
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025654508687