Power & (Fictional) Politics

Abstract

Sorlin’s book is the first monograph to date on the popular American political TV series House of Cards (Netflix, 2013–). In this chapter, the author recalls its British origins—the TV BBC version (1990), itself based on a novel by Michael Dobbs (1989)—highlighting the political similarities and cultural differences between the BBC series and its American adaptation, on the one hand, and the specificity of the TV medium as compared to the written literary medium, on the other. After accounting for the public’s rising appeal for backstage fictional political intrigues in the twenty-first century, Sorlin brings into focus the specificity of House of Cards in its unreserved staging of hypocrisy and manipulation. She explains why the analysis she proposes of (fictional) power and dialogue in TV series constitutes a relatively uncharted territory. She finally discusses the choice of a rarely adopted pragma-stylistic perspective for her study of House of Cards as an aesthetic whole.