Figures of Time

<div>Many contemporary television series from <i>Modern Family</i> to <i>How to Get Away with Murder</i> open an episode or season with a conflict and then go back in time to show how that conflict came to be. In <i>Figures of Time</i> Toni Pape examines these narratives showing how these leaps in time create aesthetic experiences of time that attune their audiences to the political doctrine of preemption-a logic that justifies preemptive action to nullify a perceived future threat. Examining questions of temporality in <i>Life on Mars</i> the political ramifications of living under the auspices of a catastrophic future in <i>FlashForward</i> and how <i>Damages</i> disrupts the logic of preemption Pape shows how television helps shift political culture away from a model of rational deliberation and representation toward a politics of preemption and conformity. Exposing the mechanisms through which television supports a fear-based politics Pape contends will allow for the rechanneling of television's affective force into building a more productive and positive politics.</div>