Chaplin, Tamara. "Excerpt from TURNING ON THE MIND: FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS ON TELEVISION."

Chaplin, Tamara. Turning on the Mind: French Philosophers on Television. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2007. In the decades following World War II, television laid siege to the culture of the book. However, with French television regarded less as a creative form in its own right than as a means for the transmission of the classical heritage, most early aficionados saw the medium not as a threat but rather as a boon to print culture. Television would “spread the word”—heightening public awareness about important new publications, encouraging viewers to read, and bringing the rich legacy of the French humanistic tradition directly into the homes and heads of the nation’s citizens. Few countries have worked as hard as France to merge the word and the image via the small screen. Indeed, between 1953 and 1989 alone, 106 series dedicated to literary programming sought to marry these disparate entities on French TV. Since its inception, the format known as the émission littéraire, or television book show, has also provided one of the dominant platforms for the televising of philosophy in France. . . . Read the rest here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/509914.html.