Representations of Femininity in American Genre Cinema [electronic resource] : The Woman's Film, Film Noir, and Modern Horror /
Greven, David.author.
The theme of female transformation informs the Hollywood representation of femininity from the studio era to the present. Whether it occurs physically, emotionally, or on some other level, transformation allows female protagonists to negotiate their own complex desires and to resist the compulsory marriage plot. A sweeping study of Hollywood from Now, Voyager, The Heiress, and Flamingo Road to Carrie, the Alien films, The Brave One, and the slasher horror genre, this book boldly unsettles commonplace understandings of genre film, female sexuality, and Freudian theory as it makes a strong new case for the queer relevance of female representation.
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Introduction : femininity and film genres -- Freud and classical Hollywood. Freud and the death-mother -- Transformations of the woman's film : or, feminine myths -- Modern horror. Modern horror as the concealed woman's film -- Medusa in the mirror : Brian de Palma's Carrie -- Demeter and Persephone in space : transformation, femininity, and myth in the alien films -- The finalizing woman : horror, femininity, and queer monsters -- Coda : the brave one.
The theme of female transformation informs the Hollywood representation of femininity from the studio era to the present. Whether it occurs physically, emotionally, or on some other level, transformation allows female protagonists to negotiate their own complex desires and to resist the compulsory marriage plot. A sweeping study of Hollywood from Now, Voyager, The Heiress, and Flamingo Road to Carrie, the Alien films, The Brave One, and the slasher horror genre, this book boldly unsettles commonplace understandings of genre film, female sexuality, and Freudian theory as it makes a strong new case for the queer relevance of female representation.
Feminist theory.
Motion pictures and television.
Communication.
Arts.
Motion pictures-History.
Sociology.
Feminism.
Screen Studies.
Media Studies.
Arts.
Film History.
Gender Studies.