Beyond the looking glass
Subtitle: narcissism and female stardom in studio-era Hollywood
By: Ana Salzberg
Publisher: Berghahn
Published: 2014
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 197
ISBN-13: 9781782383994; 9781782384007
Subjects: Women in the motion picture industry; Motion picture actors and actresses; Motion picture studios; History; Motion picture audiences; Women in motion pictures
Description: As living subjects rather than static icons, studio-era Hollywood actresses actively negotiated a balance between their public personas, film roles, and corporeal presence. The contemporary audience's engagement with the experience of these actresses unsettles the traditional model of narcissistic identification, which divides the off-screen spectator from his/her on-screen ideal. Exploring the fan's desire for a material connection to the performer - as well as the star's own dialogue between embodied experience and idealized image - Beyond the Looking Glass traces on- and off-screen representations of narcissistic femininity in classical Hollywood through studies of stars like Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner, and Marilyn Monroe. Merging historical and theoretical concerns, with particular attention to the resonance of golden-age Hollywood in new media, this book explores the movie screen as a medium of shared experience between spectator and star. --Provided by publisher.
Notes: "Berghahn on film"--Cover.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 183-192) and index.

Includes filmography.