Format:
XI, 222 Seiten :
,
Illustrationen.
ISBN:
978-0-8071-8178-2
Content:
"Playing Cleopatra argues that Parisian stage performances of Cleopatra engendered broader cultural and political debates regarding the meaning of womanhood and of Frenchness in France's Third Republic (1871-1940). In the context of late nineteenth-century Egyptomania, Cleopatra's eroticized image--as well as her controversial legacy of female empowerment--resonated in new ways with a French public engaged in reassessing feminine sexuality, racialized beauty, and national identity. By playing Cleopatra, Sarah Bernhardt, Colette, and Josephine Baker did more than personify a character.
Content:
They embodied the myriad ways in which celebrity was racialized, gendered, and commoditized, and they generated a model of female stardom that set the stage for twentieth-century celebrity long before the Hollywood machine's mass manufacture of "stars." At the same time, these women engaged with broader debates regarding the meaning of womanhood, celebrity, and Frenchness in the tumultuous decades before World War II. To illustrate connections between theatricality and national identity politics during this period, Grout examines a series of interrelated questions.
Content:
How and why did portrayals of Cleopatra influence French attitudes regarding race, sexuality, and gender? To what extent did Bernhardt, Colette, and Baker manipulate the image of Cleopatra to challenge social norms and to generate new models of womanhood? Why was Cleopatra--an ancient, mythologized queen--the chosen vehicle for these spectacular expressions of modern womanhood? Finally, how did media coverage of these stage performances and reportage devoted to the celebrity and private lives of the performers themselves facilitate French acceptance of or encourage a backlash against the new models of womanhood they proposed? To answer these questions, Grout consulted a variety of archival sources, including plays, periodicals, auto/biographies, personal letters, memoirs, novels, works of art, and legislation to advance an interdisciplinary scholarship devoted to the history of women and gender as well as to the history of celebrity.
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Online-Ausgabe, PDF ISBN 978-0-8071-8186-7
Additional Edition:
Erscheint auch als Online-Ausgabe, EPUB ISBN 978-0-8071-8185-0
Language:
English
Subjects:
History
Keywords:
Frau
;
Soziale Bewegung
;
History
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