Star gazing : Hollywood cinema and female spectatorship
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Star gazing : Hollywood cinema and female spectatorship
Routledge, 1994
- : pbk
Available at / 24 libraries
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Note
Bibliography: p. 264-274
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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ISBN 9780415091787
Description
"Star-Gazing" puts female spectators into theories of spectatorship. Combining film theory with a body of ethnographic research, Jackie Stacey investigates the place of movie stars - Joan Crawford, Rita Hayworth, Bette Davis, Lauren Bacall, Doris Day, Deanna Durbin - in women's memories of wartime and post-war Britain, when cinema-going was at an all-time high. Demonstrating the importance of cultural and national location, Stacey focuses on three key processes of spectatorship - escapism, identification and consumption. Her study challenges the universalism of the psychoanalytic approach which has dominated the feminist agenda within film studies for two decades, and gives a new direction to questions of popular culture, female pleasure and female desire.
- Volume
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: pbk ISBN 9780415091794
Description
In a historical investigation of the pleasures of cinema, Star Gazing puts female spectators back into theories of spectatorship. Combining film theory with a rich body of ethnographic research, Jackie Stacey investigates how female spectators understood Hollywood stars in the 1940's and 1950's. Her study challenges the universalism of psychoanalytic theories of female spectatorship which have dominated the feminist agenda within film studies for over two decades.
Drawing on letters and questionnaires from over three hundred keen cinema-goers, Stacey investigates the significance of certain Hollywood stars in women's memories of wartime and postwar Britain. Three key processes of spectatorship - escapism, identification and consumption - are explored in detail in terms of their multiple and changing meanings for female spectators at this time. Star Gazing demonstrates the importance of cultural and national location for the meanings of female spectatorship, giving a new direction to questions of popular culture and female desire.
Table of Contents
List of illustrations, Acknowledgements, 1 HOW DO I LOOK?, 2 FROM THE MALE GAZE TO THE FEMALE SPECTATOR, 3 THE LOST AUDIENCE: RESEARCHING CINEMA HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF THE RESEARCH, 4 HOLLYWOOD CINEMA - THE GREAT ESCAPE, 5 FEMININE FASCINATIONS: A QUESTION OF IDENTIFICATION?, 6 WITH STARS IN THEIR EYES: FEMALE SPECTATORS AND THE PARADOXES OF CONSUMPTION, 7 RELOCATING FEMALE SPECTATORSHIP, Appendix 1 Letter published in Woman's Realm and Woman's Weekly, Appendix 2 Questionnaire, Appendix 3 Readers' profiles by age and class: Woman's Realm and Woman's Weekly, Notes, Bibliography, Index
by "Nielsen BookData"
