Representations of femininity in american genre cinema : the woman's film, film noir, and modern ... horror

**Listed in THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION's Weekly Book List, May 20, 2011** 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. 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. 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 Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction....Pages 1-8 Front Matter....Pages 9-9 Freud and the Death-Mother....Pages 11-28 Transformations of the Woman’s Film....Pages 29-80 Front Matter....Pages 81-89 Medusa in the Mirror....Pages 91-115 Demeter and Persephone in Space....Pages 117-139 The Finalizing Woman....Pages 141-178 CODA....Pages 179-182 Back Matter....Pages 183-214