Becoming Cleopatra : the shifting image of an icon / Francesca T. Royster.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Royster, Francesca T.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C--In literature.

Cleopatra.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C--In motion pictures.

Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, -30 B.C.

Physical Description:

xii, 258 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Summary:

Cleopatra is One of Our Icons of "Exotic" Femininity. Sexy, political, and racially ambiguous -- since the time of Shakespeare she has been a central character in popular culture. And, more often than not. Cleopatra has been imagined as the epitome of dangerous female sexuality. Moving fluidly from Shakespeare's England to contemporary Los Angeles. Francesca T. Royster looks at the performance of race and sexuality in a wide range of portrayals of Cleopatra. Royster begins with Shakespeare's original appropriation of Plutarch, and then moves on to analyze performances of the Cleopatra icon by Josephine Baker, Elizabeth Taylor, Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones) and Queen Latifah (Set It Off). Royster argues that the staging of Cleopatra as a "perpetual motion machine of desire" highlights a larger cultural anxiety about women, sexuality, and race.

Contents:

Part I Cleopatra and the White Imaginary

Chapter 2 African Dreams, Egyptian Nightmares: Cleopatra and Becoming England 33

Chapter 3 Cleopatra and the Birth of Film: Staging Perpetual Motion 59

Chapter 4 Egyptian Scandals: Elizabeth Taylor's Cleopatra and the White Grotesque 93

Part II Cleopatra and African American Counter Narratives

Chapter 5 Becoming Cleopatra/Becoming Girl: Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, Her Favorite Roman and Reclaiming the Lives of Black Girls 121

Chapter 6 Cleopatra Jones: Blaxploitation and Tactical Alliances with Shakespeare 145

Chapter 7 Queering Cleo: Set It Off and Queen Latifah's "Butch-in-the-Hood" 171

Epilogue: Cleopatra in an Age of Racial Profiling 197.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [211]-251) and index.

ISBN:

1403961085

1403961093

OCLC:

51460541