Dietrich icon / Gerd Gemünden and Mary R. Desjardins, editors.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Gemünden, Gerd, 1959-

Desjardins, Mary R., 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dietrich, Marlene.

Physical Description:

vi, 420 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Durham : Duke University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Few movie stars have meant as many things to as many different audiences as the iconic Marlene Dietrich. The actress-chanteuse had a career of some seventy years: one that included not only classical Hollywood cinema and the concert hall but also silent film in Weimar Germany, theater, musical comedy, vaudeville, army camp shows, radio, recordings, television, and even the circus. Having renounced and left Nazi Germany, assumed American citizenship, and entertained American troops, Dietrich has long been a flashpoint in Germany's struggles over its cultural heritage. She has also figured prominently in European and American film scholarship, in studies ranging from analyses of the directors with whom she worked to theories about the ideological and psychic functions of film. Dietrich Icon, which includes essays by established and emerging film scholars, is a unique examination of the many meanings of Dietrich.

Some of the essays in this collection revisit such familiar topics as Germany's complex relationship with Dietrich, her ambiguous sexuality, her place in the lesbian archive, her star status, and her legendary legs, but with fresh critical perspective and an emphasis on historical background. Other essays establish new avenues for understanding Dietrich's persona. Among these are a reading of Marlene Dietrich's ABC-an eclectic autobiographical compendium containing Dietrich's thoughts on such diverse subjects as "steak," "Sternberg (Joseph von)," "Stravinsky," and "stupidity"-and an argument that Dietrich manipulated her voice-through her accent, sexual innuendo, and singing-as much as her visual image in order to convey a cosmopolitan world-weariness. Still other essays consider the specter of aging that loomed over Dietrich's career, as well as the many imitations of the Dietrich persona that have emerged since the star's death in 1992.

Contents:

Mary R. Desjardins, Gerd Gemunden Introduction: Marlene Dietrich's Appropriations 3

/ Steven Bach Falling in Love Again 25

I The Icon

/ Lutz Koepnick Dietrich's Face 43

/ Nora M. Alter The Legs of Marlene Dietrich 60

/ Amy Lawrence Marlene Dietrich: The Voice as Mask 79

II Establishing the Star Persona

/ Joseph Garncarz Playing Garbo: How Marlene Dietrich Conquered Hollywood 103

/ Elisabeth Bronfen Seductive Departures of Marlene Dietrich: Exile and Stardom in The Blue Angel 119

/ Patrice Petro The Blue Angel in Multiple-Language Versions: The Inner Thighs of Miss Dietrich 141

/ Mary Beth Haralovich Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus: Advertising Dietrich in Seven Markets 162

/ Erica Carter Marlene Dietrich: The Prodigal Daughter 186

III "Marlene Has Sex but No Gender

/ Gaylyn Studlar Marlene Dietrich and the Erotics of Code-Bound Hollywood 211

/ Alice A. Kuzniar "Its Not Often That I Want a Man": Reading for a Queer Marlene 239

/ Mark Williams Get/Away: Structure and Desire in Rancho Notorious 259

IV (Auto -) Biography and the Archive

/ Amelie Hastie The Order of Knowledge and Experience: Marlene Dietrich's ABC 289

/ Mary R. Desjardins Dietrich Dearest: Family Memoir and the Fantasy of Origins 310

/ Eric Rentschler An Icon between the Fronts: Vilsmaier's Recast Marlene 328

/ Judith Mayne "Life Goes On without Me": Marlene Dietrich, Old Age, and the Archive 347

/ Judith Mayne Homage, Impersonation, and Magic: An Interview with James Beaman 364

/ Werner Sudendorf "Is That Me?": The Marlene Dietrich Collection Berlin 376.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [385]-400) and index.

ISBN:

0822338068

9780822338062

082233819X

9780822338192

OCLC:

71146386