Heroines of film and television : portrayals in popular culture / edited by Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter, and Bob Batchelor.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Jones, Norma, 1972- editor.

Bajac-Carter, Maja, 1979- editor.

Batchelor, Bob, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in motion pictures.

Women on television.

Heroines in motion pictures.

Heroines on television.

Physical Description:

x, 256 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, [2014]

Summary:

As portrayals of heroic women gain ground in film, television, and other media, their depictions are breaking free of females as versions of male heroes or simple stereotypes of acutely weak or overly strong women. Although heroines continue to represent the traditional roles of mothers, goddesses, warriors, whores, witches, and priestesses, these women are no longer just damsels in distress or violent warriors. In Heroines of Film and Television: Portrayals in Popular Culture, award-winning authors from a variety of disciplines examine the changing roles of heroic women across time. In this volume, editors Norma Jones, Maja Bajac-Carter, and Bob Batchelor have assembled a collection of essays that broaden our understanding of how heroines are portrayed across media, offering readers new ways to understand, perceive, and think about women. Contributors bring fresh readings to popular films and television shows such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Kill Bill, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Weeds, Mad Men, and Star Trek. The representations and interpretations of these heroines are important reflections of popular culture that simultaneously empower and constrain real life women. These essays help readers gain a more complete understanding of female heroes, especially as related to race, gender, power, and culture. A companion volume to Heroines of Comic Books and Literature, this collection will appeal to academics and broader audiences that are interested in women in popular culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

The erotic heroine and the politics of gender at work: a feminist reading of Mad Men's Joan Harris / Suzy D'Enbeau and Patrice M. Buzzanell

Burn one down: Nancy Botwin as (post)feminist (anti)heroine / Katie Snyder

Choosing her "fae"te: subversive sexuality and Lost Girl's Re/evolutionary female hero / Jennifer K. Stuller

Torture, rape, action heroines, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo / Jeffrey A. Brown

The maternal hero in Tarantino's Kill Bill / Maura Grady

We've seen this deadly web before: repackaging the femme fatale and representing the superhero(ine) as neo-noir "black widow" in Sin City / Ryan Castillo and Katie Gibson

Romance, comedy, conspiracy: the paranoid heroine in contemporary romantic comedy / Pedro Ponce

Conflicted hybridity: negotiating the warrior princess archetype in Willow / Cassandra Bausman

The woman who fell from the sky: Cowboys and Aliens' hybrid heroine / Cynthia J. Miller

Her story, too: Final Fantasy X, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the feminist hero's journey / Catherine Bailey Kyle

Bollywood marriages: portrayals of matrimony in Hindi popular cinema / Rekha Sharma and Carol A. Savery

The enduring woman: race, revenge, and self-determination in Chloe, Love Is Calling You / Robin R. Means Coleman

The dark, twisted magical girls: Shojo heroines in Puella Magi Madoka Magica / Lien Fan Shen

Women on the quarterdeck: the female captain as adventure hero, 1994-2009 / A. Bowdoin Van Riper

The girl who lived: reading Harry Potter as a sacrificial and loving heroine / Norma Jones

"It's about power and it's about women": gender and the political economy of superheroes in Wonder Woman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Carolyn Cocca.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781442231498

1442231491

OCLC:

860825657