Édith Piaf : A Cultural History / David Looseley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Looseley, David, author.

Language:

English

Genre:

Biographies.

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Other Title:

Knowledge Unlatched.

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2015.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

The world-famous French singer Édith Piaf (1915-63) was never just a singer. Dozens of biographies of her, of variable quality, have seldom got beyond the well known and usually contested †̃facts' of her life. This book suggests new ways of understanding her. A †̃cultural history' of Piaf means exploring her cultural, social and political significance as a national and international icon, looking at her shifting meanings over time, at home and abroad. How did she become a star and a myth? What did she come to mean in life and in death? At the centenary of her birth and more than fifty years after her passing, why do we still remember her work and commemorate her through the work of others, from Claude Nougaro and Elton John to Ben Harper and Zaz, as well as in films, musicals, documentaries and tribute acts around the world? What does she mean today? The book proposes the notion of an imagined Piaf.

Contents:

Part I Narrating Piaf

1 Inventing la Môme 27

2 Piaf and her public 45

3 A singer at war 65

Part II Piaf and Chanson

4 A new Piaf 83

5 High art, low culture: Piaf and la chanson française 97

6 Ideology, tragedy, celebrity: a new middlebrow 113

Part III Afterlives

7 Losing Piaf 135

8 Remembering Piaf 153

9 Performing Piaf 171.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Local Notes:

KU Select 2018: HSS Backlist Books

BiblioBoard internal publisher id: 102596

ISBN:

9781781382578

Access Restriction:

Open Access Unrestricted online access