Female spectacle : the theatrical roots of modern feminism / Susan A. Glenn.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Glenn, Susan A. (Susan Anita), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in the theater--United States--History--20th century.

Women in the theater.

Women in the theater--United States--History--19th century.

Actresses--United States--Biography.

Actresses.

Feminism and theater--United States.

Feminism and theater.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 p.)

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, [2000]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

When the French actress Sarah Bernhardt made her first American tour in 1880, the term "feminism" had not yet entered our national vocabulary. But over the course of the next half-century, a rising generation of daring actresses and comics brought a new kind of woman to center stage. Exploring and exploiting modern fantasies and fears about female roles and gender identity, these performers eschewed theatrical convention and traditional notions of womanly modesty. They created powerful images of themselves as ambitious, independent, and sexually expressive "New Women." Female Spectacle reveals the theater to have been a powerful new source of cultural authority and visibility for women. Ironically, theater also provided an arena in which producers and audiences projected the uncertainties and hostilities that accompanied changing gender relations. From Bernhardt's modern methods of self-promotion to Emma Goldman's political theatrics, from the female mimics and Salome dancers to the upwardly striving chorus girl, Susan Glenn shows us how and why theater mattered to women and argues for its pivotal role in the emergence of modern feminism.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Introduction

1 The Bernhardt Effect: Self-Advertising and the Age of Spectacle

2 Mirth and Girth: The Politics of Comedy

3 The Strong Personality: Female Mimics and the Play of the Self

4 The Americanization of Salome: Sexuality, Race, and the Careers of the Vulgar Princess

5 "The Eyes of the Enemy": Female Activism and the Paradox of Theater

6 "Nationally Advertised Legs": How Broadway Invented "The Girls"

7 "Like All the Rest of Womankind Only More So": The Chorus Girl Problem and American Culture

Conclusion: The Legacy of Female Spectacle

Abbreviations

Notes

Acknowledgments

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [227]-273) and index.

ISBN:

9780674037663

0674037669

OCLC:

1230567636