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Women,
Gender & Feminist Criticism,
Theory and History
See also: On Individual Films and Media
> Film Criticism
 The Violent Woman
Hilary Neroni
In The Violent Woman, Hilary Neroni brings psychoanalytically informed
film theory to bear on issues of femininity, violence, and narrative
in contemporary American cinema. Examining such films as Thelma
and Louise, Fargo, Natural Born Killers, and The
Long Kiss Goodnight,
Neroni explores why American audiences are so fascinated--even excited--by
cinematic representations of violent women, and what these representations
reveal about violence in our society and our cinema. Neroni argues
that violent women characters disrupt cinematic narrative and challenge
cultural ideals, suggesting how difficult it is for Hollywood--the
greatest of ideology machines--to integrate the violent women into
its typical narrative structure. Softcover, 203 pp. $29.95.
 Feminist Film Theorists
Shohini Chaudhuri
This book focuses on the groundbreaking work of Laura Mulvey, Kaja Silverman,
Teresa de Lauretis, and Barbara Creed. Each of these thinkers has
opened up a new and distinctive approach to the study of film and
this book provides the most detailed account so far of their ideas.
Shohini Chaudhuri illuminates their work by explaining the concepts
of the male gaze, the female gaze, technologies of gender, queering
desire, the monstrous-feminine, and masculinity in crisis. Softcover,
148 pp. $29.95.
 Red Velvet Seat: Women's Writing on the First Fifty Years of Cinema
Antonia Lant & Ingrid Periz
As viewers, critics, actresses and directors, women have always been central
to cinema. However, full evidence of their roles has until now remained
scant and dispersed, eclipsed in historical opinion formed through
the texts of men. Using a collection of written accounts from the turn
of the 20th century to 1950 this anthology seeks to rectify this academic
imbalance. Comendious and absorbing, Red Velvet Seat is an invaluable
contribution to the history of cinema. Softcover, 872 pp. $52.00.
 Framed:
Women in Law and Film
Orit Kamir
Some women attack and harm men who abuse them. Social norms, law
and films all participate in framing these occurences, guiding us in understanding
and judging them. Through innovative readings of a dozen movies made
between 1928 and 2001 in Europe, Japan and the United States, Orit
Kamir shows
that in representing "gender crimes," feature films have constructed
a cinematic jurisprudence, training audiences worldwide in patterns
of judgment of women (and men) in such situations. Offering a novel
formulation of the emerging field of law and film, Kamir combines
basic legal
concepts--murder,
rape, provocation, insanity and self-defense--with narratology, social
science methodologies, and film studies.
Softcover, 330 pp. $29.95.
 The
Actress: Hollywood Acting and the Female Star
Karen Hollinger
The Actress: Hollywood Acting and the Female Star investigates the contemporary
film actress both as an artist and as an ideological construct. Divided
into two sections, this book first examines the major issues in studying
film acting, stardom, and the Hollywood actress. Part two examines
five case studies: Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, Jodie Foster, Angela
Bassett, and Gwyneth Paltrow, each of whose careers exemplifies key
issues in the
creation of film stardom, the function of acting style, and the creation
of celebrity.
Softcover, 257 pp. $31.95.
 The
Modern Amazons: Warrior Women On-Screen
Dominique Mainon & James Ursini
With hundreds of stunning photographs and entertaining vignettes from classic,
cult, and little-known films, The Modern Amazon documents the
transformation of the archetypal warrior woman in film and television, from early
film figures like Joan of Arc to the present-day onslaught of strong female action
characters. Authors Dominique Mainon and James Ursini offer a one-two punch of
sheer fun and keen insight that puts this growing trend in sociological perspective.
Softcover, 400 pp. $32.95.
 Thinking
in Images: Film Theory, Feminist Philosophy and Marlene Dietrich
Catherine Constable
Examines the relationship between socio-cultural images and philosophy,
tracing the image of woman in theories of beauty, art and truth offered
by Nietzsche and his 20th century successors. Demonstrated through examination
of three Dietrich films, The Scarlet Empress, The
Devil is a Woman and
Shanghai Express. Softcover, 202 pp. $38.95.
 Into
the Vortex: Female Voice and Paradox in Film
Britta Sjogren
Into the Vortex confronts and rethinks feminist film theory's brilliant
but often pessimistic reflections on the workings of sound and voice
in film. Including close readings of major film theorists such as
Kaja Silverman
and Mary Ann Doane, Britta Sjogren offers an alternative to the ocularcentric
theory which pervades feminist film theory's critique of the representation
of sexual difference.
Softcover, 248 pp. $33.95.
 The
Women Who Knew Too Much
Second Edition
Tania Modleski
A close consideration of Hitchcock's attitude towards his female characters in
seven of his films, the first edition of The Women Who Knew Too Much has
become a classic work in feminist film theory and criticism. For this new edition,
Tania Modleski has written a new chapter in which she discusses the last fifteen
years of Hitchcock criticism, and the continued struggle for recognition of a
feminist perspective on the filmmaker's work. Softcover, 185 pp. $30.95.
 Bad
Girls: Film Fatales, Sirens, and Molls
Tony Turtu
Sensational and unapologetic, B movie bad girls of the big screen starred in
sexy suspense thrillers during film's golden age. Blinded by desire, crazed with
jealousy, and ripe with sin, the luscious, lascivious ladies of B movie fame
broke the innocent female stereotype. A celebration of the wicked, the wayward,
and the wanton, Bad Girls -- a collection of movie posters,
lobby cards, and photographs -- pays tribute to the actresses who made careers
out of being bad. Hardcover, 176 pp. $55.95.
 Theory
of the Image: Capitalism, Contemporary Film, and Women
Ann Kibbey
Theory of the Image is based on a concept of the image as a dynamic relation
rather than a thing. In its three essays, the book foregrounds the image itself
as an ideological construct. Not just an abstract debate, however, the book draws
on extensive personal interviews and also provides detailed explications of important
films in recent transnational cinema to demonstrate new theories of the image
for a global society. Softcover, 240 pp. $34.95.
 Feminist
Film Studies: Writing the Woman into Cinema
Janet McCabe
Feminist Film Studies provides an introduction to feminist film theory as
a discourse that grew in cultural significance since the 1970s to the
present. Janet McCabe traces the broad-ranging knowledges produced by
feminist film
scholarship, from formalist readings and psychoanalytical approaches
to debates initiated by cultural studies, race and queer theory. Softcover,
136 pp. $25.95.
 History
Films, Women, and Freud's Uncanny
Susan E. Linville
In this book, Susan Linville offers a sustained critique of the
history film and its reduction of women to figures of ambivalence or
absence. Historicizing and adapting Freud's concept of the uncanny
and its relationship to the maternal body as the first home, she offers
theoretically sophisticated readings of the films Midnight
Clear, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Nixon, Courage
Under Fire, Lone Star, and Limbo. Softcover, 197 pp. $32.95.
 Alien
Woman:
The Making of Lt. Ellen Ripley
Ximena Gallardo & C. Jason Smith
Across three decades and four films, Lt. Ellen Ripley's struggle
with the fierce and terrible Alien and the powers that desire it traces
the arc of women's struggles
in America. Alien Woman makes the Alien saga an important site
for the discussion and study of sex and gender systems, the refashioning of the
female body, and the creation and commodification of the female hero. Softcover,
241 pp.
$25.95.
 Projections
13: Women film-makers on film-making
Isabella Weibrecht & John Boorman
This edition of Projections brings together women working right across
the spectrum of film-making today, through a collection of interviews, conversations
and articles. With such diverse sections as Rebecca Miller's diary of making Personal
Velocity to a piece on Jean Renoir by the late and legendary critic Pauline
Kael, Projections dedicates this edition to the "welcome growth of
female input
to movie-making." Softcover, 269 pp. $34.00.
 Katherine
Hepburn: Star as Feminist
Andrew Britton
Of all the major Hollywood stars, Katherine Hepburn was the least conventional,
conforming to none of the stereotypes of female superstardom. In this scholarly
book Andrew Britton proposes a feminist reading of her films, arguing that her
persona raises problems about class, female sexuality, and women's oppression
that strain to the limits the conventions of a cinema ultimately committed to
the reassertion of bourgeois
gender roles. Softcover, 264 pp. $32.95.
 Alice
Guy Blache: Lost Visionary of the Cinema
Alison McMahan
Part of the Women Make Cinema series, which is dedicated to celebrating
the contribution of women to all aspects of film-making throughout the
world, this book pieces together the career of Alice Guy Blanche, the first
woman filmmaker and the only woman filmmaker for the first decade of the
industry's history. Softcover, 361 pp. $25.95.
 Women
Who Run the Show
Mollie Gregory
Based on over 125 interviews with women in virtually every segment
of the entertainment
business, Women Who Run the Show chronicles the careers of the most powerful
women film and tv industries. Holding nothing back, this candid history is an
eye-opening account of the female experience in Hollywood. Softcover, 448 pp.
$23.95.
Women Filmmakers: RefocusingWomen Filmmakers: Refocusing
Jacqueline Levitin, Judith Plessis and Valerie Raoul
Women Filmmakers: Refocusing is a timely exploration of the often over-looked
work of women filmmakers. It provides a rich sampling of the wealth of thought
and experience of women in the film industry and brings together in a unique
way the the views of creators and critics from around the world. Softcover, 496
pp. $34.95. Hardcover, 496 pp. $90.00.
 All About Thelma and Eve: Sidekicks and Third Wheels
Judith Roof
A meticulous rereading of Hollywood from the margins, All About Thelma and
Eve offers an inventive look at female comic secondary characters who, though
never on center stage, play an indispensible role in enriching and complicating
the course of the narrative. Softcover, 212 pp. $28.95.
 Women of Vision: Histories in Feminist Film & Video
Alexandra Juhasz
Alexandra Juhasz asked twenty women to tell their stories -- women
whose names make up a who's who in independent and experimental
film & video. What emerged is
a compelling (and previously undocumented) history of feminism and feminist film
& video, from its orgins in the fifties and sixties to its apex in the
seventies to today. Softcover, 343 pp. $32.95.
 A
Feminist Reader in Early Cinema
Jennifer M. Bean & Diane Negra
The twenty essays collected here demonstrate how feminist historiographies at once
alter and enrich ongoing debates over visuality and identification, authorship, stardom,
and nationalist ideologies in cinema and media studies. Reflecting the stimulating
diversity of early cinematic styles, technologies, and narrative forms, the essays
included here are likewise varied in the topics that they address. Softcover, 583
pp. $46.95.
 Women's
Cinema:
The Contested Screen
Alison Butler
Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen provides an introduction to critical
debates around women's filmmaking and relates those debates to a variety of cinematic
practices. Using both canonical directors as well as less established names as examples,
Alison Butler argues that women's cinema is unified in spite of its diversity by
the ways in which it re-works cinematic conventions. Softcover, 134 pp. $30.50.
 Film and Authorship
Virginia Wright Wexman
During the 1960's when cinema first entered the acadamy as a serious object of
study, the primary focus was on "auteurism" -- film authorship. Spanning
approaches including poststructuralism, feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism,
and cultural studies, the essays in this collection ask, what does auteurship look
like today in light of all these developments? Includes an extensive bibliography.
Softcover, 270 pp. $36.50.
 Is
That A Gun In Your Pocket?
The Truth About Female Power In Hollywood
Rachel Abramowitz
Hollywood is often viewed as a man's world -- a place where women belong only as
starlets, not as power-brokers. In this fascinating book, Abramowitz offers a series
of portraits and interviews with the most talented and powerful women in the movie
business, and gives the nitty-gritty details of how they fought their way to the
top of a male-dominated landscape. Hardcover, $39.95; Softcover, $23.95.
 The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance
Lizbeth Goodman, ed.
This book presents some of the most influential and widely known work on gender and
performing arts, together with exciting and provocative new writing in the field.
This uniquely comprehensive volume spans the entire range of historical and theoretical
approaches to the subject of gender and theatre. $35.00.
 Film,
Television And The Left: 1950-1970
Bert Hogenkamp
This book is a comprehensive survey of the left's approach to films and television
from the period after the second world war until the beginnings of the growth of
independent cinema in the late 1960s. Softcover, $37.95.
 The Girls: Sappho Goes to Hollywood
Diana McLellan
Yes, Virginia, there were these girls...Nazimova, Garbo, Dietrich, Garbo and Dietrich
(despite the denials), Bankhead, de Acosta, Cornell, la Gallienne, la Valentino (not
one of the girls, but certainly close)...they're all players in McLellan's exhaustive,
gossipy tale of life around the sapphic stars of the golden era of Hollywood and
New York. "Risque scandals, sizzling secrets...sex, politics, secrets and lies...McLellan
connects the dots." The Washington Post. $24.95.
 The St. James Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia
Edited by Amy L. Unterburger
For more than 100 years, women have been a vital force in shaping the movies we see
today. This handy reference book chronicles the stories of more than 200 women filmmakers
from around the world -- from Alice Guy, the first women producer-director, to Oprah
Winfrey. An indispensable guide. Large-format Softcover, $39.95.
 A Problem Like Maria: Gender and Sexuality in the American Musical
Stacy Wolf
Using popular titles such as South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Camelot,
and The Sound of Music, this scholarly text focuses, through a lesbian feminist
lens, how the musical theatre of the 50's and 60's subverted traditional ideologies
by celebrating strong female characters who challenged gender expectations. Softcover,
289 pp., $32.95.
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