Synopses & Reviews
Imagining Women presents a highly accessible introduction to the ways in which women have been represented in art, writing and popular culture, and the ways in which women have represented themselves.
Exploring the use of language and images, the nature of ideology and the relationship between gender and genre, the authors discuss representation in a variety of different cultural forms, including literature, the visual arts, film, television, pornography, comedy and the theatre.
Through the analysis of specific examples, the authors highlight themes which are central to contemporary cultural theory, including the role of the self as creator and active spectator, and the role of feminist criticism in altering traditional frameworks for the production and evaluation of cultural and artistic works. The text is greatly enhanced by the inclusion of many photographs, both colour and black and white, as well as other illustrations.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 330-347) and index.
Table of Contents
Introduction: On Imagining Women.
Part I: Themes and Issues: Gender, Genre and Representation.
1. Making Things Mean: Cultural Representation.
in Objects: Catherine King.
2. Analysing Representations: Richard Allen.
3. Gender and Genre: Dinal Birch.
4. Ways of Speaking: Joan Swann.
Part II: Literary Representations: Self as Subject. .
1. The Feminist Critical Revolution: Elaine Showalter.
2. Supply and Demand: Women's Short Stories: Lizbeth Goodman.
3. Towards a Better Way of Being: Feminist Science Fiction:.
Frances Bonner.
4. A Wild Surmise: Motherhood and Poetry: Alicia Ostriker.
5. 'Moment of Faith': Worksheets: Carol Rumens.
6. Criticism as Autobiography: Nicole Ward Jouve.
7. Our Life: Working Class Women's Autobiography in Britain:.
Wendy Webster.
Part III: Visual Images: Taking the Mastery out of Art.
1. The Politics of Representation: A Democracy of the Gaze:.
Catherine King.
2. Object into