Full Description
"A welcome addition to women's- and film-history collections." - Booklist
By exploring a range of films about American women, this book offers readers an opportunity to engage in both history and film in a new way, embracing representation, diversity, and historical context. Throughout film history, stories of women achieving in American history appear few and far between compared to the many epic tales of male achievement. This book focuses largely on films written by women and about women who tackled the humanist issues of their day and mostly won.
Films about women are important for all viewers of all genders because they remind us that the American experience is not just male and white. This book examines 10 films, featuring diverse depictions of women and women's history, and encourages readers to discern how and where these films deviate from historical accuracy. Covering films from the 1950s all the way to the 2010s, this text is invaluable for students and general readers who wish to interrogate the way women's history appears on the big screen.
Contents
Series Foreword vii
Preface ix
Introduction xiii
Chronology xxiii
1. Salt of the Earth (1954) 1
2. Norma Rae (1979) 15
3. Silkwood (1983), 27
4. The Joy Luck Club (1993) 41
5. G. I. Jane (1997) 59
6. Monster (2003) 77
7. Iron Jawed Angels (2004) 93
8. Confirmation (2016) 111
9. Hidden Figures (2016) 129
10. On the Basis of Sex (2018) 143
Bibliography 155
Index 161
