Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines critically examines the portrayal of women in modern cinema, analyzing over thirty hits and the personas of stars like Julia Roberts and indie icons like Parker Posey. Recommended for film enthusiasts seeking insight into gender messages in mainstream culture.
The Western tradition of excluding women from leadership and disparaging their ability to lead has persisted for centuries, not least in Germany. Even today, resistance to women holding power is embedded in literary, cultural, and historical values that presume a fundamental opposition between the adjective "female" and the substantive "leader." Women who do achieve positions of leadership are faced with a panoply of prejudicial misconceptions: either considered incapable of leadership (conceived of as alpha-male behavior), or pigeon-holed as suited only to particular forms of leadership (nurturing, cooperative, egalitarian, communicative, etc.). Focusing on the German-speaking countries, this volume works to dismantle the prevailing disassociation of women and leadership across a range of disciplines. Contributions discuss literary works involving women's political authority and cultivation of community from Maria Antonia of Saxony to Elfriede Jelinek; women's social activism, as embodied by figures from Hedwig Dohm to Rosa Luxemburg; women in political film, environmentalism, neoliberalism, and the media from Leni Riefenstahl to Petra Kelly to Maren Ade; and political leaders Hillary Clinton and Angela Merkel. The essays achieve a deeper understanding of the historical roots and theoretical assumptions that inform ideas and realities of German female leadership
"The eighteenth century is usually considered to be a time of increasing secularization in which the primacy of theology was replaced by the authority of reason, yet this lofty intellectual endeavor played itself out in a social and political reality that was heavily impacted by religious customs and institutions. This duality is visible in the literature and culture of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Germany. On the one hand, authors such as Goethe, Schiller, and Kleist are known for their distance from traditional Christianity. On the other hand, many canonical texts from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries -- from Goethe's Faust to Schiller's Die Jungfrau von Orleans to Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas -- are not only filled with references to the Bible, but invoke religious frameworks. This book investigates how culture in the Age of Goethe shaped and was shaped by a sustained and multifaceted debate about the place of religion and religious difference in politics, philosophy, and culture, enriching our understanding of the relationship between religion and culture during this foundational period in German history." -- Publisher's description.
Examines women's life writing in order to shed light on female complicity in the Second World War and the Holocaust.
Exploring the aesthetic and theoretical challenges faced by German writers, this book delves into the historical context of war literature from 1800 to the present. It examines how these writers grapple with the complexities of war and its representation, shedding light on the evolving narrative techniques and themes that emerge in their works. Through a critical analysis, the text reveals the profound impact of historical events on literary expression and the ongoing dialogue between art and the realities of conflict.
New essays exploring the relationship between warfare and Enlightenment thought both historically and in the present
Kord and Krimmer analyze male archetypes in Hollywood films from 1992 to 2008, exploring how these portrayals reflect evolving concepts of masculinity amid political and social changes. Their study of over sixty films reveals the deep connection between cinema and contemporary issues, including consumerism and the War on Terror.
In the wake of the revolutionary wars, the figure of the cross-dressed woman proliferated in novels, plays, popular tales, and real-life accounts that circulated throughout Germany. Sometimes appearing in soldier's garb and engaging in battle like Joan of Arc, other times donning overalls and plying a trade, and female cross-dresser tested the revolutionary ideas of freedom and equality. Perhaps her most provocative challenge, however, was to contemporary notions of what it meant to be a women or a man.