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Adrienne L. McLean - Being Rita Hayworth - 9780813533896 - V9780813533896
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Being Rita Hayworth

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Description for Being Rita Hayworth Paperback. .

Who was Rita Hayworth? Born Margarita Carmen Cansino, she spent her life subjected to others' definitions of her, no matter how hard she worked to claim her own identity. Although there have been many "revelations" about her life and career, Adrienne McLean's book is the first to show that such disclosures were part of a constructed image from the outset.

McLean explores Hayworth's participation in the creation of her star persona, particularly through her work as a dancer-a subject ignored by most film scholars. The passive love goddess, as it turns out, had a unique appeal to other women who, like her, found it extraordinarily difficult to negotiate the competing demands of family, domesticity, and professional work outside the home. Being Rita Hayworth also considers the ways in which the actress has been treated by film scholarship over the years to accomplish its own goals, sometimes at her expense. Several of Hayworth's best-known star vehicles-among them Gilda (1946), Down to Earth (1947), The Lady from Shanghai (1948), and Affair in Trinidad (1952)- are discussed in depth.

Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2004
Publisher
Rutgers University Press United States
Number of pages
288
Condition
New
Number of Pages
288
Place of Publication
New Brunswick NJ, United States
ISBN
9780813533896
SKU
V9780813533896
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-2

About Adrienne L. McLean
ADRIENNE L. MCLEAN is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas. She is also the author of Dying Swans and Madmen and the co-editor of Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal.

Reviews for Being Rita Hayworth
McLean's work is significant because it addresses a major flaw in the majority of star studies
the lack of knowledge regarding how movie stars were created by the Hollywood studio system. She achieves an understanding of movie stars as economic constructs, of the relationship of their real selves to their images, and of how a star's original meaning and reception by fans sometimes differ from what we assume today....Being Rita Hayworth is a model of good scholarship.
Film Quarterly
[T]he plethora of stimulating ideas in Being Rita Hayworth should jolt star, labor, and film scholarship to reassess contemporary, too easily accepted truths and lead to dynamic debates and exciting exchanges. Fresh perspectives rejuvenate, and that's a gift to scholarship.
Quarterly Review of Film and Video
This book is praiseworthy in all aspects of the subject....This is an excellent book well worth reading because of the cogent discussion of ubiquitous processes of commodification, advertising, and their influence on modes of subjectivity.
Visual Anthropology
Exploring the creation of this popular movie star's persona, Being Rita Hayworth takes an especial interest in her appeal to other women of the day who were struggling to navigate the demands of family and work outside the home. An excellent read for anyone with an especial interest in not only Hayworth's career, but the ripple effect her star persona had on the hearts and minds of a female generation.
The Midwest Book Review
This book reexamines Rita Hayworth's star image and her proficiency as a dancer in order to challenge received wisdom about the objectification of female stars in classical Hollywood cinema. This is a superior piece of scholarship and an outstanding contribution to star studies.
Ina Rae Hark
University of South Carolina
McLean's argument is complex, coherent, and eminently readable. Through meticulous research, she productively opens up the notion of star as worker.
Mary R. Desjardins
Dartmouth College

Goodreads reviews for Being Rita Hayworth


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