Reading Lena Dunham s Girls : Feminism, postfeminism, authenticity and gendered performance in contemporary television /

In this book, leading international and emerging scholars consider the mixed critical responses to Lena Dunham s TV series Girls and reflect on its significance to contemporary debates about postfeminist popular cultures in a post-recession context. The series features both familiar and innovative d...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors: SpringerLink (Online service)
Group Author: Nash, Meredith. (Editor); Whelehan, Imelda (Editor)
Published: Springer International Publishing : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan,
Publisher Address: Cham :
Publication Dates: 2017.
Literature type: eBook
Language: English
Subjects:
Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52971-4
Summary: In this book, leading international and emerging scholars consider the mixed critical responses to Lena Dunham s TV series Girls and reflect on its significance to contemporary debates about postfeminist popular cultures in a post-recession context. The series features both familiar and innovative depictions of young women and men in contemporary America that invites comparisons withSex and the City. It aims for a refreshed, authentic expression of postfeminist femininity that eschews the glamour and aspirational fantasies spawned by its predecessor. The authors of this volume discuss the contemporary scholarship on Girls, from its representation of post-millennial gender politics to revulsion and repugnance at depictions of the messiness and imperfections of sex, embodiment, and social interactions. Topics covered by the chapters include Dunham s privileged role as author/auteur/actor, sexuality, body consciousness, millennial gender identities, the politics of representation, neoliberalism, and post-recession society. This book provides diverse and provocative critical responses to the show and to wider social and media contexts, and contributes to a new generation of feminist scholarship with a powerful concluding reflection from Rosalind Gill. This work will appeal to those interested in feminist theory, identity politics, popular culture, and media.
Carrier Form: 1 online resource (XI, 255 pages): illustrations
ISBN: 9783319529714
Index Number: PN1992
CLC: G229.712
Contents: 1) Why Girls? Why now? MEREDITH NASH AND IMELDA WHELEHAN -- 2. Part I: Postfeminism(s) 2) I have work I am busy trying to become who I am : Neoliberal Girls and recessionary postfeminism STEPHANIE GENZ -- 3) Hating Hannah: Or learning to love postfeminist entitlement IMELDA WHELEHAN -- 4) Genres of impasse: Postfeminism as a relation of cruel optimism in Girls CAT MCDERMOTT -- 5) Twenty-something Girls v. thirty-something Sex and the City women: Paving the way for post? feminism RUBY GRANT AND MEREDITH NASH -- 6) Bad sex and the city? Feminist (re)awakenings in HBO s Girls MELANIE WATERS -- 7. Part II: Performing and representing millennial identities 7) A voice of a generation : Girls and the problem of representation HANNAH KY MCCANN -- 8) Educating girls: Girls and twenty-first century education for women LAURA WITHERINGTON -- 9) Reading the boys of Girls FREDERIK DHAENENS -- 10) All adventurous women sing: Articulating the feminine through the music of Girls ALEXANDER SERGEANT -- 11) Doing her best with what she s got : Authorship, irony and mediating feminist identities in Girls WALLIS SEATON -- Part III: Sex, sexuality, and bodies 12) Art porn provocauteurs : Feminist performances of embodiment in the work of Catherine Breillat and Lena Dunham MARIA SAN FILIPPO -- 13) You shouldn t be doing that because you haven t got the body for it : Comment on nudity in Girls DEBORAH THOMAS -- 14) Sexual perversity in New York? CHRISTOPHER LLOYD -- 15) All postfeminist women do: Women s sexual and reproductive health in Girls ELIZABETH ARVEDA KISSLING -- 16) Afterword: Girls: Notes on authenticity, ambivalence and imperfection ROSALIND GILL. .