Robin Roberts (3) (1957–)

Subversive Spirits by Robin Roberts charts a course through modern spheres of entertainment, tracking the elusive figure of the female ghost/spirit in literature, theatre, and film, and what she reflects back to us about the perceived roles of women and the feminine in our culture. This book only looks at US and UK entertainment. The first chapter looks at comedic ghosts. The next two chapters look at terrifying maternal ghosts, each specifically focusing on a geographic region. I particularly enjoyed these two selections. Then a chapter on female spirits and feminist history, followed by one looking at the mediated female ghost in the US and UK, and finally, a chapter on how female ghosts are treated currently via storytelling media. As this book only covers the UK and US, it barely scratches the surface of it's true value and potential. Of course, that would take a massive volume, or more likely several volumes. The role of female spirits in Asian entertainment and those cultural reflections, for example, are quite different! Several suggestions for books looking at female spirits from other cultural contexts are provided in the introduction though. I really enjoyed reading through it, and think it'd make a great addition to media history classes. I once took a class called ‘Frankenstein in Film and Literature.’ You could certainly make a class around female ghosts, or ghosts more generally, in film and lit.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and the University Press of Mississippi for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.… (altro)

Not exactly light reading, but interesting enough that I read it a second time to take notes. A feminist analysis of science fiction starting with [Frankenstein] and ending up with [The Handmaid's Tale] and [Always Coming Home]] is a bit of an undertaking, but this isn't that lengthy a book and most of the language is comprehensible to those not steeped in the mindset of literary criticism (although it helps if you took a couple of lit courses in college). Roberts delves into such things as the cover illustrations of Golden Age pulp SF magazines to explain how modern women SF writers used Science Fiction to discuss and illustrate issues of gender inequality, the dangers of patriarchies, and the conflicts and synthesis between so called "hard" and "soft" science.

This also makes me rethink my responses to certain books I read years ago (and generally didn't like), so that, in addition to a new list of books I want to read, I also have to reread a few.… (altro)