For the Love of Pleasure: Women, Movies, and Culture in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago Contributor(s): Rabinovitz, Lauren (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813525349 ISBN-13: 9780813525341 Publisher: Rutgers University Press OUR PRICE: $37.00 Product Type: Paperback Published: May 1998 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - Cultural & Social - Social Science | Women's Studies - History | United States - State & Local - General |
Dewey: 791.430 |
LCCN: 97-45724 |
Physical Information: 0.74" H x 6.08" W x 9" (0.87 lbs) 256 pages |
Themes: - Chronological Period - 1851-1899 - Cultural Region - Great Lakes - Cultural Region - Heartland - Cultural Region - Midwest - Demographic Orientation - Urban - Geographic Orientation - Illinois |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: "One of the most readable books on early cinema I have ever encountered. . . . Rabinovitz ably brings together a wealth of information about the exciting era of social change that marked the beginning of U.S. cinema." --Gaylyn Studlar, atuhor of This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age The period from the 1880s until the 1920s saw the making of a consumer society, the inception of the technological, economic, and social landscape in which we currently live. Cinema played a key role in the changing urban landscape. For working-class women, it became a refuge from the factory. For middle-class women, it presented a new language of sexual danger and pleasure. Women found greater freedom in big cities, entering the workforce in record numbers and moving about unchaperoned in public spaces. Turn-of-the-century Chicago surpassed even New York as a proving ground for pleasure and education, attracting women workers at three times the national rate. Using Chicago as a model, Lauren Rabinovitz analyzes the rich interplay among demographic, visual, historical, and theoretical materials of the period. She skillfully links cinema theory and women's studies for a fuller understanding of cultural history. She also demonstrates how cinema dramatically affected social conventions, ultimately shaping modern codes of masculinity and feminity. |