Star Gazing - 9781138137189

Taylor & Francis

Combining film theory with a rich body of ethnographic research, Stacey applies theories of spectatorship to female spectators. Stacey's research analyses what memories female movie goers have of stars Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall. > \nIn a historical investigation of the pleasures of cinema, Star Gazing puts female spectators back into theories of spectatorship. Combining film theory with a rich body of ethnographic research, Jackie Stacey investigates how female spectators understood Hollywood stars in the 1940's and 1950's. Her study challenges the universalism of psychoanalytic theories of female spectatorship which have dominated the feminist agenda within film studies for over two decades. \nDrawing on letters and questionnaires from over three hundred keen cinema-goers, Stacey investigates the significance of certain Hollywood stars in women's memories of wartime and postwar Britain. Three key processes of spectatorship - escapism, identification and consumption - are exply