ABSTRACT
Each of the three essays in this section is concerned with fictional texts which centre on female characters. The Hollywood films discussed in Chapters 5 and 7 centre on individual women, played respectively by Jill Clayburgh, Melanie Griffith and Julia Roberts, while the British television crime series analysed in Chapter 6 focuses on a group of four women, although the Ann Mitchell character is clearly privileged. The essays are presented chronologically, addressing the 1970s cycle of ‘independent women’ films, mid-1980s ‘womenin-TV crime’ and the late 1980s to early 1990s post-feminist Hollywood. Thus the film and television here discussed span the period from ‘women’s liberation’ to what is now sometimes called ‘post-feminism’, offering a series of addresses to, and representations of, women in this period.
