ABSTRACT
Biopics of Women offers an overview of English-language biographical fiction films of women. It examines four of the most popular sub-genres of the female biopic: films about the lives of queens and other female political figures, entertainers, headliners (biopics taken from current news stories), and writers. It discusses the development of biographical fiction films in each of these areas and the images of the successful woman they project. An examination of these four sub-genres is complemented by analyses of key texts that illustrate major aspects of each category. The objective is to cover a range of films in different sub-genres in order to investigate the issues involved in women’s representation in the genre as a whole. The investigation begins with a look at the major characteristics of the genre and its history especially as they relate to the representation of women. This study of biopics of women suggests that some of the common conceptions about the genre merit reconsideration.
