ABSTRACT

Winner of first Prize in the BAFTSS Best Edited Collection competition, this volume examines how different generations of women work within the genericity of audio-visual storytelling not necessarily to ‘undo’ or ‘subvert’ popular formats, but also to draw on their generative force. Recent examples of filmmakers and creative practitioners within and outside Hollywood as well as women working in non-directing authorial roles remind us that women are in various ways authoring commercially and culturally impactful texts across a range of genres. Put simply, this volume asks: what do women who are creatively engaged with audio-visual industries do with genre and what does genre do with them? The contributors to the collection respond to this question from diverse perspectives and with different answers, spanning issues of direction, screenwriting, performance and audience address/reception.

chapter |20 pages

Introduction

Women’s Authorship and Genre in Contemporary Film and Television

section 1|68 pages

Women’s Authorship and Hollywood Genres

chapter 3|15 pages

The Contemptible Realm of the Romcom Queen

Nancy Meyers, Cultural Value and Romantic Comedy

chapter 4|17 pages

Gendering the Post-9/11 Movie

Love, Loss and Regeneration in Nora Ephron’s Julie and Julia

section 2|58 pages

Genre Outside Hollywood

chapter 5|15 pages

Comedy as a Feminist Strategy

Spanish Women Filmmakers Reclaim Laughter

chapter 6|15 pages

‘Trois Femmes Puissantes’ 1

Playing with Gender and Genres on French TV

chapter 7|17 pages

Breaking the Boundaries of Bollywood

Women in a ‘Man’s Industry’

section 3|84 pages

Beyond the Director

chapter 10|15 pages

Melissa McCarthy

Gender, Class and Body Politics in Contemporary US Comedy

chapter 11|19 pages

The Myth of Lena Dunham

chapter 12|15 pages

The Feminist Game of Thrones

Outlander and Gendered Discourses of TV Genre

chapter 13|18 pages

A Hollywood of Our Own

Media Fandom as Female Artworld