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Are Authors |
Dr. Betsy
This one is out of print, but I'm sure I can track down a copy if you're
interested. Professor Fifer was an inspiration to me in learning
to write my own voice instead of mimicking the male canon that I was continually
reading, and introduced to me to books that changed the way I read fiction,
like Angela Carter and Jamaica Kincaid. But I must admit that what I remember
most about Dr. Fifer were her socks and sandals in winter and her brood
of adopted children.
Fifer, Elizabeth.
Rescued Readings: A Reconstruction of Gertrude
Stein's Difficult Texts. Out-of-print.
Angela, grad school compatriot
"A
lively look at the ways in which American women in the 1920s transformed
their lives through performance and fashion. "
If you just met her, you might be surprised that Angela is a feminist theatre historian. She's pretty, quiet, and softspoken. But she has a strong backbone that has weathered many storms, and a mastery of history that can change the way you see things. You thought flappers were just trendy fashions, or that the Ziegfield Follies weren't political? Perhaps you see nothing theatrical in everyday clothes or think that "skin shows" were a marginalized business that didn't much change American society? What about "Miss America" contests? Was censorship in the twenties to protect the innocent or to maintain the power of the male elite? Check out Angela's new book, and change forever the way you see fashion, theatre, and gender politics.
Latham, Angela J.
Posing a Threat: Flappers, Chorus Girls,
and Other Brazen Performers of the American 1920s. University
Press of New England, 2000. Hardcover, $50; paperback, $20.
Professor Marder
I'm
a Virginia Woolf enthusiast, so it didn't take me long to track down Professor
Marder and convince him that he had to teach a Woolf intensive class while
I was at the University of Illinois. He did, and I did, and it was!
Wonderful, that is. And now he has another book on Woolf published, which
The
New York Times Book Review calls a "sensitive account...[not of] the
unexplainable tragedy of madness, but rather the measured end of a narrative,
as inevitable as it is unhappy."
Marder, Herbert
The Measure of Life : Virginia Woolf's
Last Years. Cornell University Press, 2000. Hardcover,
$35
Feminism and Art: A Study of Virginia Woolf.
University of Chicago Press, 1972. Out-of-print.
Well,
it's not surprising to see Liz in print, always knew she would be.
This is her major project, extensively researched (close to a hundred pages
of notes, good grief, Liz), and the subject of her Ph.D. dissertation,
although augmented here for publication. Charlotte Cushman, great
lesbian actor of the early Ameican days, receives a full chapter (her Hamlet
was well respected). Her legacy (well, ok, she didn't invent it,
as Liz makes clear) of women acting in male roles (breeches) is given a
full sociological study from both a theatre perspective of gender representation
as well as a feminist deconstruction of what it meant in society to see
women in pants, and taking on powerful roles (male roles). Who's
wearing the pants here, anyway?
Mullenix, Elizabeth Reitz
Wearing the Breeches: Gender on the Antebellum
Stage. St.
Martin's Press, 2000. $50
Professor Perkins
When
I was at the University of Illinois, I thought of Kathy as primarily a
lighting designer. I only knew of one of her anothogies, and more
have been published since I graduated. Together, her books constitute
a wealth of African-American theatre history, and especially past and present
Black female playwrights.
Perkins, Kathy
Black South African Women: An Anthology
of Plays. Routledge,
1998. Paperback, $23
Contemporary Plays by Women of Color: An
Anthology. Co-edited with Roberta Uno.
Routledge, 1996. Paperback, $28
Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology
of Plays Before 1950 (Blacks in Diaspora). Editor.
Indiana University Press, 1991 reprint. Paperback, $19
Strange Fruit: Plays on Lynching by American
Women. Co-edited with Judith
L. Stephens. Indiana University Press, 1998. Paperback, $25
I
went to high school with Elizabeth, who I knew primarily as a kick-ass
soccer player and student government leader. Guess she grew up and
had kids! In typical fashion, Elizabeth not only figured out how
to have it all, but she wrote a book to guide other mothers in creating
and procurring kid-rearing friendly jobs. This is a hands-on practical
guide, not just wishful thinking. And she got paid for it.
Kudos!
Wilcox, Elizabeth
The Mom Economy: The Mothers' Guide to
Getting Family-Friendy Work. Foreword
by Elizabeth Berger, M.D. Berkeley Books, 2003. New trade paperback,
$14.
