The Postfeminist Biopic Narrating the Lives of Plath, Kahlo, Woolf and Austen

The Postfeminist Biopic explores the influence of postfeminist culture on cinematic representations of female biographies. While earlier research has described the subgenres of the classical female biopic and the feminist biopic, Polaschek proposes a third subgenre, the postfeminist biopic, which has appeared as part of a broader trend of reviving and reconfiguring classical genre forms aimed at women. The book explores the conventions of the postfeminist biopic through a close analysis of four films that represent the lives of women who are established members of the second-wave feminist canon: Sylvia (Christine Jeffs, 2003), which depicts the life of the American poet Sylvia Plath; Frida (Julie Taymor, 2002), about the Mexican painter Frida Kahlo; The Hours (Stephen Daldry, 2002), which includes a biographical narrative about the English novelist and critic Virginia Woolf; and Becoming Jane (Julian Jarrold, 2006), a fictionalized interpretation of the coming of age of the English novelist Jane Austen.

Bronwyn Polaschek completed her doctorate at Otago University, New Zealand. She is an independent scholar working in the fields of film, cultural theory, and gender.

List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Feminist Film Theory and Postfeminist Culture
2. The Biopic Genre
3. The Postfeminist Historical Woman in Sylvia
4. Frida and the Postfeminist Artist Biopic
5. The Hours, Feminisms and Women's Art
6. Postfeminist Spectatorship in Becoming Jane
Conclusion: The Postfeminist Biopic
Bibliography
Filmography
Index