Routledge Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship

Star Gazing: Hollywood Cinema and Female Spectatorship by Routledge provides a historical investigation into the pleasures of cinema. This work puts female spectators back into the center of theories of spectatorship by combining film theory with a rich body of ethnographic research. Jackie Stacey investigates how female spectators understood Hollywood stars during the 1940s and 1950s. Her study challenges the universalism of psychoanalytic theories of female spectatorship that have dominated the feminist agenda within film studies for over two decades. By looking at the actual experiences of viewers, this book offers a different perspective on how audiences engage with film. Drawing on primary sources including letters and questionnaires from over three hundred keen cinema-goers, Stacey explores the meaningful ways women connected with the silver screen. This text is an essential resource for students and researchers interested in film history, feminist film studies, and the sociology of cinema.