Date of Award
2003
Degree Name
Humanities
College
College of Liberal Arts
Type of Degree
M.A.
Document Type
Thesis
First Advisor
Arline Thorn
Second Advisor
Arnold Hartstein
Third Advisor
Barbara Ladner
Abstract
Today autobiography and memoir hold great interest for the average reader as well as the literary scholar. Some argue this form has replaced the novel as the dominant modern/postmodern narrative expression. Its study crosses departmental boundaries, surfacing in disciplines such as psychology, as well as English/literature. This thesis focuses on the autobiographies of two Euro-American actresses of the early twentieth century. Intersecting the study of film, narrative, autobiography (“female” or feminist, as well as canonical or “male”) and modernism, it focuses on text and subtext, analyzing reasons for both the works’ and actress/authors’ cultural marginalization. In art as well as life, Frances Farmer and Louise Brooks offer aspects of both the “masculine” and “feminine”—whether speaking of narrative structure or assigned gender roles in a given culture. Ultimately, however, canonical “male” aspects of the autobiographical genre present themselves in their works as filtered through a more “female”-centered lens.
Recommended Citation
Anderson, Karen M., "Billing below Title : The Contested Autobiographies of Frances Farmer and Louise Brooks" (2003). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. 16.
https://mds.marshall.edu/etd/16
Included in
American Film Studies Commons, American Literature Commons, American Popular Culture Commons
