Amazons in America
Title | Amazons in America PDF eBook |
Author | Keira V. Williams |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Pages | 351 |
Release | 2019-03-06 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0807170852 |
With this remarkable study, historian Keira V. Williams shows how fictional matriarchies—produced for specific audiences in successive eras and across multiple media—constitute prescriptive, solution-oriented thought experiments directed at contemporary social issues. In the process, Amazons in America uncovers a rich tradition of matriarchal popular culture in the United States. Beginning with late-nineteenth-century anthropological studies, which theorized a universal prehistoric matriarchy, Williams explores how representations of women-centered societies reveal changing ideas of gender and power over the course of the twentieth century and into the present day. She examines a deep archive of cultural artifacts, both familiar and obscure, including L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz series, Progressive-era fiction like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel Herland, the original 1940s Wonder Woman comics, midcentury films featuring nuclear families, and feminist science fiction novels from the 1970s that invented prehistoric and futuristic matriarchal societies. While such texts have, at times, served as sites of feminist theory, Williams unpacks their cyclical nature and, in doing so, pinpoints some of the premises that have historically hindered gender equality in the United States. Williams also delves into popular works from the twenty-first century, such as Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise and DC Comics/Warner Bros.’ globally successful film Wonder Woman, which attest to the ongoing presence of matriarchal ideas and their capacity for combating patriarchy and white nationalism with visions of rebellion and liberation. Amazons in America provides an indispensable critique of how anxieties and fantasies about women in power are culturally expressed, ultimately informing a broader discussion about how to nurture a stable, equitable society.
Amazons in America
Title | Amazons in America PDF eBook |
Author | Keira V. Williams |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Pages | 351 |
Release | 2019-03-06 |
Genre | Social Science |
ISBN | 0807170852 |
With this remarkable study, historian Keira V. Williams shows how fictional matriarchies—produced for specific audiences in successive eras and across multiple media—constitute prescriptive, solution-oriented thought experiments directed at contemporary social issues. In the process, Amazons in America uncovers a rich tradition of matriarchal popular culture in the United States. Beginning with late-nineteenth-century anthropological studies, which theorized a universal prehistoric matriarchy, Williams explores how representations of women-centered societies reveal changing ideas of gender and power over the course of the twentieth century and into the present day. She examines a deep archive of cultural artifacts, both familiar and obscure, including L. Frank Baum’s The Wizard of Oz series, Progressive-era fiction like Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s utopian novel Herland, the original 1940s Wonder Woman comics, midcentury films featuring nuclear families, and feminist science fiction novels from the 1970s that invented prehistoric and futuristic matriarchal societies. While such texts have, at times, served as sites of feminist theory, Williams unpacks their cyclical nature and, in doing so, pinpoints some of the premises that have historically hindered gender equality in the United States. Williams also delves into popular works from the twenty-first century, such as Tyler Perry’s Madea franchise and DC Comics/Warner Bros.’ globally successful film Wonder Woman, which attest to the ongoing presence of matriarchal ideas and their capacity for combating patriarchy and white nationalism with visions of rebellion and liberation. Amazons in America provides an indispensable critique of how anxieties and fantasies about women in power are culturally expressed, ultimately informing a broader discussion about how to nurture a stable, equitable society.
The Land of the Amazons
Title | The Land of the Amazons PDF eBook |
Author | Frederico José de Santa-Anna Nery |
Publisher | |
Pages | 454 |
Release | 1901 |
Genre | Amazon River |
ISBN |
The Andes and the Amazon
Title | The Andes and the Amazon PDF eBook |
Author | James Orton |
Publisher | |
Pages | 372 |
Release | 1870 |
Genre | Amazon River |
ISBN |
This work is the result of a scientific expedition to the equatorial Andes and the Amazon River under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Upper Reaches of the Amazon
Title | The Upper Reaches of the Amazon PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph Froude Woodroffe |
Publisher | |
Pages | 394 |
Release | 1914 |
Genre | History |
ISBN |
The Land of Tomorrow
Title | The Land of Tomorrow PDF eBook |
Author | Joseph Orton Kerbey |
Publisher | |
Pages | 458 |
Release | 1905 |
Genre | Amazon River |
ISBN |
The Amazon, and the Atlantic Slopes of South America
Title | The Amazon, and the Atlantic Slopes of South America PDF eBook |
Author | Matthew Fontaine Maury |
Publisher | |
Pages | 72 |
Release | 1858 |
Genre | Amazon River |
ISBN |