The Prettiest Woman
eBook - ePub

The Prettiest Woman

Nostalgia for Late Industrial Capitalism

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Prettiest Woman

Nostalgia for Late Industrial Capitalism

About this book

Uncovering Hollywood’s perpetual longing for a lost industrial America

“We don’t make things in America anymore”: like clockwork, this refrain resurfaces in political discourse, a reflection of yearning for a bygone era of industrial productivity. In his latest work, Grant Farred uses the 1990 film Pretty Woman to expose and critique this lingering nostalgia for late-industrial capitalism.

Situating Pretty Woman alongside Reagan-era films including Wall Street, Farred examines the congealment of such a pervasive romanticized view of the United States as a fading industrial powerhouse. Drawing on an eclectic range of thinkers—from Raymond Williams and Slavoj Žižek to Mick Jagger—The Prettiest Woman offers a unique analysis of the ways Hollywood perpetuates the myth of a lost “productive America,” highlighting the seductive power of this fantasy despite its disconnect from economic and political realities.

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Yes, you can access The Prettiest Woman by Grant Farred in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Film History & Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Half Title Page
  3. Series List
  4. Title Page
  5. Copyright Page
  6. Dedication
  7. Contents
  8. Like Clockwork: ā€œBring the Jobs Back to Americaā€
  9. Sheā€™s a Pretty Woman
  10. Nostalgia
  11. A Hollywood Genealogy
  12. Cold Calling Is a Mugā€™s Game
  13. Wall Street
  14. You Are the Suit You Wear
  15. Raymond Williams: A Brief Word
  16. The Patient Is on Life Support but Is Not Yet Dead
  17. The Baseness of/in the Superstructure
  18. Working Women
  19. Late Industrial Capitalism 1: ā€œMaking Things in Americaā€
  20. Late Industrial Capitalism 2: Nostalgia and Grievance
  21. On Morality: A Brief Žižekian Word
  22. Itā€™s Big in Japan
  23. The Boro Aesthetic
  24. Bastard 1
  25. A New Economy of the Prostitute and Its Dangers
  26. My Fair Lady, Beverly Hills Style
  27. All a Pretty Prostitute Needs Is Her Own Dr. Henry Higgins
  28. The Upside of Not Knowing Which Fork to Use
  29. Whoā€™s Driving Edward Lewis?
  30. Bastard 2: The Hostility of the Takeover
  31. Oedipal Drama, Pretty Woman Style
  32. Making and Unmaking in the Oedipal Family Drama
  33. To Make Something
  34. Fatherā€™s Son, Motherā€™s Son: The Enduring Phantasmatic Father
  35. The Žižekian Ethics of Mick Jagger
  36. ā€œIt Must Be Very Difficult to Let Go of Something So Beautifulā€
  37. To Steal, to Make of Steel
  38. Acknowledgments
  39. Series List Continued (2 of 2)
  40. Author Biography