Home / Journals / Camera Obscura / Fabulous!

Fabulous!: Divas, Part 1

An issue of: Camera Obscura

Fabulous!
Journal Issue Pages: 184 Volume 22, Number 2 Number: 65 Published: 2007 An issue of Camera Obscura
Special Issue Editor: Alexander Doty
From Josephine Baker to Judy Garland to Elton John, the figure of the diva occupies a fascinating place in American culture. This special issue of Camera Obscura explores the impact of divas (and divos) in film and popular culture and considers their fraught psychic and social positioning. Contributors examine how divas are frequently portrayed as both victims and villains and how they can be figures of worship as well as of ridicule for their attempts to confront, transcend, or carve a new space within the patriarchal dominant culture. This collection looks at how divas cause “category trouble” by refusing to stay in their proper culturally assigned roles—gender, race, and class—in order to live life on their own terms, making them important figures for other groups at the margins of the dominant culture.

The contributors to Fabulous! Divas I (the first in a two-part series) address how Baker’s dual image as sexualized black woman and multicultural mother has been used to question and invert stereotypes, how the diva witches in the Broadway musical Wicked have developed a cult following among adolescent girls, and how fans mix irony and sincerity in their admiration of daytime soap divas. One contributor explores the cultural work of camp, while another considers hair as a fetish item for diva devotees. Among the diva appreciations are a look at the life of the cross-dressing black disco diva Sylvester, a reading of Garland as a lesbian diva par excellence, an examination of Courtney Love as a martyr diva, and a consideration of how loving Julie Andrews can make people queer.

Contributors. Alexander Doty, Brett Farmer, Joshua Gamson, Chuck Jackson, Ramon Lobato, Edward R. O’Neill, Ann Pellegrini, Julie Levine Russo, Nick Salvato, Jeanne Scheper, Edward Baron Turk, Stacy Wolf

Buy

To subscribe to this journal visit the Camera Obscura page.

Price: $12.00
Request a desk or exam copy

Table of Contents Back to Top

1. Introduction: There’s Something about Mary–Alexander Doty

2. The M-m-mama of Us All: Divas and the Cultural Logic of Late Ca(m)pitalism–

Edward R. O’Neill

3. Wicked Divas, Musical Theater, and Internet Girl Fans–Stacy Wolf

4. “Of la Baker, I Am a Disciple”: The Diva Politics of Reception–Jeanne Scheper

5. On the Bubble: The Soap Opera Diva’s Ambivalent Orbit–Nick Salvato

6. Appreciations

Unnatural Affinities: Me and Judy at the Lesbian Bar–Ann Pellegrini

7. Amazing Grace: Decadence, Deviance, Disco–Ramon Lobato

8. Sylvester–Joshua Gamson

9. Julie Andrews Made Me Gay–Brett Farmer

10. Star Hole (for Courtney Love)–Chuck Jackson

11. Isabelle Huppert; or, The Gallic Valkyrie Who Bewitched Brooklyn–Edward Baron Turk

12. Hairgate! TV’s Coiffure Controversies and Lesbian Locks–Julie Levin Russo

Licensing and Subsidiary Rights
Additional InformationBack to Top
ISBN Paperback: 978-0-8223-6678-2
Top