International Cinema and the Girl, 1st ed. 2016 Local Issues, Transnational Contexts Global Cinema Series

From the precocious charms of Shirley Temple to the box-office behemoth Frozen and its two young female leads, Anna and Elsa, the girl has long been a figure of fascination for cinema. The symbol of (imagined) childhood innocence, the site of intrigue and nostalgia for adults, a metaphor for the precarious nature of subjectivity itself, the girl is caught between infancy and adulthood, between objectification and power. She speaks to many strands of interest for film studies: feminist questions of cinematic representation of female subjects; historical accounts of shifting images of girls and childhood in the cinema; and philosophical engagements with the possibilities for the subject in film. This collection considers the specificity of girls' experiences and their cinematic articulation through a multicultural feminist lens which cuts across the divides of popular/art-house, Western/non Western, and north/south. Drawing on examples from North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe, the contributors bring a new understanding of the global/local nature of girlhood and its relation to contemporary phenomena such as post-feminism, neoliberalism and queer subcultures. Containing work by established and emerging scholars, this volume explodes the narrow post-feminist canon and expands existing geographical, ethnic, and historical accounts of cinematic cultures and girlhood.

Introduction; Fiona Handyside and Kate Taylor-Jones
PART I: GIRLHOOD AND POSTFEMINISM GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES
1. The Showgirl Effect: Adolescent Girls and (Precarious) "technologies of sexiness" in Contemporary Italian Cinema; Danielle Hipkins,
2. Girlfriends, Postfeminism, and the European Chick-Flick in France; Mary Harrod
3. Warrior of Love: Japanese Girlhood and Postfeminist Corporeality in Cutie Honey (Hideaki Anno, 2004); Joel Gwynne
PART II: PHILOSOPHIES OF GIRLHOOD ON FILM
4. Feminine Adolescence and Transgressive Materiality in the Films of Lucrecia Martel; Deborah Martin
5. A Phenomenology of Girlhood: Being Mia in Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009); Lucy Bolton
6. Desire, Outcast: Locating Queer Adolescence; Clara Bradbury-Rance
7. Bye-Bye to Betty's Blues and "La Bonne Meuf": Temporal Drag and Queer Subversions of the Rom-com in Bye Bye Blondie (Virginie Despentes, 2011); Lara Cox
PART III: SONIC YOUTH: GIRLHOOD, MUSIC, AND IDENTITY
8. "Chica Dificil": Music, Identity, and Agency in Real Women Have Curves (Patricia Cardoso, 2002); Tim McNelis
9. Emotion, Girlhood and Music in Naissance des pieuvres/Water Lilies (Céline Sciamma, 2007) and Un amour de jeunesse/Goodbye, First Love (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2011); Fiona Handyside
10. The Pleasures of Music Video Aesthetics in Girl Teen Film; Samantha Colling
PART IV: EXTRA-ORDINARY GIRLHOODS
11. Where's Girlhood? The Female Child Killer in Where's Mary? (Tony Hickson, 2005); Lisa Downing
12. Performing History: Girlhood and The Apple (Samira Makhmalbaf, 1998); Margherita Sprio
13. Girlhood in a Warzone: African Child Soldiers on Film; Kate Taylor-Jones
14. Daddy's Little Sidekick: The Girl Superhero in Contemporary Cinema; Marty Zeller-Jacques

Fiona Handyside is Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of Exeter, UK.
 
Kate Taylor-Jones is Senior Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield, UK.