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Greta Gerwig’s Barbie

Popular Culture, Cinema, and Gender
Brief Description
This volume brings together an international array of contributors to analyse Greta Gerwig’s unprecedented success, Barbie (2023), exploring how a film released in a moment of industrial crisis for Hollywood became the highest-grossing film directed or co-directed by a woman. Uniting scholars from Aotearoa New Zealand,... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$5499
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An in-depth and interdisciplinary discussion of Barbie (2023), exploring what makes it generation-defining film, and situating it within Greta Gerwig's meteoric rise as a celebrated director.

An in-depth and interdisciplinary discussion of Barbie (2023), exploring what makes it generation-defining film, and situating it within Greta Gerwig's meteoric rise as a celebrated director.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

This volume brings together an international array of contributors to analyse Greta Gerwig’s unprecedented success, Barbie (2023), exploring how a film released in a moment of industrial crisis for Hollywood became the highest-grossing film directed or co-directed by a woman.

Uniting scholars from Aotearoa New Zealand, Australia, France, Turkey, the UK, and the USA, this volume provides a set of essays that reflect the complexities of what is, in many ways, a fable for our times. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie: Popular Culture, Cinema, and Gender opens with a chapter on the current state of the film industry. Further topics include: the treatment of American girlhood; fashion and feminism; the auteur director; post-indie cinema; queer identities; masculinity; the politics of race, class, and gender; contemporary feminisms; consumerism; and the ecology of plastic.

As such, the book offers a detailed and nuanced perspective on a benchmark film, produced and distributed by an industry in crisis—the brainchild of a significant director whose star is on the rise.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781350523968

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 14 May 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Illustration: 37 colour illus

Contributors:

  • Edited by Hilary Radner
  • Edited by Rebecca Stringer

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 156.0mm

Height: 232.0mm

Weight: 740g

Pages: 336

About the Author

Hilary Radner is Emeritus Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand. She has published widely on gender identity and visual culture, her books include Shopping Around: Consumer Culture and the Pursuit of Pleasure (1995), Neo-Feminist Cinema: Girly Films, Chick Flicks and Consumer Culture (2011), and The New Woman’s Film: Femme-centric Movies for Smart Chicks (2017).

Rebecca Stringer is Associate Professor of Sociology, Gender Studies, and Criminology at the University of Otago, Aotearoa New Zealand. She is author of Knowing Victims: Feminism, Agency, and Victim Politics in Neoliberal Times (2014), and co-editor of Feminism at the Movies: Understanding Gender in Contemporary Popular Cinema (2011).

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