Katharine Hepburn: Star As Feminist

Film and Culture Series

by Andrew Britton

Of all the major stars, Hepburn has always brought a fierce independence & her own persona to the screen. The author explores her films within the context of female sexuality & class issues, as well as the Hollywood star system. B&W photos.

Genres: Film, Biography, Feminism

Hardcover

First published November 1, 1984

About the author

Andrew Britton lectured in film studies at the Universities of Warwick, Essex, and Reading. He also taught at Queens and Trent Universities in Ontario, Canada, and was a guest lecturer at other universities in Britain, Canada, and the United States. He died in 1994. Robin Wood is a founding editor of CineAction and author of Hitchcock's Films Revisited, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan . . . and Beyond, and Sexual Politics and Narrative Film. He is professor emeritus at York University and the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema Studies.

Reviews

[Shelbi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel as if this book is slightly deceptive. While it will be of great use for my research paper on Hepburn, I was a little disappointed in the structure of it. Britton focuses more on close readings of Hepburn's movies, rather than herself, and on other actors and actresses. Probably around half of the book centers around movies Hepburn was not in and close readings of the actors and actresses in those. Sometimes he makes comparisons to Hepburn, but others seem random and unnecessary. I guess I would've liked a little more meet about Katharine.

[Katharine Rogers · Rating 1 out of 5]

Love Katharine Hepburn, but this is a very academic read which focuses on a lot of stars from the period including Garbo and not even that much on KH herself.