Female fantasy and postfeminist politics in Nora Ephron's screenplays
2012; Intellect; Volume: 3; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1386/josc.3.2.177_1
ISSN1759-7145
Autores Tópico(s)Contemporary Literature and Criticism
ResumoThe article examines and re-evaluates Nora Ephron's screenplays; it argues that Ephron's popularity with female viewers, and her association with the derided category of 'chick-flicks', has caused critics to overlook her important contribution to female screenwriting in the last twenty years. Since the late 1980s, Ephron has created a number of highly successful mainstream, popular screenplays that skilfully articulate and express the conflicting pressures experienced by young women, while still offering a positive view of 'feminine' culture. Through an analysis of key features of Ephron's romantic comedies - such as the characteristics of the Ephron heroine, the use of parallel narrative and the symbolic significance of mother/daughter relationships, the article argues that Ephron's narratives offset specific negative cultural stereotypes of single and professional women from the 1990s and noughties through a sympathetic, feminist-influenced approach to contemporary gender roles, expectations and courtship rituals. Ephron's screenplays offer an uplifting vision of feminine culture and attributes in which patriarchal attitudes are countered and defeated by the optimism, resourcefulness and integrity of the female heroine.
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