International Cinema and the Girl

"International Cinema and the Girl makes a great contribution to the field by addressing, through smart and conceptually varied perspectives, a wide range of films produced globally. These films demonstrate what the editors call, rightfully, 'the complex variety of girlhood representations.' The scope of the book is impressive in illuminating the many ways in which girls' identity has figured centrally in films made in the US, Europe, Africa, Argentina, Japan, and Iran during the last twenty years." - Gaylyn Studlar, author of Precocious Charms: Stars Performing Girlhood in Classical Hollywood Cinema

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.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.