Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, Twentieth-Century Actress
Helen Grime
Dramatic Lives
978 1 84893 319 4: 234x156mm: £60.00/$99.00
978 1 84893 320 0
Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies is a paradox; a famous actress whose career spanned most of the twentieth century, she is now largely forgotten. Her personal story is a journey through a social and cultural landscape in which what it meant to be a woman, an actress and a lesbian shifted enormously. Drawing on material held in her personal archive, this study demonstrates how the career of Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies, on and off the stage, can be read against the grain of its apparent conventionality. This book reveals a skilled navigator of social and professional networks who excelled in playing with notions of identity and confounded society’s expectations, finally defying all attempts at reductive categorization.
Readership
Twentieth-Century Theatre and Gender Studies
Contents
1 Stories and Myths
2 Actresses and Femininity
3 Sexuality and Discretion
4 Archetypes and Epithets
5 Industry and Diversity
6 Pioneer and Purpose
7 Associations and Ambition
8 Resurrection and Legacy