RE-DRESSING IDENTITY: MARIA ANTOINETTE AND FRIDA KAHLO Cover Image

RE-DRESSING IDENTITY: MARIA ANTOINETTE AND FRIDA KAHLO
RE-DRESSING IDENTITY: MARIA ANTOINETTE AND FRIDA KAHLO

Author(s): Barbara A. Nelson
Subject(s): Cultural Essay, Political Essay, Societal Essay
Published by: Universitatea Hyperion

Summary/Abstract: Female identity is intricately and intimately tied to dress. Virginia Woolf was one of the first female intellectuals to publicly challenge the tendency to denigrate women’s fashion or to banished it to the margins. Three recent films which focus on female historical figures continue to redress this problem. They argue for the essential nature of attire and the decorative arts for women, women of very different temperaments and of very different epocs, though they specifically focus on Marie Antoinette and Frida Kahlo. In all the films discussed in the following paper, dress marks symbolic sites of cultural interface-- social, international and gender—which must be negotiated in the course of shaping female identity.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 11
  • Page Range: 45-51
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: English