Feminist Auteurs examines a rich and diverse body of work that has received insufficient attention both in film studies and in feminist theory on film. Looking at individual films within the context of feminist film as a genre, Ramanathan examines film from diverse cultural traditions, while paying close attention to what might be regarded as feminist in different cultural contexts. The films chosen expand our ideas of feminism covering as they do film from Africa, Latin America, Europe, Asia and the US. Full-length interpretations of 24 films, both older and contemporary, including Vagabond, India Song, Bhaji on the Beach, Chocolat, Daughters of the Dust lay out a complete and powerful framework for reading women’s film.

Geetha Ramanathan is Professor of Comparative Literature and Women’s Studies at West Chester University. She is the author of Sexual Politics and the Male Playwright: The Portrayal of Women in Ten Contemporary Plays (1995) and Issues of Representation in Feminist Film (forthcoming).

September 2006
224 pages
978-1–904764–69–4    £16.99 (pbk)
978-1–904764–70–0    £45.00 (hbk)

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sample chapters
introduction

reviews

‘Instead of trying to find feminism by skating on the surface of mainstream Hollywood, Ramanathan embarks on an excavation. She dusts off underappreciated work from U.S. filmmakers like Julie Dash (Illusions and Daughters of the Dust) and Lizzie Borden (Working Girls) as well as world directors like Algeria’s Assia Djebar (La nouba des femmes de Mont-Chenoua) and Mexico’s María Novaro (Danzón). Offering films from differing decades and countries, Ramanathan shifts smoothly from one critique to another, never failing to note (and often expound on) the intricate and culturally specific resistance informing the storytellers’ decisions and their characters’ choices. The result is an impressive collection of shrewd critiques that is resoundingly diverse in vision, voice, and cinematic approach.

…Ramanathan’s wisdom glimmers throughout, particularly when she quite beautifully sums up the obstacle of feminism as‘imagin[ing] what has not happened yet, articulat[ing] unthought-of-possibilities’. Through the analysis she packs into Feminist Auteurs, Ramanathan further reveals that at the heart of truly feminist filmmaking lies the generosity of auteurs willing to envision complex, tangible, and previously untold examples of female resistance’

Maria Raha, Bitch Magazine

'This superb text offers new ways of seeing classics of the feminist cinema, providing persuasive and illuminating readings of films both old and new, to create a brilliant examination of feminist film practice that embraces the production, reception, historical and cultural importance of these remarkable films, and extends the inquiry beyond the films under discussion to examine the field of feminist cinema as a whole ... A remarkable and challenging work, and a brilliant example of first-rate critical synthesis.'
Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, University of Nebraska, Lincoln

'A much-needed book which responds to feminist thinkers’ calls for a reconsideration of authorship in cinema, and which accomplishes the task with theoretical sophistication and cultural sensitivity. It is not confined to a European or American perspective – the inclusion of black, diasporic, and third cinema is particularly good. The author subtly portrays the ways in which "feminist authority" is constructed in films by women directors internationally.'
Shohini Chaudhuri, University of Essex

books of related interest
Women's Cinema: The Contested Screen
Feminist Film Studies: Writing the Woman into Cinema
The Cinema of Kathryn Bigelow: Hollywood Transgressor