Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy, and Legacy

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Becoming Carole Lombard: Stardom, Comedy and Legacy is a historical critique of the development and reception of Carole Lombards stardom from the classical Hollywood period to present day. Based on original archival research, Olympia Kiriakou combines theoretically informed textual analyses of Lombards performances and star image across different media (biographies, publicity materials, photography and film) with a critical engagement of the cultural, economic, social and industrial conditions that shaped her stardom. Sitting at the intersection of feminist film theory, star studies and comedy theory, this work presents Lombard as a case study to challenge the screwball canon and existent academic discourse about female physical comedy and the alleged delicate female body. In doing so, it formulates a new historical approach to understanding gender, femininity, and identity in Hollywood comedies of the 1930s. Moreover, this is the first research of its kind to offer a comprehensive understanding of Lombards stardom beyond her associations with the screwball comedy genre.

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Becoming Carole Lombard is long overdue - through detailed archival research and thoughtful textual analysis of Lombard's films, Olympia Kiriakou provides the first academic study dedicated solely to Lombard, and illuminates the actress's versatile acting range, twentieth century proto-feminism, and Hollywood legacy. * Emily Carman, Associate Professor of Film Studies, Chapman University, USA *
A riveting, insightful, meticulously researched, and highly enjoyable book about an essential Hollywood film star, Becoming Carole Lombard proves that Lombard was much more than just 'the Screwball Girl.' Olympia Kiriakou traces Lombard's shape-shifting star persona across diverse screen genres, revealing the profound historiographic value of her tragically curtailed career for feminist film theory, comedy and performance studies, and the history of American film culture. * Maggie Hennefeld, Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, USA *

Author Bio

Olympia Kiriakou is a visiting instructor in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University, USA. Prior to joining the FAU faculty, she worked at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her research interests include stardom in the classical Hollywood period, genre studies, Disney studies, and media industries. Her work has been published in Film Matters, Journal of Fandom Studies, and Transformative Works and Cultures.