The Photoromance: A Feminist Reading of Popular Culture |
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|---|---|
| Authors: | Bonifazio, Paola |
| Publisher: | MIT Press |
| BISAC/Subject: | SOC028000, SOC032000, ART017000 |
| ISBN: | 9780262359405, Related ISBNs: 0262359405, 0262539284, 9780262359405, 9780262539289 |
| Classification: | Non-Fiction |
| Number of pages: | 256, |
| Audience: | General/trade |
Synopsis: A fascinating feminist reading of an often scorned medium: the storytelling, cross-platform success, and female fandom of the photoromance.
Born in Italy and successfully exported to the rest of the world, photoromances had a readership of millions in the postwar years. By the early 1960s, more than ten million Italians read a photoromance each week. Despite its popularity, the photoromance--a form of graphic storytelling that uses photographs instead of drawings--was widely scorned as a medium, and its largely female audience derided as naive, pathetic, and uneducated. In this provocative book, Paola Bonifazio offers another perspective, making a case for the relevance of the photoromance for both feminism and media culture. She argues that the photoromance pioneered storytelling across platforms, elevated characters and artists into brands, and nurtured a devoted fan base. Moreover, Bonifazio shows that female readers--condescended to by intellectuals, journalists, and politicians of both the left and the right--powered the Italian photoromance industry's success.
Born in Italy and successfully exported to the rest of the world, photoromances had a readership of millions in the postwar years. By the early 1960s, more than ten million Italians read a photoromance each week. Despite its popularity, the photoromance--a form of graphic storytelling that uses photographs instead of drawings--was widely scorned as a medium, and its largely female audience derided as naive, pathetic, and uneducated. In this provocative book, Paola Bonifazio offers another perspective, making a case for the relevance of the photoromance for both feminism and media culture. She argues that the photoromance pioneered storytelling across platforms, elevated characters and artists into brands, and nurtured a devoted fan base. Moreover, Bonifazio shows that female readers--condescended to by intellectuals, journalists, and politicians of both the left and the right--powered the Italian photoromance industry's success.
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