Unnatural Women: Sarah Bernhardt, Alice Mitchell and Modern Celebrity

Key information

Date
Time
5:00 pm to 6:30 pm
Venue
Russell Square: College Buildings
Room
4418

About this event

Professor Mandy Merck

In 1892 one of the most famous women in the world, French actress Sarah Bernhardt, sought an introduction to Alice Mitchell, a young American who would also become famous -- as the accused in a notorious lesbian murder case. Mandy Merck considers both fame and notoriety as constituent elements of the 'new woman' and the new century.

Bio

Mandy Merck is Professor of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the author of Hollywood's American Tragedies: Dreiser, Eisenstein, Sternberg, Stevens (Berg 2007) and editor of America First: Naming the Nation in US Film (Routledge 2007). Her next book, co-edited with Stella Sandford, is entitled Further Adventures of the Dialectic of Sex: the Writings of Shulamith Firestone (PalgraveMacmillan).

Contact email: N.S.Al-Ali@soas.ac.uk