English 257F -- Prima Donna, (Pre) Madonna:
Cultural Constructions of Women
in Music and Literature

Course Description
This course will examine nineteenth- and twentieth-century constructions of opera, jazz, and rock prima donnas as well as the role of the media in the construal of superstars. Persistently, societies choose prima donnas who combine vocal and dramatic talents with an ability to fashion a self that makes an ideological impact on society. Additionally, the singer serves as (in Ellen C. Clayton's words) an "abstract and brief chronicle" of the society to which she belongs. Using visual, linguistic, and musical texts, we as a class will explore the interactions between the prima donna as a priviledged representative/interpreter of society and as a representation to be evaluated and even repudiated. We will concentrate on historically evolving constructions which illuminate class biases, gender codes, and, equally importantly, acceptable transgressions of social norms.

Return to Index

Literary Texts

• Clement, Catherine. Opera, or the Undoing of Women. Trans. Betsy Wing. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1988.
  
• du Maurier, George. Trilby.
  
• McNally, Terrence. Master Class. New York, NY: Plume, 1995
  
• Prima Donnas. UWO photocopy package, containing Cather's Song of the Lark, G. Eliot's Armgart,and critical essays, including excerpts from the following texts.
• Baraka, Amiri. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. New York: Morrow, 1963.
• Barthes, Roland. "The Grain of the Voice." Image, Music, Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. Glasgow: Collins, 1977. 179-189.
• Koestenbaum, Wayne. The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire. New York: Poseidon P, 1993.
• Nicholson, Stuart. Ella Fitzgerald: a Biography of the First Ladyof Jazz. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1993.
• Ross, Andrew. No Respect: Intellectuals and Popular Culture. New York: Routledge, 1989.
• Schwichtenberg, Cathy, ed. The Madonna Connection: Representational Politics, Subcultrual Identities, and Cultural Theory. Boulder: Westview Press, 1993.

Return to Index

Videos
**Check the London Public Library for Videos; it has an astonishingly good selection
Video Excerpts

• Corbiau, G, dir. Farinellli. With Stefano Dionisi. [Available at Flicks, Blockbuster, or through me.]
  
• Gluck, C.W. Orfeo. With Janet Baker and Elisabeth Speiser. [I own this video.]
  
• Puccini, G. Madame Butterfly. [I own this video.]
• Puccini. G. Tosca. With Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. [Act 2. I own this video.]
• Verdi, G. Carmen. With Julia Meginnes and Placido Domingo. ["Habanera," "Seguedille," and Act 2. Available through Music's A-V services.]
  
• Verdi, G. Otello. With Mirella Freni and Jon Vickers. [Act 4. I own this video.]
  
• Verdi, G. La Traviata. Preferably the one with Teresa Stratas.
  

• Maria Callas: Life and Art. Documentary on Maria Callas. Dir. Alan Lewens and Alistair Mitchell. EMI, 1987.
• Lady Sings the Blues. Film loosely based on Billie Holiday's life, starring Diana Ross.
• Billie Holiday. American Masters of Jazz Series. 1990.
• Truth or Dare. Docu-drama of Madonna on the road during her Blonde Ambition Tour.
• Ella in concert. [Not yet confirmed.]
• Selection of Single Song Videos for Student Presentations

Selected Secondary Sources

Theorizing Bodies, Voices, Music

• Abbate, Carolyn. Unsung Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1991.
• Attali, Jacques. Noise: The Political Economy of Music. Trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1987.
• Barthes, Roland. S/Z. Trans. Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1974.
• Blackmer, Corinne E. and Patricia Juliana Smith, eds. En Travesti: Women, Gender Subversion, Opera. New York: Columbia UP, 1995
• Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminisim and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990.
• Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". New York: Routledge, 1993.
• Garber, Marjorie. Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing & Cultural Anxiety. New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
• Jacobus, Mary. Reading Woman: Essays in Feminist Criticism. New York: Columbia UP, 1986.
• Rose, Jacqueline. Sexuality in the Field of Vision. London: Verso, 1986.
• Poizat, Michel. The Angel's Cry: Beyond the Pleasure Principle in Opera. Trans. Arthur Denner. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1992.
• Silverman, Kaja. The Acoustic Mirror: The Female Voice in Psychoanalysis and Film. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1988.

Opera History

• Burney, Charles. A General History of Music from the Earliest Ages to the Present Period. 1789. Ed. Frank Mercer. New York: Dover, 1957.
• Christensen, Rupert. Prima Donna: A History. London: Bodley Head, 1984.
• Clayton, Ellen Creathorne. Queens of Song. 1865. Essay Index Reprint Series. Freeport: Books For Libraries, 1972.

• See the links for extensive, online bibliographies
• For information on contemporary musicians, consult current journals, such as Rolling Stone, Vogue, The New York Times, The Village Voice, Vanity Fair, etc. Please pass on any book titles or websites which you would like posted here.
• Allen, R.C. Horrible Prettiness: Burlesque and American Culture. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1991.
• Dahl, Linda. Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen. New York: Pantheon, 1984.
• Fiske, John. Reading the Popular. Boston: Unwin and Hyman, 1989.
• Freedberg, David. The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1989.
• Friedwald, Will. Jazz Singing: America's Great Voices from Bessie Smith to Bebop and Beyond. New York: Scribner's, 1990.
• Huyssen, A. "Mass Culture as Woman: Moderism's Other." Studies in Entertainment. Ed. T. Modleski. Bloomington: Indiana P, 1986. 188-207.
• Placksin, Sally. American Women in Jazz: 1900 to the Present: their words, lives and music. New York: Seaview, 1982.
• Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945. New York: Oxford UP, 1989.
• Suleiman, Susan Rubin, ed. The Female Body in Western Culture.. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1986.

Return to Index

Links

• The Art of Maria Callas
• Billie Holiday Biblio
• Ella Fitzgerald Biblio
• Holiday Home Page
• Opera Links Page
• Magazines featuring Madonna
• Book Review: Madonna in Rolling Stone