Becoming Cleopatra: The Shifting Image of an Icon [Paperback]

Francesca T. Royster (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2003

Cleopatra is one of our icons of “exotic” femininity. Sexy, political, and racially ambiguous--since the time of Shakespeare she has been a central character in popular culture. And, more often than not, Cleopatra has been imagined as the epitome of dangerous female sexuality. Moving fluidly from Shakespeare's England to contemporary Los Angeles, Francesca Royster looks at the performance of race and sexuality in a wide range of portrayals of Cleopatra. Royster begins with Shakespeare's original appropriation of Plutarch, and then moves on to analyze performances of the Cleopatra icon by Josephine Baker, and the on screen performances of Elizabeth Taylor, Tamara Dobson (Cleopatra Jones), and Queen Latifah (in Set It Off).

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The Cleopatra icon has remained powerful over time because she signifies reinvention," Royster declares in this academic study of the Queen of the Nile. Divided into two parts, "Cleopatra and the White Imaginary" and "Cleopatra and African American Counternarratives," Royster's book makes frequent reference to Shakespeare's famous romance, Antony and Cleopatra, in which Cleopatra and Antony's relationship "might be viewed as a central paradigm for the ways that the multiple energy of black women's bodies can be appropriated and sold back to us." But the author's primary goal is to examine how modern film and stage depictions have functioned "as a means of performing and often deconstructing racial and gender subjectivity." Individual chapters, and close shot-by-shot analyses are devoted to the performances of Elizabeth Taylor, Josephine Baker, Queen Latifah, Tamara Dobson and Vivien Leigh. Royster, an associate English professor at DePaul Univ., has crafted a dense but readable book, especially appropriate for women in film courses. Photos.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...a dense but readable book, especially appropriate for women in film courses."--Publishers Weekly Annex, 7/21/03
"Like its subject, Becoming Cleopatra is provocative and endlessly fascinating; unlike her, it is ultimately satisfying. At last we have a book as witty, complex and liberating as Cleopatra herself." - Kim F. Hall, Thomas F. X. Mullarkey Chair in Literature, Fordham University

"Starting with Josephine Baker in the 1920s and extending to the search for a racially recognizable villain after 9/11, Royster blurs the boundaries between history and the present, between the academy and popular culture, between critical analysis and personal testimony. In this thoroughly engaging book 'Cleopatra' loses its fixity as a noun and becomes a verb." - Bruce R. Smith, author of The Acoustic World of Early Modern England and Shakespeare and Masculinity

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (August 2, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403961093
• ISBN-13: 978-1403961099
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,037 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.