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Since the publication of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones Diary and Candace Bushnell's Sex and the City in the mid-nineties, the terms 'Chick lit' and 'Chick flicks' have been introduced to describe light-hearted and humorous novels and films addressed to and marketed at young women. The storylines of these fictions revolve around the heroine's everyday trials and tribulations in juggling work, love, family and friends. Despite its formulaic quality, Chick lit as well as its film adaptations have experienced tremendous success, and Bridget Jones and Carrie Bradshaw have become cult figures of postmodern femininity.
Generically, Chick Lit inscribes itself into the tradition of the popular romance, but it clearly deviates from its Mills & Boon or Harlequin predecessors in its portrayal of gender identities. Although termed "the new woman's fiction" by Suzanne Ferris and Mallory Young (2006), and established as the quintessential genre of postfeminism by Stephanie Harzewski (2011), the debates about Chick lit in- and outside academia have shown that there is little consensus about the actual feminist potential of these texts.
In this seminar we are going to discuss the socio-cultural contexts of the rise of Chick lit and Chick flicks, their narrative features and their representations of gender, based on two novels - Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada and Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed - and two films - I Don't Know How She Does It (2011) and Bridesmaids (2011). You are expected to have read Lauren Weisberger's The Devil Wears Prada before the start of term, there will be a test in the second session. You must own the following editions:
- Weisberger, Lauren. The Devil Wears Prada.
London: Harper, 2003. Print. ISBN-13: 978-0007156108
- Weiner, Jennifer. Good in Bed. London:
Pocket Books, 2001. Print. ISBN-13: 978-1416522423 |
