Engendering Culture: Manhood and Womanhood In New Deal Public Art and Theater

by Barbara Melosh

Using the iconography of New Deal murals and plays to interpret the cultural history of the 1930s, Engendering Culture demonstrates that the visual and dramatic images of each form contain an underlying vocabulary of a stock of commonly used poses, subjects, settings, and dramatic roles that encode recognizable characteristics of manhood and womanhood.

Genres: History, Art History

312 pages, Paperback

First published September 17, 1991

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should not down score the book for being too focused on how women are represented in the arts, as that is the focus of the book, however at times it felt repetitive. The contrast between the theater program and the Section art is very interesting to read. Considering the vast amount of artistic work which was part of the New Deal she did an incredible job in bringing them all together into a discussion.