Girls - by Catherine Driscoll (Paperback)

About the Book

The Spice Girls, Tank Girl comic books, Sailor Moon, Courtney Love, Grrl Power: is there really such a thing as "girl culture"? Catherine Driscoll argues that both "girls" and "culture" as ideas are too problematic to fulfill any useful role in theorizing about the emergence of feminine adolescence in popular culture. She relates the increasing public visibility of girls in Western and Westernized cultures to the evolution and expansion of theories about feminine adolescence, in fields such as psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology, history, and

politics. Presenting her argument as a Foucauldian genealogy, with chapters arranged chronologically to

follow a girl's development, Driscoll discusses the ways in which young women have been involved in the

production and consumption of theories about representations of girls, feminine adolescence, and the "girl market."

Book Synopsis

The Spice Girls, Tank Girl comicbooks, Sailor Moon, Courtney Love, Grrl Power: do such things really constitute a unique "girl culture?" Catherine Driscoll begins by identifying a genealogy of "girlhood" or "feminine adolescence," and then argues that both "girls" and "culture" as ideas are too problematic to fulfill any useful role in theorizing about the emergence of feminine adolescence in popular culture. She relates the increasing public visibility of girls in western and westernized cultures to the evolution and expansion of theories about feminine adolescence in fields such as psychoanalysis, sociology, anthropology, history, and politics. Presenting her argument as a Foucauldian genealogy, Driscoll discusses the ways in which young women have been involved in the production and consumption of theories and representations of girls, feminine adolescence, and the "girl market."

Review Quotes

A lucid and original study of girl culture... both challenging and rewarding.--Emma Liggins "Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory"

Driscoll discusses the ways in which young women have been involved in the production and consumption of theories and representations of girls, feminine adolescence, and the 'girl market.'-- "Family Therapy"

The result is an erudite and crisp exegesis of many contemporary theorists, interspersed with readings of popular culture itself.... it is a smart and suggestive intellectual montage.--Jane H. Hunter "American Studies"

About the Author

Catherine Driscoll is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Adelaide, Australia. She has published essays in various scholarly journals and books, most recently Deleuze and Feminism and South Atlantic Quarterly.