Title Divine decadence : fascism, female spectacle, and the makings of Sally Bowles / Linda Mizejewski

Published Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, [1992] ©1992

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Description 1 online resource (274 pages) : illustrations Series Princeton Legacy Library Princeton legacy library. Contents Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND CREDITS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Chapter One. FANTASIES, FASCISM, FEMALE SPECTACLE -- CHAPTER TWO. "Good Heter Stuff": Isherwood, Sally Bowles, and the Vision of Camp -- CHAPTER THREE. The Cold War against Mummy: Van Druten's I Am a Camera -- CHAPTER FOUR. Sally, Lola, and Painful Pleasures: The First On-Screen Sally Bowles -- CHAPTER FIVE. (Nazi) Life Is a Cabaret: Sally Bowles and Broadway Musical -- CHAPTER SIX. "Doesn't My Body Drive You Wild with Desire?": Fosse's Cabaret -- EPILOGUE -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX Summary As femme fatale, cabaret siren, and icon of Camp, the Christopher Isherwood character Sally Bowles has become this century's darling of "divine decadence"--A measure of how much we are attracted by the fiction of the "shocking" British/American vamp in Weimar Berlin. Originally a character in a short story by Isherwood, published in 1939, "Sally" has appeared over the years in John Van Druten's stage play I Am a Camera, Henry Cornelius's film of the same name, and Joe Masteroff's stage musical and Bob Fosse's Academy Award-winning musical film, both entitled Cabaret. Linda Mizejewski shows how each successive repetition of the tale of the showgirl and the male writer/scholar has linked the young man's fascination with Sally more closely to the fascination of fascism. In every version, political difference is read as sexual difference, fascism is disavowed as secretly female or homosexual, and the hero eventually renounces both Sally and the corruption of the coming regime. Mizejewski argues, however, that the historical and political aspects of this story are too specific--and too frightening--to explain in purely psychoanalytic terms. Instead, Divine Decadence examines how each text engages particular cultural issues and anxieties of its era, from postwar "Momism" to the Vietnam War. Sally Bowles as the symbol of "wild Weimar" or Nazi eroticism represents "history" from within the grid of many other controversial discourses, including changing theories of fascism, the story of Camp, vicissitudes of male homosexual representations and discourses, and the relationships of these issues to images of female sexuality. To Mizejewski, the Sally Bowles adaptations end up duplicating the fascist politics they strain to condemn, reproducing the homophobia, misogyny, fascination for spectacle, and emphasis of sexual difference that characterized German fascism. Originally published in 1992. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905 Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-252) and index Notes English Print version record Subject Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986 -- Characters -- Sally Bowles Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986. Goodbye to Berlin Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986 -- Adaptations SUBJECT Isherwood, Christopher, 1904-1986 fast Goodbye to Berlin (Isherwood, Christopher) fast Subject Bowles, Sally (Fictitious character) Decadence in literature. Fascism and literature. Women in literature. Regression (Civilization) in literature. LITERARY CRITICISM -- European -- English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh. PERFORMING ARTS -- Film & Video -- History & Criticism. Regression (Civilization) in literature Bowles, Sally (Fictitious character) Decadence in literature Fascism and literature Literature Women in literature SUBJECT Berlin (Germany) -- In literature Subject Germany -- Berlin Genre/Form Adaptations Form Electronic book ISBN 9781400863006 1400863007 9780691023465 0691023468 9780691078960 0691078963 0691608784 9780691608785

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