Tania Modleski (born 1949) is an American feminist scholar and cultural critic, Professor of English at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. Modleski's ''Loving with a Vengeance'', "to begin a feminist analysis of women's reading", considered three popular fictional genres: the

Harlequin romance Harlequin Enterprises ULC (known simply as Harlequin) is a publisher of romance, women's fiction and various other genres under multiple publishing imprints. Founded in Winnipeg, Canada, in 1949, from the 1960s, it grew into the largest publish ...

, the

Gothic novel Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror (primarily in the 20th century), is a literary aesthetic of fear and haunting. The name of the genre is derived from the Renaissance era use of the word "gothic", as a pejorative to mean ...

and the daytime US

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

. Modleski argued that the formulaic nature of these genres gave readers the freedom to construct their own response, at a distance from the text. Her next book, ''The Women Who Knew Too Much'', examined seven

Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featu ...

films: ''

Blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

'', ''

Murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...

'', ''

Rebecca Rebecca () appears in the Hebrew Bible as the wife of Isaac and the mother of Jacob and Esau. According to biblical tradition, Rebecca's father was Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan Aram, also called Aram-Naharaim. Rebecca's brother was Laban (Bi ...

'', '' Notorious'', ''

Rear Window ''Rear Window'' is a 1954 American mystery film, mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and written by John Michael Hayes, based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "After-Dinner Story, It Had to Be Murder". Originally released ...

'', ''

Vertigo Vertigo is a condition in which a person has the sensation that they are moving, or that objects around them are moving, when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. It may be associated with nausea, vomiting, perspira ...

'' and ''

Frenzy ''Frenzy'' is a 1972 British thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. It is the penultimate feature film of his extensive career. The screenplay by Anthony Shaffer is based on the 1966 novel '' Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square ...

''. Modelski now challenged the terms of taking 'distance' from a text, arguing that "the desire for distance itself s... bound up with the male's insistence on his difference from woman." By contrast to male violence, the 'feminine' could embrace "narrative empathy, spectatorial passivity, and the subconscious imaginary". In ''Feminism Without Women'', Modleski argued that "male power frequently works to efface female subjectivity by occupying the site of femininity", and that the writer has a responsibility to re-articulate women's shared experience.

Works

* ''Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women''. London: Methuen, 1982 * ''The Women Who Knew Too Much: Hitchcock and feminist theory''. New York: Methuen, 1983 * (ed.) ''Studies in entertainment: critical approaches to mass culture''. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. * ''Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a "Postfeminist" Age''. New York: Routledge, 1991. * ''Old wives' tales, and other women's stories''. New York: New York University Press, 1998.

References

External links

Tania Modleski
at

USC Dornsife The academics of the University of Southern California center on The College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, the Graduate School, and its 17 professional schools. Overview USC is a member of the Association of American Universities, joining in 196 ...

2010 interview
at The Lazy Scholar {{DEFAULTSORT:Modleski, Tania 1949 births Living people American feminist writers American film critics American women film critics University of Southern California faculty 20th-century American women writers American literary critics