In 'Dead Girls', Alice Bolin explores the haunting intersection of feminism and pop culture through the lens of female mortality. The book weaves personal memoir with cultural critique as Bolin examines the fixation society has with dead women in literature, film, and media. With lyrical prose, she confronts the ways these narratives shape our understanding of womanhood and identity. Each essay invites readers to reflect on their own relationship with the stories of women's lives and deaths. This thought-provoking collection challenges us to reimagine the narratives we consume and the voices we prioritize.
By Alice Bolin
Published: 2018
"We are often defined by the struggles we endure, particularly the ones that come steeped in the shadows of our past."
“Dead Girls is everything I want in an essay collection: provocative lines of inquiry, macabre humor, blistering intelligence... I love this book. I want to take it into the middle of a crowded room and hold it up and scream until someone tackles me the ground; even then, I’d probably keep screaming.” — Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties "Bracing and blazingly smart, Alice Bolin's Dead Girls could hardly be more needed or more timely. A critical contribution to the cultural discussion of gender and genre, Los Angeles and noir, the unbearable persistence of the male gaze and the furtive potency of female rage.” — Megan Abbott, Edgar Award-winning author of You Will Know Me Named a most anticipated book of 2018 by Bitch Magazine In this poignant collection, Alice Bolin examines iconic American works from the essays of Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, illuminating the widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster men’s stories. Smart and accessible, thoughtful and heartfelt, Bolin investigates the implications of our cultural fixations, and her own role as a consumer and creator. Bolin chronicles her life in Los Angeles, dissects the Noir, revisits her own coming of age, and analyzes stories of witches and werewolves, both appreciating and challenging the narratives we construct and absorb every day. Dead Girls begins by exploring the trope of dead women in fiction, and ends by interrogating the more complex dilemma of living women – both the persistent injustices they suffer and the oppression that white women help perpetrate. Reminiscent of the piercing insight of Rebecca Solnit and the critical skill of Hilton Als, Bolin constructs a sharp, perceptive, and revelatory dialogue on the portrayal of women in media and their roles in our culture.
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“We are often defined by the struggles we endure, particularly the ones that come steeped in the shadows of our past.”
Dead Girls
By Alice Bolin
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Alice Bolin is a writer and essayist known for her sharp, insightful prose that often explores themes of feminism, pop culture, and the complexities of contemporary life. She is the author of 'Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession', a collection that examines societal attitudes towards female victims and the phenomenon of true crime. Her work has been featured in various prestigious publications, including the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Rumpus. Bolin's writing often blends personal narrative with cultural criticism, making her a distinctive voice in modern literature.
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