Exporting Perilous Pauline: Pearl White and the Serial Film Craze
Marina Dahlquist
Abstract
Exceptionally popular during their time, the spectacular American action film serials of the 1910s featured exciting stunts, film tricks, and effects set against the background of modern technology, often starring resourceful female heroines who displayed traditionally male qualities such as endurance, strength, and authority. The most renowned of these “serial queens” was Pearl White, whose career as the adventurous character Pauline developed during a transitional phase in the medium's evolving production strategies, distribution and advertising patterns, and fan culture. This book explores ... More
Exceptionally popular during their time, the spectacular American action film serials of the 1910s featured exciting stunts, film tricks, and effects set against the background of modern technology, often starring resourceful female heroines who displayed traditionally male qualities such as endurance, strength, and authority. The most renowned of these “serial queens” was Pearl White, whose career as the adventurous character Pauline developed during a transitional phase in the medium's evolving production strategies, distribution and advertising patterns, and fan culture. This book explores how American serial films starring Pearl White and other female stars affected the emerging cinemas in the United States and abroad. The book investigates the serial genre and its narrative patterns, marketing, cultural reception, and historiographic importance, with chapters on Pearl White's life on and off the screen as well as the “serial queen” genre in Western and Eastern Europe, India, and China.
Keywords:
female heroines,
stunts,
fan culture,
serial genre,
American action films,
marketing,
Pearl White,
cinema,
serial queens,
cultural reception
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2013 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780252037689 |
| Published to Illinois Scholarship Online: April 2017 |
DOI:10.5406/illinois/9780252037689.001.0001 |
