Reframing Vivien Leigh: Stardom, Gender, and the Archive

By: Lisa Stead

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Synopsis: Reframing Vivien Leigh takes a new look at the laboring life one of the twentieth century's most iconic stars. Author Lisa Stead reframes the dominant narratives that have surrounded Leigh's life and career, offering a new perspective on Vivien Leigh as a distinctly archival subject. The book examines the collections and curatorial practices that have built up around her, exploring material documents collated by her own hand and by those who worked with her. The book also examines the collection practices of those who have developed deep, long-standing fandoms of her life and work. To do so, the book draws upon new oral history work with curators, archivists and fan collectives and examines a variety of archived correspondence, items of dress and costume, script annotations, photography, press clippings, props and memorabilia. It argues that such material has the potential to produce a new interpretation of Leigh as a creative laborer. As such, the book casts new light on the labor of archiving itself and the significance of archival processes and practices to contemporary feminist film historiography.