Download or read book Old Wives' Tales and Other Women's Stories written by Tania Modleski and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 1998-11 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alerting readers to a body of recent work that has gone under-examined, Tania Modleski redraws in Old Wives' Tales the perimeter of popular culture. A critical analysis of films such as The Ballad of Little Jo, The Piano and Dogfight, Old Wives' Tales also takes up performance, autobiographical experience, and contemporary social issues to illustrate how women's genres mediate between us and reality. Modelski examines the changes occurring in traditional women's genres, such as romances and melodrama, and explores the phenomenon of female authors and performers who "cross-dress"--women, that is, who are moving into male genres and staking out territory declared off-limits by men and by many feminists.