Product Description

Madonna has long been accepted as a pop culture icon, but this text postulates a greater cultural importance by analyzing her as a postmodern myth. This work examines how Madonna methodically discovered and constructed herself (often rewriting her past), the nature and extent of her ambition and the means she used to reach her goals. It also details the way in which she organized her own cult (borrowing from the gay community), devised her artistic output, and cunningly targeted different audiences. It also studies the fundamental contradiction - virgin or vamp? saint or prostitute? - that fuels Madonna's career and describes how Madonna reflects today's society, its contradictions and its attitudes toward sexuality and religion.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #470837 in Books
• Published on: 2002-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Customer Reviews

Tremendous book !
Beware: "Madonna as Postmodern Myth" is not a biography! In this book GC Guilbert analyses Madonna as no one has ever done before. He takes every video especially and looks at it with a microscope. You can't help wondering at times if he isn't a bit excessive in his pronouncements, but it's great fun to read. I thought I could never be surprised or shocked by anything anyone might say about Madonna, I was wrong. I loved the passage about Madonna and drag queens in particular. Perfect Christmas present for your niece who's such a big Madonna fan and goes to college.

A Fascinating Read Filled With Shock Value!
Georges-Claude Guilbert presents in this phenomenal book a detailed analysis of postmodern myth with many array of famous people but most notably MADONNA! When I picked up this book I never put it down for a minute and found myself fascinated by the discoveries revealed. To not spoil the surprises I won't say the actual revelations-- this author takes Madonna's videos, Sex Book, Tours, and personality transformations/persons to reveal a powerful, iconic figure that is definitely striking, impacting, and defining to history --comparable to Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and other big known stars including Mae West. The insight revealed regarding gay culture, straight, Latino, White, Afro-American, and how it impacts the American Dream and ideology is very scrutinized. He presents Madonna in a very unique phenomenon describing Madonna's self-construction by taking the drag, camp, and past to a mixture that is neither a copy nor a destruction but a more powerful redefinition of postmodern. In his details of images, sounds, songs, videos, meanings behind them, and analysis one can't help but feel compelled to want to read more. The discoveries for huge fans such as myself were astonishing. This book has things not found in biographies, or common books because this is geared to the intellect as well as the fan, the historian as well as the scholar. It's a definite mind blower and a jaw-dropper for sure!