Through a writing formula that Ken Feil calls sleazy realism, Susann veers from gossip to confession and devises comedies of bad manners spun from real celebrities whose occasionally queer and always outré antics clashed with their "official" personas, the popular genres they were famous for, and the narrow, normative constructions of identity and reality shaped by the culture industry. Susann's promotional appearances led to another comedy of bad...

"Examines multiethnic women writers' responses to the ideal of the New Woman in America at the dawn of the twentieth century, opening up a world of literary texts that lend new insight, revealing how these authors articulated the contradictions of the American New Woman, and how social class, race, or ethnicity impacted women's experiences"--Provided by publisher.