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The cultural politics of Jennifer Lawrence as star, actor, celebrity

Frame, Gregory

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Abstract

Jennifer Lawrence emerged as a major star of American cinema following the collapse of the economy in 2008. This article will argue that her image in the initial phase of her fame (2010–16) is reflective of mainstream culture’s response to the crisis of neoliberalism and the endemic economic insecurity it has precipitated. Rising to prominence in the Great Recession through indie hit Winter’s Bone (2010), in which Lawrence played Ree Dolly, an impoverished young girl trying to save her family from destitution, on to her zeitgeist-capturing turns as reluctant revolutionary Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (2012–15) series, and through her role as successful entrepreneur and single mom Joy Mangano in Joy (2015), she played to a particular ‘type’: ‘white trash with too much responsibility’. Indeed, the initial phase of Lawrence’s film career (2010–16) performed essential cultural work in the aftermath of the recession, attempting to critique the consequences of neoliberalism’s crisis, but ultimately coming to reinforce some of its fundamental ideological tenets. This article argues that Lawrence’s image, performances, and acting style have addressed the effects of the crisis of neoliberalism and, more often than not, offered a fantastical vision of how one might escape it.

Citation

Frame, G. (2020). The cultural politics of Jennifer Lawrence as star, actor, celebrity. New Review of Film and Television Studies, 18(3), 345-368. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2020.1790479

Journal Article Type Article
Online Publication Date Sep 8, 2020
Publication Date Jul 2, 2020
Deposit Date May 18, 2023
Publicly Available Date May 24, 2023
Journal New Review of Film and Television Studies
Print ISSN 1740-0309
Electronic ISSN 1740-7923
Publisher Routledge
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 18
Issue 3
Pages 345-368
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/17400309.2020.1790479
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/19007877
Publisher URL https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17400309.2020.1790479

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