The 1950s and 60s were times of extraordinary social and political change across North America that re-drew the boundaries between traditional and progressive, conservative and liberal. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the history of Catholic nuns. During these two decades, nuns boldly experimented with their role in the church, removing their habits, rejecting the cloister, and fighting for social justice. The media quickly took to their cause and dubbed them 'the new nuns,' modern exemplars of liberated but sexually contained womanhood.
With Visual Habits, Rebecca Sullivan brings this unexamined history of nuns to the fore, revisiting the intersection of three distinct movements - the Second Vatican Council, the second wave of feminism, and the sexual revolution - to explore the pivotal role nuns played in revamping cultural expectations of femininity and feminism.
From The Nun's Story to The Flying Nun to The Singing Nun, nuns were a major presence in the mainstream media. Charting their evolving representation in film and television, popular music, magazines, and girls' literature, Sullivan discusses these images in the context of the period's seemingly unlimited potential for social change. In the process, she delivers a rich cultural analysis of a topic too long ignored.
Authors
- Bibliography, etc. Note
- Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-239) and index
- Control Number Identifier
- CaOOCEL
- Dewey Decimal Classification Number
- 248.8/943/0973
- Dewey Decimal Edition Number
- 22
- General Note
- Issued as part of the desLibris books collection
- Geographic Area Code
- n-us---
- ISBN
- 9781442683112 0802037763
- LCCN
- BR115.A8
- LCCN Item number
- S84 2005eb
- Modifying agency
- CaBNVSL
- Original cataloging agency
- CaOONL
- Physical Description | Extent
- 1 electronic text (xi, 255 p.)
- Published in
- Canada
- Publisher or Distributor Number
- CaOOCEL
- Rights
- Access restricted to authorized users and institutions
- System Control Number
- (CaBNVSL)thg00600456 (OCoLC)244768441 (CaOOCEL)418686
- System Details Note
- Mode of access: World Wide Web
- Transcribing agency
- CaOONL
Table of Contents
- CONTENTS 8
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10
- Introduction: Gender, Religion, and Culture 16
- 1 Cracks in the Cloister: The Changing Cultural Role of Nuns 35
- 2 Celluloid Sisters: Nuns in Hollywood 73
- 3 Whose Story Is The Nun’s Story? 108
- 4 Adventurous Souls: Vocation Books and Postwar Girl Culture 137
- 5 Sing Out, Sister! Sacred Music and the Feminized Folk Scene 170
- 6 Gidget Joins a Convent: Television Confronts the New Nuns 203
- Conclusion: The Return of the New Nuns 227
- WORKS CITED 240
- CREDITS 254
- INDEX 256
- A 256
- B 257
- C 257
- D 259
- E 259
- F 259
- G 260
- H 260
- I 261
- J 261
- K 261
- L 261
- M 261
- N 262
- O 264
- P 264
- Q 265
- R 265
- S 265
- T 266
- U 267
- V 267
- W 267
- Y 268
- Z 268
