1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910159460503321

Autore

Looseley David

Titolo

Edith Piaf : a cultural history / / David Looseley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Liverpool : , : Liverpool University Press, , 2015

ISBN

1-78138-859-8

1-78694-528-2

1-78138-425-8

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (vii, 254 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Liverpool scholarship online

Disciplina

782.42164092

Soggetti

Popular music - France - History and criticism

Popular culture - France - 20th century

Biographies

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Jul 2017).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Pt. I NARRATING PIAF -- 1. Inventing la Mome -- 2. Piaf and her public -- 3. A singer at war -- pt. II PIAF AND CHANSON -- 4. A new Piaf -- 5. High art, low culture: Piaf and la chanson francaise -- 6. Ideology, tragedy, celebrity: a new middlebrow -- pt. III AFTERLIVES -- 7. Losing Piaf -- 8. Remembering Piaf -- 9. Performing Piaf.

Sommario/riassunto

The world-famous French singer EĢdith Piaf (1915-63) was never just a singer. Dozens of biographies of her, of variable quality, have seldom got beyond the well known and usually contested 'facts' of her life. This book suggests new ways of understanding her. A 'cultural history' of Piaf means exploring her cultural, social and political significance as a national and international icon, looking at her shifting meanings over time, at home and abroad. How did she become a star and a myth? What did she come to mean in life and in death? At the centenary of her birth and more than fifty years after her passing, why do we still remember her work and commemorate her through the work of others, from Claude Nougaro and Elton John to Ben Harper and Zaz, as well as in films, musicals, documentaries and tribute acts around the world? What does she mean today?The book proposes the notion of an imagined Piaf. To a large extent, she was her own invention, not only by virtue of her talent but because she produced narratives about



herself, building a mystery. But she was also the invention of others: of those she worked with but above all of her audiences, who made their own meanings from her carefully staged performances. Since her death, the world has been free to imagine new Piafs. From the 1930s until today, she has variously embodied conceptions of the 'popular' and of 'chanson' as a new kind of middlebrow, of gender, sexuality, national identity and the human condition.