Female Stars in Classical Hollywood: Negotiation, Agency and Practices of Stardom

Female stars were crucial to classical era Hollywood. In a period when women had limited options, female stars showed that it was possible to achieve success beyond the domestic sphere. This thesis examines the female star as a historical subject with agency who employed practices of negotiation to succeed within a particular time period, offering case studies of three stars: Olivia de Havilland, Joan Fontaine and Ava Gardner. Each star provides different insights into the way subjectivity and agency functioned at a particular moment in history, while also broadening our understanding of female stardom in classical Hollywood more generally.