Madonna, bawdy & soul / Karlene Faith ; appendix, selected works of Madonna by Frances Wasserlein.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

A celebration and critical analysis of Madonna from a feminist perspective. The book follows the first decade of Madonna's career as a popular culture icon and includes a comprehensive listing of her songs, videos, tours, films, and stage roles.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Faith's book is an odd mix of scholarly inquiry and unabashed admiration. Faith (criminology, Simon Fraser Univ.) sets the tone of her pseudocritique in the preface when she gushes, "I hope I have humanized Madonna even while holding her in awe." The author attempts to examine Madonna's various incarnations--from pop queen to S&M artist--and prove that Madonna "signifies the world we live in, as mediated by audiences, technology, and media journalists, and as analysed by university scholars." Though refreshing, Faith's open admiration weakens her scholarship; in places, her tone seems appropriate for a fan magazine directed to teenagers. The book works as a lively biography, but those seeking a theoretical framework for dissecting popular culture will be disappointed. One knows one is in trouble when Faith tries to equate Madonna with Michel Foucault by claiming that both have "resisted status-quo cultural values and have revealed the resistances and contradictions inherent in power relations while reaping the harvests of capitalist economies." Useful only as a biography for undergraduate popular culture collections P. D. Schultz; Alfred University