Divine Decadence: Fascism, Female Spectacle, and the Makings of Sally Bowles

by Linda Mizejewski

Book Overview

As femme fatale, cabaret siren, and icon of Camp, the Christopher Isherwood character Sally Bowles has become this century's darling of "divine decadence"--a measure of how much we are attracted by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691023468
• ISBN13: 9780691023465
• Release Date: October 1992
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Entertaining and informative

Fabulous analysis -- this gives the film version of Cabaret, that everybody knows, a dozen more dimensions. You won't look at it the same way.

Divine Decadence a satisfying challenge

Mizejewski's Divine Decadence hails itself as a sort of history of the character developement of Sally Bowles through her many incarnations. It is an accurate analysis, but the book is also a valuable resource for information on Weimar culture in general, and it's chapter-by-chapter sections on each Sally Bowles may be taken one by one as individual "essays". For anyone reading Divine Decadence, I would highly recommend first familiarizing oneself with the works Mizejewski focuses on, such as Isherwood's Berlin Stories, Van Druten's I Am A Camera, and the Broadway musical (and film adaptation) Cabaret. Divine Decadence begins by establishing a sense of Weimar Germany and the sociopolitical origins of Isherwood's Berlin, as well as aquainting the reader with an understanding of the Nazi Party's rise to power within the context of Weimar culture. Mizejewski then begins a direct analysis of the original Sally Bowles of the Isherwood stories and also explores Isherwood's motivations for creating her in th 1930s. The following two sections are focused on the Van Druten play and subsequent film adaptation of Isherwood's Sally Bowles, I Am A Camera, evaluating the evolution of Sally, and also the story in general, as it was tailored for audiences of the 1950s. Next, Mizejewski analyzes the 1966 Broadway musical Cabaret and its 1972 film adaptation, discussing them in delicious depth as the Sally character is displaced by other forces in the stage musical, and then returned in campy splendour by Liza Minelli in the film. Mizejewski's prose tends to be highly dense and academic; like wading through treacle. Novices beware. But what do you expect from Princeton University Press? With the new revival of the musical Cabaret taking Broadway by storm, many readers may want to explore its literary history and its sociopolitical evolution. If you are up for a mental exercise, practicing your cencentration skills, seriously devoted to the subject matter, or just plain driven, I wholeheartedly recommend Divine Decadence.