Imagining la Chica Moderna. Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917-1936. JOHANNE HERSHFIELD: Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2008

Abstract

Imagining la Chica Moderna. Women, Nation, and Visual Culture in Mexico, 1917-1936 is a study of the popular images that were addressed to female middle-class consumers during the years following the Mexican Revolution. The study questions one-sided historical approaches on state formation and official nationalism by dealing with "popular" forms of female representation in the public domain; hence, "popular culture" and "gender" are key methodological tools for this study. By highlighting the importance of consumer culture addressed to women, the author attempts to expose the interaction between heterogeneous identities and official nationalism, between state formation and market forces, between discourses on mexicanidad and transnational gendered commercial ones.