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The Queen, aging femininity and the recuperation of the monarchy

Dolan, Josie

Authors

Josie Dolan



Contributors

Aagje Swinnen
Editor

John Stotesbury
Editor

Abstract

This article explores the role played by ‘aging femininity’ in the biopic, The Queen, in the recuperation of the monarchy from republican tendencies that followed from the death of Diana. The article traces how the film initially establishes a binary between age/youth, tradition/modernity, The Queen/Diana, which is then unsettled through representations of Queen Elizabeth II as an ordinary. Aging woman and suggestions that the film is revealing vulnerabilities previously cloaked by the protocols of royal spectacle. From this position, a conjunction is forged with the ‘senior sexy’ image of star Helen Mirren, a conjunction that positions Elizabeth II as the embodied resolution of the binary tensions between tradition and modernity that had underpinned the republican tendency.

Citation

Dolan, J. (2010). The Queen, aging femininity and the recuperation of the monarchy. In A. Swinnen, & J. Stotesbury (Eds.), Ageing, Perfomance and Stardom: Doing Age on the Stage of Consumerist Culture. LIT Verlag

Publication Date Jan 1, 2010
Journal Aging Studies in Europe
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Series Title Aging Studies in Eurpoe
Series Number 2
Book Title Ageing, Perfomance and Stardom: Doing Age on the Stage of Consumerist Culture
ISBN 9783643501875
Keywords aging, monarchy, Mirren, ordinariness
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/984517

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