Description
Book SynopsisThis book combines Kaethe Fine's play "Wollstonecraft Live!" and the story of the 10-year campaign to raise funds and erect a statue on Newington Green in London, in honour of Mary Wollstonecraft, the "Mother" of Feminism. The unveiling of the sculpture by Maggi Hambling caused controversy with some viewers attempting to cover it up and others praising the originality of the artwork. Fine's play was performed to celebrate the regeneration project and to raise awareness of the campaign for a statue honouring the 18th century radical. The play depicts the shooting of a film about the relationship between Mary Wollstonecraft and the writer William Godwin. Their daughter, Mary, would become the author of a classic: Frankenstein.
Trade Review'Mother of feminism reborn in triplicate. Wollstonecraft makes for a great multimedia heroine. Long may she live!' -The Independent; 'The dialogue provides a satirical commentary on the preoccupations of the film industry. More importantly, however, it invites reflection on the way commercial interests and gendered assumptions can shape Hollywood biopics of women, flattening complex personhood into cliched narratives of frustration and victimhood or - patronising in their own way - one-dimensional portraits of feisty, go-getting feminists... If Wollstonecraft Live! is postmodern in its self-consciousness, it also has the emotional intensity and spontaneity of abstract expressionism - disorientating but powerful. ' - Laura Kirkley, Newcastle University https://www.bsecs.org.uk/criticks-reviews/wollstonecraft-live-search-mary/; 'Past and present are superimposed onto each other, an editing technique which maps the present moment onto the history of the site, subjectivity onto context : the canvas of the site is used to dive into issues of contemporary culture.' - Live Art Magazine issue 36;
