Fabulous yet fierce, imperious yet impetuous, boss yet bitchy--divas are figures of paradox. Their place in culture is equally contradictory, as they are simultaneously venerated and marginalized, hailed as timeless but then frequently forgotten or exhumed as cult icons by future generations. Focusing on four early twentieth-century divas--Aida Overton Walker, Loie Fuller, Libby Holman, and Josephine Baker--who were icons in their own time, Moving Performances considers what their past and current reception reveals about changing ideas of race and gender. Jeanne Scheper examines how...

Fabulous yet fierce, imperious yet impetuous, boss yet bitchy--divas are figures of paradox. Their place in culture is equally contradictory, as they are simultaneously venerated and marginalized, hailed as timeless but then frequently forgotten or exhumed as cult icons by future generations. Focusing on four early twentieth-century divas--Aida Overton Walker, Loie Fuller, Libby Holman, and Josephine Baker--who were icons in their own time, Moving Performances considers what their past and current reception reveals about changing ideas of race and gender. Jeanne Scheper examines how...