lars of that experience. Beth O’Connor argues thatYo’ Mama Magazine, a ‘zine addressed to teen

mothers, provides these mothers a space to share andcritique dominant representations of motherhood.

Although all the essays in this collection wrestlewith the presence of the mother within popular cul-

ture, the third section, “Pregnant and PostpartumBodies,” centers on the taboos and fantasies of the

pregnant body and the new mother. These essays arguethat motherhood is both a pre and postpartum experi-ence and that the pregnant body is one that is discur-

sively constructed as full of risk. The topics range froman analysis of the public discourse surrounding breast

feeding to the spectacle of starving and sufferingAfrican mothers in first-world media.

The fourth and final section, “Medical Interven-tions and Reproductive Technologies,” includes five

essays. As Podnieks explains in her introduction, “themost contentious maternal issues today deal with fer-

tility and reproduction” (23). Sally Mennill begins thesection by exploring the rhetoric of passivity in mater-nity literature. Other chapters address the confluence

of celebrity culture and ideologies regarding post-partum depression and representations of motherhood

in the television series Grey’s Anatomy. Although theessays collected here primarily focus on representa-

tions of motherhood in the Unites States, Canada, andthe United Kingdom,Mediating Moms fails in a signif-

icant way to consider the relationship between popularmotherhood discourse and women of color. Only twoessays explicitly address motherhood and mothering

for women of color, H. Louise Davis’s “Watch ThemSuffer, Watch Them Die” and Hosu Kim’s “S/Kin of

Virtual Mothers: Loss and Mourning on a KoreanBirthmothers’ Website.”

The rest of the collection primarily focuses on pop-ular representations of motherhood that convey domi-

nant hegemonic ideologies. Given the long history ofblack mothers in film and television, this is an unfortu-

nate oversight in an otherwise excellent addition tomotherhood studies.

–-Kristi Branham

Western Kentucky University

Nicole KidmanPam Cook. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Pam Cook’s Nicole Kidman is the second book inthe British Film Institute’s series on star profiles. In

this short volume, Cook emphasizes Nicole Kidman asa brand. The author comments that stars no longer per-

form simply in film or on the stage, but also in othermedia such as online publications, magazine spreads,

and music videos. Although popular belief holds thatsuch commercial images belong to the realm of com-

mercial exploitation and film performances are a prod-uct of art, Cook questions this privileging of one media

form over the other. As such, she convincingly arguesthat analysis, particularly the analysis of a star’s brand,should extend beyond the boundaries of the film text.

Cook’s analysis is divided into three chapters.Chapter One, “Stardom,” traces Kidman’s career from

its beginnings in Australia to international celebritystardom. Cook notes that, whereas Kidman’s life

narrative is used to construct her stardom, it alsofragments her image. Here, Cook traces the decon-

struction, and Kidman’s attempt at the reconstructionof her persona. For example, Kidman’s move to Holly-

wood transformed her image from Australian tomboyinto glamor icon, a “mask” that has become character-ized by pastiche, especially in magazine spreads where

she is clothed and positioned as stars from the past.In this chapter, Cook also draws from Richard

Dyer’s Heavenly Bodies (2004), where he argues thatfascination with the “real” person behind the image is

what attracts us to stars. Consumers search for a“truth” of a star, even though a star can only present

an image. The inability to access the “real” personmotivates fans to collect memorabilia, and critics topore over media artifacts to decipher meaning. Fans

fabricate a character or persona for the star from bitsand pieces. Cook points out that the scattering of

information about stars across so many different siteshas made coherence and authenticity less achievable.

So, although Kidman’s image is present in a variety ofmedia texts, her image both on and off screen is contra-

dictory and unknowable. The division between anactor’s onscreen roles and her wider public persona is

not a solid one, as both rely on performance and theadoption of a character.

In Chapter Two, “Performance,” Cook uses recent

scholarship on screen performance to consider Kid-man’s approach to acting, as well as the ways in which

such performances have been received. In this chapter,Cook explores Kidman’s style as an actress through

case studies of key films including Dead Calm (1989),To Die For (1995), Eyes Wide Shut (1999), The Hours

(2002), and Australia (2008). Cook outlines the distinc-tion between Stanislavskian naturalism, where the

Book reviews 147

actor aspires to “authenticity” by drawing on her innerself, and Brechtian didactic modernism, where the

actor emphasizes the artificiality of performance tofoster critical awareness. Cook argues that in these

films Kidman emphasizes pretense and technique,which reflects an emphasis on the artifice of perfor-

mance. Her self-reflexive acting style makes visible theconstruction of film itself.

Chapter Three, “Persona,” explores the construc-tion of Kidman’s persona outside of cinema in televi-sion talk shows, magazine fashion shoots, celebrity

tabloid gossip, fan websites, commercials, and philan-thropy to demonstrate the expansion of star discourse

across different sites and to argue that Kidman’spersona encompasses much more than cinematic

performance. Onscreen and off, Kidman is alwaysengaged in the performance of character types.

Although the public persona “is the linchpin that holdstogether aspects of star diversity and activity spanning

diverse locations and forms,” it too is a fiction (73).Cook looks at Kidman’s attempts to provide a coher-ent identity by recourse to her Australian roots, and

the ways in which core elements of Kidman’s persona,such as national identity, beauty, whiteness, and femi-

nism, are mobilized to create a heroic character.Although she operates between film and extra-cine-

matic appearances to become that personal brand, suchattempts at authenticity ultimately fail.

Overall, Nicole Kidman offers an accessible andcompelling case study into the construction of a starnarrative. The book is short, and as such it leaves the

reader’s wanting Cook to delve deeper into some ofher arguments. In particular, this reviewer would have

liked more discussion on postcolonialism, race, and thecontradictory nature of Kidman’s feminist persona.

Nevertheless, Nicole Kidman, coupled with the otherbooks in BFI’s star series, could be a useful resource

for those interested in star studies.

–-Molly Swiger

Baldwin Wallace University

Observation Points: The Visual Poetics of

National ParksThomas Patin, Editor. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota

Press, 2012.

Observation Points: The Visual Poetics of

National Parks deconstructs the quintessentially

American landscapes of western national parks. Theconspicuous representation of the ideals of Manifest

Destiny, freedom, democracy, and the spirit of inde-pendence in the lofty vistas of Zion, Yellowstone,

the Grand Canyon, and Mount Rushmore is revealedas fabrication. Drawing heavily upon the work of W.

J. T. Mitchell, this collection asserts that landscapes,being far from unmediated nature, are in fact instru-

ments of social power, employed to naturalize cul-tural constructs and stabilize contingent politicalpositions. Observation Points functions as an expos�e,

affirming the iconographical, theatrical, and regula-tory qualities of the landscapes of national parks,

revealing them as highly orchestrated phenomena.The disparate essays in this volume uncover the nat-

uralized conventions for visualizing, viewing, con-ceptualizing, and experiencing the landscape and for

exploring various grammars, architectures, and tech-nologies, including landscape painting, orientation

films, documentary, monuments and memorials, visi-tor center displays, viewing instruments, and thebuilt environment. The range of examples convinc-

ingly demonstrate that the strategic conventions ofvisual signifying materials and practices in or about

national parks form predominantly conservative atti-tudes, build a consensual national identity, determine

acts of decorum, and negotiate policies regardingland use and ownership and the environment. The

collection emphasizes the importance of studyingvisual rhetoric in order to better understand thedeliberate material techniques that condition bodies

and meaning and maintain the nation’s prevailingpolitical and cultural mythologies.

The contributors in Observation Points formulate acohesive claim that visual rhetoric, particularly filmic

representations, photography, and architectural fea-tures, construct collective “prosthetic” memories and

legitimize shared values. Visual rhetoric hails ahomogenous visitor or national subject. According to

the authors in this volume, the visual rhetoric ofnational parks validates America’s domestic imperial-ism, promotes expansion as inevitable, articulates the

concept of religious refuge, and buttresses a capitalistethos by promoting nature as a spectacle to be con-

sumed. The collective gaze is aligned with an imperi-ous and omniscient persona, surveying an

anachronistically virgin landscape, which invitesdomestication. The drama of American civilization

waiting to unfold is consistently made visible, whereasthe historical presence of Native American inhabitants

148 Book reviews