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How Bridget Was Framed: The Irish Domestic in Early American Cinema, 1895–1917
- Cinema Journal
- University of Texas Press
- 50, Number 2, Winter 2011
- pp. 1-20
- 10.1353/cj.2011.0017
- Article
- Additional Information
This article explores the form and function of the Bridget stereotype in pre-classical American cinema. It argues that the character of the unruly Irish maid—a grotesque inversion of nineteenth-century domestic and feminine norms—was a cipher for underlying tensions at the heart of the new urban middle-class family.