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Chapter 5 - Transformation, Remediation, and Fandom: From Print to Digital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2024

Niamh Thornton
Affiliation:
University of Liverpool
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Summary

María Félix Lives on through a rich ecosystem of fandom, transformations, and remediations. Some of the creatives who have contributed to this legacy are professional performers and writers and others are part of a dynamic and evolving online community who are inspired by her work, looks, life, and afterlife. This chapter will consider a selection of these across a range of media, many of which thrive online. As with all analysis of media sources, especially digital content, this is a snapshot that constitutes a history of the present in what are continuously changing spaces and platforms. Many of these respond to significant anniversaries and news of projects about her life, but others simply engage with someone who is meaningful to them, and they use her persona, taste, or text to articulate something about themselves, or the society and moment they are living through. Félix's life and work has not become sanctified nor stagnant through these interpretations. Instead, an important part of Félix's legacy is a vital and dialogic afterlife. This chapter will take a sample of this work starting with the play by Carlos Fuentes, Orquídeas a la luz de la luna (1982)/Orchids in the Moonlight (2017), a work of fandom about fandom, then trace the link through to the performer Darío T. Pie and his artful and popular character, La Roña. Both Fuentes’ play and La Roña as persona provide a glimpse into how Félix has become a means of interrogating femininity, performance, and stardom. Through their work, Félix has an afterlife that exceeds the limitations of a single lifetime and provides new and contested readings of the star. Picking up from La Roña's unique approach, I then examine transformation make-up videos that add to these readings by focalising attention on Félix's features, expression, and stylisation. Varying from the personifications by the star, Thalia, to other transformations by less well-known vloggers, these close replications identify details that can inform readings of Félix's work not only because they act as tributes to her continued importance, but also because they are interpretive acts worthy of serious analysis. In contrast to these, I finish with a YouTube channel that seeks to archive Félix and establish foundational truths about her story.

Type
Chapter
Information
María Félix
A Mexican Film Star and her Legacy
, pp. 193 - 240
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Print publication year: 2023

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