Half a Woman: The Nun in Film from WWII to the Present

Abstract

Half a Woman examines how six prominent nun films signify the changing perception of the nun in postwar America and Great Britain. Through the changing perspective of the populace, as well as historical influences such as the Feminist Movement, the nun has shifted from the angelic entity of the mid-1940s in The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) and Lilies of the Field (1963) to the sexual demon of the 1970s and 1980s with The Devils (1971). After the 1980s, the nun was not only a sexual demon but a platform for political commentary. Agnes of God (1983), Dead Man Walking (1995), and The Magdalene Sisters (2002) all use the nun to express a political stance on topics affecting women, as well as society at the turn of the 21st century.