Books by Brenda R. Weber

Brenda R. Weber examines how the mediation of Mormonism through film, TV, blogs, YouTube videos, and memoirs functions as a means to understand conversations surrounding gender, sexuality, spirituality, capitalism, justice, and individualism in the United States.

Focusing on representations of women's literary celebrity in nineteenth-century biographies, autobiographical accounts, periodicals, and fiction, the author analyzes the complex codes connected to transatlantic formations of gender/sex, the body, and literary celebrity as women authors proactively resisted a backlash against their own success.

Argues that whether depicting transformations of bodies, trucks, finances, relationships, kids, or homes, makeovers depict a self achievable only in the transition from the 'Before-body' to the 'After-body' filled with confidence, coded with celebrity, and imbued with a renewed faith in the powers of meritocracy.