Madonna's life and work has generated various academics works, which includes scholarly articles and other published works, mostly covered by literary and academic journals as well as by others educational publishers like those from university pressess. The list is limited to only those that appeared first by a peer-reviewed outlet, or published in compendiums. Also, these works have been published in different languages other than English.
First scholarly articles about her is believed to be dated on 1985.[1] Scholar Suzanna Danuta Walters commented that academic writings about her, "has produced at least one major academic text devoted to Madonna", while for professor Jane Desmond, "the relevant bibliography is vast". Australian historian Robert Aldrich once commented she is a "performer of inimitable ubiquity" in the academia as she "has saturated the pages of academic journals".[2] To Alina Simone, in her academic studies "there is no dearth of material about Madonna, but an overwhelming excess".[3] Associate professor José F. Blanco, wrote in The Journal of Popular Culture that "it can be argued that Madonna is overexposed in academic research".
Thesis such as Like a thesis: postmodern readings of Madonna music videos (1991) by Madonna scholar, Charles W Wells are included because they received academic and press coverage. In 1998, French academic Georges-Claude Guilbert wrote his thesis Madonna: un mythe postmoderne. Others of these publications received citations from other scholars and observers appearing in citation indexes, or were preserved by university libraries. In addition, others thesis were published as books. Music professor Antoni Pizà noted that during the late 20th century, it became a fad in the United States to write doctoral dissertations on Madonna. American journalist Hank Stuever said that Madonna's dissertations piled up and some were collected into a tome called The Madonna Connection (1993).[4] She has been part of multiple lectures around the world.
Title | Year | Author(s) | Journal | Pages | Identifiers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Madonna | 1987 | Performing Arts Journal | 17–20 | Vol. 10 issue 3 | An essay about Madonna. | [5] | ||
Living to Tell: Madonna’s Resurrection of the Fleshly | 1990 | Genders | 148–166 | issue 7 | A study on Madonna and her music. | [6] | ||
The Effects of Race, Gender, and Fandom on Audience Interpretations of Madonna's Music Videos | 1990 | Journal of Communication | 88–102 | Vol. 40 issue 2 | An audience reception using Madonna's videos "Papa Don't Preach" and "Open Your Heart". | [7] | ||
Like a critique: A postmodern essay on Madonna's postmodern video like a prayer | 1991 | Popular Music and Society | 59–68 | Vol. 15 issue 1 | A study on video of "Like a Prayer". | [8] | ||
Madonna | 1991/92 | Ploughshares | 221–230 | Vol. 17 issue 4 | Literary studies on Madonna. | [9] | ||
The Laugh of Madonna: Censorship and Oppositional Discourse | 1992 | The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association | 41–46 | Vol. 25 issue 1 | A study on Madonna and her music. | [10] | ||
Our Lady of MTV: Madonna's "Like a Prayer" | 1992 | Boundary 2 | 163–183 | Vol. 19 issue 2 | Commentaries about Madonna and her video "Like a Prayer" as well, the Madonna scholars. | [11] | ||
Madonna's postmodern feminism: Bringing the margins to the center | 1992 | Southern Communication Journal | 120–131 | Vol. 57 issue 2 | Essay about how Madonna used postmodernism to challenge accepted norms of sex and gender. | [12] | ||
Justify My Ideology: Madonna and traditional values | 1992 | Popular Music and Society | 75–84 | Vol. 16 issue 2 | A criticism and analysis of the music video for Madonna's song, "Justify My Love" (1990). | [13] | ||
Like a virgin-mother?: materialism and maternalism in the songs of Madonna | 1992 | Cultural Studies | 73–96 | Vol. 6 issue 1 | A criticism and analysis of the music video for Madonna's song, "Material Girl" (1984). | [14] | ||
Sex, Madonna, & Mia: Press Reflections | 1993 | The Antioch Review | 503–518 | Vol. 51 issue 4 | Talks about press reaction towards Madonna's book Sex. | [15] | ||
Madonna's Sex: Constitutional Stewardship or Administrative Fantasies? | 1993 | Administrative Theory & Praxis | 37–51 | Vol. 15 issue 2 | Examines reaction towards Madonna's book Sex. | [16] | ||
Madonna | 1993 | The Journal of Popular Culture | 1–12 | Vol. 27 issue 1 | A criticism and analysis of Madonna as a public figure. | [17] | ||
Feminist assessment of emancipatory potential and Madonna's contradictory gender practices | 1996 | Quarterly Journal of Speech | 125–141 | Vol. 82 issue 2 | A feminist‐schizoanally piece noted that the hallmark of Madonna's career was her contradictory play with gender roles and images. | [18] | ||
Electrifying Fragments: Madonna and Postmodern Performance | 1996 | New Theatre Quarterly | 99–107 | Vol. 12 issue 46 | Studied Madonna's image in terms of the concept of "punctum" a concept defined by Roland Barthes. | [19] | ||
Like a Prophet - On Christian Interpretations of a Madonna Video | 1996 | Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis | 151–174 | Vol. 16 | An analysis on "Like a Prayer" since Christian and art perspectives. | [20] | ||
Madonna — mother of mirrors | 1997 | Cultural Studies | 138–187 | Vol. 11 issue 1 | [21] | |||
The Aesthetics of Music Video: An Analysis of Madonna's 'Cherish | 1998 | Popular Music | 153–185 | Vol. 17 issue 2 | Focused in her video "Cherish". | [22] | ||
Not an Immaculate Reception: ideology, The Madonna Connection, and academic wannabes | 1999 | Velvet Light Trap | 37 | Vol. 22 issue 5 | Examines the criticism towards Madonna scholars by her own experience. | [23] | ||
Madonna and Hypertext: Liberatory Learning in Art Education | 2000 | Studies in Art Education | 376–389 | Vol. 41 issue 4 | Examines the use of computer hypertext as a base for art education in high school and used Madonna's videos as example. | [24] | ||
The Madonna Experience: A U.S. Icon Awakens a Puerto Rican Adolescent's Feminist Consciousness | 2001 | 118–130 | Vol. 22 issue 2 | Talks about Madonna's Puerto Rican performance from her Girlie Show in 1993, and the impact she had in the country. | [25] | |||
Trollope's Material Girl | 2002 | The Yearbook of English Studies | 36–51 | Vol. 32 | Essay takes the 'Madonna phenomenon' as its point of departure to propose that, far from being unique to postmodernity, the representational project that emerges from Madonna's "Material Girl" song already motivated cultural production in the nineteenth century. | [26] | ||
Material Girl or Managerial Girl? Charting Madonna's brand ambition | 2003 | Business Horizons | 2–10 | Vol. 46 issue 4 | Talks about Madonna's brand in the perspective of business and marketing. | [27] | ||
All You Need Is LAV: Madonna and Postmodern Kabbalah | 2005 | The Jewish Quarterly Review | 611–624 | Vol. 95 issue 4 | Madonna's study of Kabbalah and integrating Kabbalistic themes in her cultural productions. | [28] | ||
"Sigmund Freud, Analyze This": How Madonna Situates "Die Another Day" Beyond the Pleasure Principle | 2006 | Studies in Popular Culture | 77–97 | Vol. 29 issue 1 | [29] | |||
The Semiotics of Performance and Success in Madonna | 2012 | The Journal of Popular Culture | 173–196 | Vol. 45 issue 1 | Talks about Madonna's long -standing success. | [30] | ||
Madonna as a symbol of reflexive modernisation | 2013 | Celebrity Studies | 144–154 | Vol. 4 issue 2 | Discuss the communication of social and cultural tensions embodied in Madonna. | [31] | ||
From Old Media Whore to New Media Troll: The online negotiation of Madonna's ageing body | 2013 | Feminist Media Studies | 288–302 | Vol. 13 issue 2 | Commentaries about Madonna's age and body since a feminist perspective. | [32] | ||
How to Fashion an Archetype: Madonna as Anima Figure | 2014 | The Journal of Popular Culture | 1153–1166 | Vol. 47 issue 6 | Talks about Madonna's image, such as her reinvention, identities and her cultural impact. | [33] | ||
The Icon and the Text: American Book History and the Construction of the World's Largest-Grossing Illustrated Book, Madonna's Sex (1992) | 2020 | Journal of American Studies | 184–211 | Examines Madonna's success of her first book Sex. | [34] |
Title | Year | Author(s) | Journal | Language | Pages | Identifiers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Watching Madonna: Anmerkungen zu einer feministischen Medien-/Geschlechterforschung | 1996 | Essen: Die blaue Eule | 23–44 | An essay on Madonna and her cultural impact. | [35] | ||||
L'autobiographie post-moderne, "post-mortem": Madonna auto(bio)graphe | 2002 | L'Esprit Créateur | 66–75 | Vol. 42 issue 4 | Socio-cultural study on Madonna. | [36] | |||
Die Another Day: Madonna and the Post-Modern Kabbalah | 2002 | Zmanim: A Historical Quarterly | 4–11 | issue 91 | A study of Madonna's song "Die Another Day". | [37] | |||
Madonna'nın Feminizmi: Postmodern Bir Kimlik Sorunsalı | 2008 | Toplum ve Demokrasi Dergisi | 91–106 | Vol. 4 issue 2 | The study analysis through Madonna, as an important representation of postmodern identity the feminism, postmodernism and identity. | [38] [39] | |||
Construção de persona midiática: um estudo de caso da pop star Madonna | 2011 | Revista científica da faminas | 1–38 | Vol. 7 issue 1 | A post-structuralism analysis on Madonna's work. | [40] | |||
«Um rosto tão conhecido quanto o nosso próprio»: a construção da imagem pública e da idolatria a Madonna | 2011 | Comunicação & cultura | 99–115 | issue 12 | As part of the "Fãs e celebridades" commentaries. | [41] | |||
Mujeres, violencia y posfeminismo en los vídeos de Madonna | 2014 | Área Abierta | 23–41 | Vol. 14 issue 3 | A study based on Madonna's videos analyzing post-feminism theory. | [42] | |||
Nem todas querem ser Madonna: representações sociais da mulher carioca, de 50 anos ou mais | 2014 | Estudos Feministas | 173–193 | Vol. 22 issue 1 | It focuses on Madonna and her age and modern media's reflection of what it means to be over 50 for a woman. | [43] | |||
Madonna, 'sex' e o fetichismo pós-moderno | 2019 | Sociologia: Revista da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto | 71–87 | Vol. 38 | A postdoctoral research. | [44] | |||
Los vídeos musicales de Madonna como performances audiovisuales | 2022 | Cuadernos De Investigación Musical | 151–162 | issue 15 | Studies of Madonna's performances. | [45] |
Title | Year | Author(s) | Journal | Pages | Identifiers | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Musicologists, Sociologists and Madonna | 1993 | Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research | 277–289 | Vol. 6 issue 3 | Studies how the popular music has been dominated largely by sociology, rather than musicology with a particular focus on Madonna. | [46] | |
Strike a pose: the framing of Madonna and Frida Kahlo | 1993 | Texas Studies in Literature and Language | 440–452 | Vol. 35 issue 4 | Explores Frida Kahlo-Madonna relation and how her art proliferated throughout the world since the singer confessed to being her fan. | [47] | |
Legal Radicals in Madonna's Closet: The Influence of Identity Politics, Popular Culture, and a New Generation on Critical Legal Studies | 1994 | Stanford Law Review | 1835–1861 | Vol. 46 issue 6 | Piece was reviewed by legal scholar Naomi Mezey. | [48] | |
Shakespeare's Cleopatra, the Male Gaze, and Madonna: Performance Dilemmas | 1995 | Contemporary Theatre Review | 7–16 | Vol. 2 issue 3 | Cross-reference male gaze analysis on Cleopatra and Madonna. | [49] | |
The making of matriarchy: A comparison of Madonna and Margaret Thatcher | 1997 | Journal of Gender Studies | 33–42 | Vol. 6 issue 1 | The article reviews a selection of the plethora of academic literature available on Madonna and the limited amount on Thatcher. Explores subjects such as matriarchy. | [50] | |
Angelina and Madonna: Why All the Fuss?: an Exploration of the Rights of the Child and Intercountry Adoption within African Nations | 2007 | Chicago Journal of International Law | 323–354 | Vol. 8 issue 1 art. 1 | Explore the issues of the international adoptions by celebrities, focused in the cases of Angelina Jolie and Madonna. | [51] | |
Madonna or Don McLean? The effect of order of exposure on relative liking | 2010 | Journal of Consumer Psychology | 442–451 | Vol. 20 issue 4 | Talks about the effects of order; for example listening to one version of a song before another. They used as an example Don McLean's "American Pie" and Madonna's cover of that song. | [52] | |
Toward a Concept of Post-Postmodernism or Lady Gaga’s Reconfigurations of Madonna | 2013 | Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture | 1–2 | Vol. 12 issue 4 | An essay that talks about post-postmodernism with the Gaga-Madonna relation. | [53] | |
Hating Madonna and loving Tom Ford: gender, affect and the ‘extra-curricular’ celebrity | 2014 | Celebrity Studies | 59–74 | Vol. 5 issue 1–2 | Explore criticisms towards Madonna's film W.E., and commentaries from Naomi Wolf on the case, comparing how Tom Ford received "rapturous" reviews with A Single Man to further suggests a gender bias to Madonna as artist. | [54] | |
Celebrity as Celebration of Privatization in Global Development: A Critical Feminist Analysis of Oprah, Madonna, and Angelina | 2015 | Communication, Culture & Critique | 163–181 | Vol. 8 issue 2 | Explore the global philanthropy by media figures through the case of Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie and Madonna. | [55] | |
Madonna has been part of multiple lectures around the world. Following, a few examples:
Title | Year | Author(s) | Institution | Language | Pages | Identifiers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Madonna: Feminist Icon or Material Girl? | 1993 | University of California, Santa Barbara | Held in January 1993, Santa Barbara, University of California, and organized by the Women's Center. | ||||||
Studies In Gender & Performance: Madonna Undressed | 1993 | University of Colorado | According to Polly McLean, an assistant journalist professor, the point of the class was "to get students to apply critical means of analysis to areas that are contemporary in society". She played Madonna songs and videos as part of the class, emphasizing issues raised in their images. | [56] | |||||
Issues In Gender & Media Performance: The Madonna Phenomenon | 1994 | University of Colorado | The objective of the course was to formulate new ways to look at performance, via the performer. Using Madonna's videos and films explore the presentation of gender in costuming, makeup, gesturing and movement. | [57] | |||||
Madonna: The Music and the Phenomenon | 1997 | University of Amsterdam | A 40-hours class examining just what makes Madonna tick. More than 200 students signed to the course and their knowledge was tested in a final examination. They used resources such as the book The Madonna Connection (1993) or a Dutch book about Madonna's lyrics of more than 200 songs recorded by the singer. | [58] [59] [60] | |||||
20 Years of Madonna: New Approaches to Madonna's Cultural Transformations | 2001 | Cambridge University Press | 293–294 | Vol. 20 issue 2 | Talks about Madonna's 20 years of career covering topics such as multiculturalism, all-American culture and motherhood among others. According to academic journal Music Theory Online, it was also presented to the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). It was published in the academic journal Popular Music. | [61] [62] | |||
La traducción de Madonna | 2005 | Comillas Pontifical University | 703–712 | Translation studies based on Madonna's music presented in the international congress at the Asociación de Investigación y Especialización sobre Temas Iberoamericanos (AIETI). | [63] | ||||
Case one: Madonna | 2008 | Wiley-Blackwell | 1–4 | A case study of Madonna's enduring success and applied in the marketing discourse. | [64] | ||||
Madonna On the Couch': A psychoanalytic view on Madonna's music videos | 2008 | University of Leipzig | 22 | Seminar paper from the year 2007 and published in 2008. Discuss psychoanalysis with Sigmund Freud theories using Madonna and her music videos in particular. | [65] | ||||
A influência das artes no videoclipe Vogue (1990) da cantora Madonna | 2012 | Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom) | 14 | Congress n. XIII | Held at the XIII congress of Congresso de Ciências da Comunicação na Região Sul – Chapecó as part of the Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom). | [66] | |||
MDNA forever | 2012 | Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Universitaria de Estudios de las Mujeres (AUDEM) | 65–76 | Presented by Salvatore Bartolotta from National University of Distance Education at the Congreso Internacional de la Asociación Universitaria de Estudios de las Mujeres (AUDEM). | [67] [68] | ||||
"Who's that girl? Madonna y la cultura pop contemporánea" | 2015 | University of Oviedo | A series of classes started in September and finished in December 2015 by a varied of academic experts in different areas. It marked the first time Oviedo devoted a course to a female singer. | [69] [70] | |||||
Uma análise da carreira da cantora Madonna através de plataformas de divulgação de música | 2016 | Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom) | 15 | Congress n. XVIII | Held at the XVIII congress of Congresso de Ciências da Comunicação na Região Nordeste – Caruaru as part of the Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom) in which, was explored Madonna's career since the digital music era. | [71] | |||
Bitch I'm Madonna: As rupturas no roteiro perfomático de uma diva pop | 2018 | Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom) | 15 | Congress n. 41 | Held at the 41st congress of Congresso Brasileiro de Ciências da Comunicação – Joinville as part of the Sociedade Brasileira de Estudos Interdisciplinares da Comunicação (Intercom). | [72] | |||
China Studies Academic Seminar: Madonna goes East | 2019 | Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University | Focuses on the construction of Madonna's star image in China and explores how Madonna's music was introduced to China. | [73] |
Title | Year | Author(s) | Institution | Pages (total) | Identifiers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Like a thesis: postmodern readings of Madonna music videos | 1991 | Florida State University | 230 | It received academic attention and press coverage by outlets such as Orlando Sentinel and Tampa Bay Times. | [74] [75] | |||
Madonna, the material girl revealed through dramatistic inquiry | 1992 | San Diego State University | 68 | M.A. thesis. | [76] | |||
The Madonna phenomenon: a sociological perspective | 1992 | University of Houston | 135 | Archived at University of Houston Libraries. | [77] | |||
Raunch or resistance: Making meanings of Madonna, a cultural studies approach to the rock video | 1992 | University of Windsor | 234 | Preserved also at the National Library of Canada and Leddy Library. | [78] | |||
Madonna: playing in the heart of darkness | 1993 | University of California, Berkeley | 134 | M.A. in English. | [79] | |||
Reading images of Madonna music videos | 1997 | Cedar Crest College | 35 | A senior honors thesis. | [80] | |||
Re-(e)valu(ate/ing) Madonna : understanding the success of post-modernity's greatest diva | 1999 | Harvard University | 42 | It was featured in the guide of thesis at the university. | [81] [82] | |||
Madonna, an American pop icon of feminism and counter-hegemony | 2000 | Lehigh University | 60 | As part of the department of history. | [83] | |||
Marketing Madonna: celebrity agency across the cultural industry | 2006 | York University | 349 | Also preserved at Université du Québec à Rimouski. | [84] [85] | |||
Madonna & Black Culture Appropriation in the MTV Generation | 2007 | Harvard University | 70 | It was featured in the guide of thesis at the university. | ||||
The commodification of religion within celebrity culture with special focus on Madonna and Kabbalah | 2008 | Memorial University of Newfoundland | 85 | Honours dissertation of B.A. Preserved at the Centre for Newfoundland Studies. | [86] | |||
Madonna's confession: sound, self, and survival in a love song | 2008 | University of California, Los Angeles | 218 | Ph.D dissertation. | ||||
"Who's that girl?"-reconstructing gender: a cultural study of Madonna's music video | 2014 | Hong Kong Polytechnic University | 117 | M.A. thesis. | [87] |
Title | Year | Author(s) | Institution | Language | Pages (total) | Identifiers | Notes | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Madonna: un mythe postmoderne | 1998 | Paris Nanterre University | 2 (vol.) | Thesis for English studies. | [88] | ||||
"Express yourself - Madonna be with you": Madonna-Fans und ihre Lebenswelt | 1998 | Augsburg University | 347 | A thesis that was later published as a book. It is preserved at the Harvard Library. | [89] | ||||
Madonna: where's that girl? Starimage und Erotik im medialen Raum | 2002 | Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel | 559 | To apply a doctorate in music videos. | [90] | ||||
Madonna revidiert: Rekursivität im Videoclip | 2004 | Free University of Berlin | 301 | It was later published as a book. | [91] | ||||
Madonna: uma vida de marketing e mídia | 2006 | Universidade Santa Cecília | 94 | [92] | |||||
La representació de cançons en gèneres audiovisuals musicals: Anàlisi de dos documentals musicals subtitulats i d'onze videoclips de Madonna | 2008 | University of Vic - Central University of Catalonia | 222 | Explored the usage of subtitles through Madonna's music. | [93] | ||||
Madonna as a cultural icon and a children's author: diplomsko delo | 2009 | University of Ljubljana | 100 | [94] | |||||
A fabricação do ídolo pop: a análise textual de videoclipes e a construção da imagem de Madonna | 2011 | Federal University of Bahia | 200 | Based on Madonna's videography and image. | [95] | ||||
Das Spiel mit dem Ich: die Dekonstruktion postmoderner Medienikonen am Beispiel Madonna | 2012 | University of Tübingen | 193 | It was later published as a book in 2014. | [96] | ||||
Like a Queen; Madonna und ihr Hof auf der Bühne in Zeiten des Social Media (Like a Queen - Madonna & the stage as court in the era of social media) | 2013 | University of Vienna | 75 | Published both in English and German. | [97] | ||||
“You must be my Lucky Star”: Crítica, agendamento e valor sobre a obra da cantora Madonna na Revista Rolling Stone | 2015 | Federal University of Paraíba | 150 | It was cited in A revista Tropos: Comunicação, Sociedade e Cultura of Universidade Federal do Acre. | [98] [99] |