American Diva: Extraordinary, Unruly, Fabulous is poet and cultural critic Deborah Paredez’s impassioned deep dive into the etymology of the titular term. “I want to know how and why divas, once synonymous with virtuosity, became symbols of vitriol,” writes the author and professor, who has been teaching a seminar on the subject since 2009, most recently at Columbia University. Using her own coming-of-age fascination with fierce, unapologetic women like Grace Jones, Aretha Franklin, and Tina Turner, she traces the evolution of the misconstrued term, once used to celebrate female opera singers, across the last half-century. What she discovers is that the definition of “diva” may have changed, but women “who leave you wrecked and ready to revolt” endure.
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