The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction: ‘Cherchez la femme’

   1. Introduction: ‘Cherchez la femme’

      • Helen Hanson, Catherine O’Rawe

      Pages 1-8

3. Ecoutez la Femme: Hear/Here Difference

   1. Ecoutez la Femme: Hear/Here Difference

      • Griselda Pollock

      Pages 9-32

4. Literary and Visual Archetypes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 33-33

      PDF

   2. The Mother of All Femmes Fatales: Eve as Temptress in Genesis 3

      • Karen L. Edwards

      Pages 35-45

   3. Challenging the Stereotype: The Femme Fatale in Fin-de-Siècle Art and Early Cinema

      • Jess Sully

      Pages 46-59

   4. Silent Divas: The Femmes Fatales of the Italian Cinema Muto

      • Joy Ramirez

      Pages 60-71

   5. ‘You’ll Be the Death of Me’: Mata Hari and the Myth of the Femme Fatale

      • Rosie White

      Pages 72-85

5. Film Stars

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 87-87

      PDF

   2. Diabolically Clever — Clouzot’s French Noir Les Diaboliques (1954)

      • Susan Hayward

      Pages 89-97

   3. Fatal Femininity in Post-War British Film: Investigating the British Femme

      • Melanie Bell

      Pages 98-112

   4. ‘Put the Blame on…Mei’: Zhang Ziyi and the Politics of Global Stardom

      • Olga Kourelou

      Pages 113-126

   5. Gender, Genre and Stardom: Fatality in Italian Neorealist Cinema

      • Catherine O’Rawe

      Pages 127-142

6. Femmes Fatales in European and World Cinemas

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 143-143

      PDF

   2. The Femme Fatale of Spanish Retro Noir: The Recuperation of a Repressed Voice

      • Ann Davies

      Pages 145-156

   3. Chiaroscuro: The Half-Glimpsed Femme Fatale of Italian Film Noir

      • Mary Wood

      Pages 157-169

   4. A Myth Is Born: The Femme Fatale in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema

      • John L. Marambio, Marcie Rinka

      Pages 170-183

7. Hollywood

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 185-185

      PDF

   2. ‘I Can’t Tell Anymore Whether You’re Lying’: Double Indemnity, Human Desire and the Narratology of Femmes Fatales

      • Steve Neale

      Pages 187-198

   3. ‘Well, Aren’t We Ambitious’, or ‘You’ve Made up Your Mind I’m Guilty’: Reading Women as Wicked in American Film Noir

      • Julie Grossman

      Pages 199-213

These essays trace the femme fatale across literature, visual culture and cinema, exploring the ways in which fatal femininity has been imagined in different cultural contexts and historical epochs, and moving from mythical women such as Eve, Medusa and the Sirens via historical figures such as Mata Hari to fatal women in contemporary cinema.

• cinema
• culture
• film
• gender
• Hollywood
• Visual Culture
• women
• world cinema

'These bracing essays offer many fresh insights into the well-known trope of the femme fatale, a subject that has received much recent critical attention, but seldom with the skill and perception that characterizes this volume. [...] An excellent book for women's studies, film noir classes, or any course that studies the female protagonist in film history. [...] Highly recommended.' - G. A. Foster, Choice

• Department of English, University of Exeter, UK

  Helen Hanson

• University of Bristol, UK

  Catherine O’Rawe

MELANIE BELL Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UK ANN DAVIES Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Newcastle University, UK KAREN L. EDWARDS Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at the University of Exeter, UK JULIE GROSSMAN Professor of English and Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, USA SUSAN HAYWARD Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Exeter, UK OLGA KOURELOU PhD student at King's College London, UK JOHN L. MARAMBIO Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the University of San Diego, California, USA STEVE NEALE Professor of Film Studies at Exeter University, UK GRISELDA POLLOCK Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds, UK JOY RAMIREZ PhD Comparative Literature, has taught Italian literature and film at the University of Colorado, the Colorado College and Vanderbilt University, USA MARCIE RINKA taught most recently the University of San Diego, USA JESS SULLY MPhil in Comparative Literature and History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK ROSIE WHITE Senior Lecturer in English at Northumbria University, UK MARY WOOD Professor of European Cinema at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

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