Rethinking the Femme Fatale in Film Noir: Ready for Her Close-Up

ISBN-13: 9780230233287 / Angielski / Twarda / 2009 / 190 str.

Julie Grossman

Opis

In the context of nineteenth-century Victorinoir and close readings of original-cycle film noir, Julie Grossman argues that the presence of the "femme fatale" figure, as she is understood in film criticism and popular culture, is drastically over-emphasized and has helped to sustain cultural obsessions with "bad" women.

Recenzje

2010 Outstanding Academic Title, CHOICE

'This is a compelling, informed, well-researched, and deeply original book.'

- G. A. Foster, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Choice

'Rethinking the Femme Fatale poses important questions for feminist work on noir, underlining how the style also remains a contested and rewarding critical terrain.'

- Yvonne Tasker, Journal of Gender Studies

Spis treści

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction: 'No One Mourns the Wicked' PART I: FILM NOIR'S 'FEMME FATALES': MOVING BEYOND GENDER FANTASIES 'Well, aren't we Ambitious': Desire, Domesticity, and the 'Femme Fatale' Psychological Disorders and 'Wiretapping the Unconscious': Film Noir Listens to Women PART II: LOOKING BACK - VICTORINOIR: MODERN WOMEN AND THE FATAL(E) PROGENY OF VICTORIAN REPRESENTATIONS Looking Forward - Deconstructing the 'Femme Fatale' Notes Bibliography Index

O autorze

JULIE GROSSMAN is Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences and Professor of English, Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College, New York, USA. She is co-editor of A Due Voci: The Photography of Rita Hammond and has published articles on film noir, Francis Ford Coppola, Todd Haynes, Oscar Wilde and Karen Finley, and Thomas Hardy and Henry James.