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.

'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

Autorentext
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

Inhalt
List of Illustrations Introduction: 'Cherchez la femme '; H.Hanson & C.O'Rawe Ecoutez la Femme : Hear/Here Difference; G.Pollock PART ONE: LITERARY AND VISUAL ARCHETYPES The Mother of All Femmes Fatales : Eve as Temptress in Genesis 3; K.Edwards Challenging the Stereotype: The Femme Fatale in Fin-de-Siecle Art and Early Cinema; J.Sully Silent Divas: The Femmes Fatales of the Italian Cinema muto; J.Ramirez You'll be the Death of Me: Mata Hari and the Myth of the Femme Fatale; R.White PART TWO: FILM STARS Diabolically Clever - Clouzot's French Noir Les Diaboliques (1954); S.Hayward Fatal Femininity in Post-War British Film: Investigating the British Femme; M.Bell Put the Blame onMei: Zhang Ziyi and the Politics of Global Stardom; O.Kourelou Gender, Genre and Stardom: Fatality in Italian Neorealist Cinema; C.O'Rawe PART THREE: FEMME FATALES IN EUROPEAN AND WORLD CINEMAS The Femme Fatale of Spanish Retro Noir : the Recuperation of a Repressed Voice; A.Davies Chiaroscuro : the Half-glimpsed Femme Fatale of Italian Film Noir; M.Wood A Myth is Born: The Femme Fatale in the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema; M.Rinka & J.Marambio PART FOUR: HOLLYWOOD 'I Can't Tell Anymore Whether You're Lying': Double Indemnity, Human Desire and the Narratology of Femmes Fatales; S.Neale 'Well, aren't we ambitious', or 'You've Made up Your Mind I'm Guilty': Reading Women as Wicked in American Film Noir; J.Grossman The Big Seduction: Feminist Film Criticism and the Femme Fatale; H.Hanson Notes Bibliography Index