VILE WOMEN: FEMALE EVIL IN FACT, FICTION AND MYTHOLOGY
Inter-Disciplinary Press · Jan 1, 2014


An interdisciplinary volume that explores a wide range of historical, fictional and mythical representations of female evil including those of prostitutes, witches, murderesses, dominatrices, and female Nazi guards. Is the evil that women do, and the evil for which they are held accountable, always one and the same? How might female evil, real, assumed, or appropriated confound gendered expectation and challenge patriarchal assumptions? What strategies have women deployed to confront the persistent gendering of evil actions? Informed by studies in history, the arts and theory, each contribution in Vile Women: Female Evil in Fact, Fiction and Mythology seeks to address such issues by exploring a range of historical, mythological and fictional figures of female evil. On the one hand, the volume reveals female figures who themselves challenge patriarchal ideals of femininity through their aberrant ways. On the other, it challenges representations of women that construct and label non-normative female behaviour as evil.


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