Femicidal Fears: Narratives of the Female Gothic Experience

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SUNY Press, Oct 19, 2001 - Social Science - 211 pages
In Femicidal Fears, Helene Meyers examines contemporary femicidal plots plots in which women are killed or fear for their lives to argue that these female Gothic novels of death actually bring the nuances of feminist thought to life. Through her examination of works by Angela Carter, Muriel Spark, Edna O Brien, Beryl Bainbridge, Joyce Carol Oates, and Margaret Atwood, as well as such infamous cases as the Montreal Massacre and the Yorkshire Ripper, Meyers contends that these femicidal plots restage and embody feminist debates flattened by such glib and automatic phrases as essentialism and victim feminism. Bringing the Gothic and the quotidian together in discussions of heterosexual romance, the sadomasochistic couple, female paranoia, postfeminism, and images of the female body, the book affirms that refusing victimization may not be a simple story, but it is nevertheless one worth telling.

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Contents

Introduction Feminist GothicGothic Feminism
1
Gothic Traditions
25
Love Kills
39
The Construction of the Sadomasochistic Couple
59
Paranoia Will Destroy You or Will It?
87
The Perils of Postfeminism
117
Beyond Postfeminism Revaluing the Female Body and the Body Politic
133
Toward Feminisms without Demons
153
Notes
157
Works Cited
183
Index
201
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About the author (2001)

Helene Meyers is Associate Professor of English at Southwestern University.