Criminal Femmes Fatales In American Hardboiled Crime Fiction

This book fills a gap in both literary and feminist scholarship by offering the first major study of femme fatales in hardboiled crime fiction. Maysaa Jaber shows that the criminal literary figures in the genre open up powerful spaces for imagining female agency in direct opposition to the constraining forces of patriarchy and misogyny.

The story of Samson and Delilah in Judges 16 has been studied and retold over the centuries by biblical interpreters, artists, musicians, filmmakers and writers. Within these scholarly and cultural retellings, Delilah is frequently fashioned as the quintessential femme fatale - the shamelessly seductive 'fatal woman' whose sexual treachery ultimately leads to Samson's downfall. Yet these ubiquitous portrayals of Delilah as femme fatale tend to eclipse the many other viable readings of her character that lie, underexplored, within the ambiguity-laden narrative of Judges 16 - interpretations that offer alternative and more sympathetic portrayals of her biblical persona. In Reimagining Delilah's Afterlives as Femme Fatale, Caroline Blyth guides readers through an in-depth exploration of Delilah's afterlives as femme fatale in both biblical interpretation and popular culture, tracing the social and historical factors that may have inspired them. She then considers alternative afterlives for Delilah's character, using as inspiration both the Judges 16 narrative and a number of cultural texts which deconstruct traditional understandings of the femme fatale, thereby inviting readers to view this iconic biblical character in new and fascinating lights.

Serial Crime Fiction is the first book to focus explicitly on the complexities of crime fiction seriality. Covering definitions and development of the serial form, implications of the setting, and marketing of the series, it studies authors such as Doyle, Sayers, Paretsky, Ellroy, Marklund, Camilleri, Borges, across print, film and television.

This book addresses the intersections between gender and identity by critically examining female spaces. It has famously been argued that men and women are made in culture. As such, this volume explores how spaces—social, political, cultural, historical, and even cyber—affect the creative, personal, urban and global identities of women. The scholarly approaches of the contributors here probe into these spaces and analyze the problematic of gender identities as they are constructed, reconstructed or deconstructed through processes of appropriation, subversion and signification. The functional politics of patriarchy influences a range of networks that include social, cultural, political, and religious archetypes. This book will open new vistas in women’s studies through dialogues and discussions on the various facets of “Space”, and how in turn they generate the rhetoric of agency and power or again how they annihilate attempts at emancipation and empowerment. Furthermore, the book explores the diversity of women’s experiences and their contributions across cultures, and examines knowledge and practices in the light of gender differences, suggesting new ways to “conceptualize the relations between the self and the ever changing global communities”. Its interdisciplinary nature, drawing on the humanities, arts, social sciences will give it a wide readership among students, teachers and researchers. In addition, since women’s studies is one of the most sought-after academic disciplines of the contemporary academic world, this book will generate interest and contribute to the dynamic nature of women’s studies research.

Contrasts the glamour of the noir seductress and pulp novel siren with the reality experienced by actual female criminals in Australia.

Women Who Kill explores several lines of inquiry: the female murderer as a figure that destabilizes order; the tension between criminal and victim; the relationship between crime and expression (or the lack thereof); and the paradox whereby a crime can be both an act of destruction and a creative assertion of agency. In doing so, the contributors assess the influence of feminist, queer and gender studies on mainstream television and cinema, notably in the genres (film noir, horror, melodrama) that have received the most critical attention from this perspective. They also analyse the politics of representation by considering these works of fiction in their contexts and addressing some of the ambiguities raised by postfeminism. The book is structured in three parts: Neo-femmes Fatales; Action Babes and Monstrous Women. Films and series examined include White Men Are Cracking Up (1994); Hit & Miss (2012); Gone Girl (2014); Terminator (1984); The Walking Dead (2010); Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); Contagion (2011) and Ex Machina (2015) among others.

The problem of human evil is never far beneath the surface of mystery fiction. This was particularly true in the wake of the horrific events of World War II. One figure who set out to investigate this crisis was Ellery Queen. This book provides a much-needed intervention in the study of detective fiction by giving sustained attention to Ellery Queen as well as suggesting possible directions for broader discussions of the genre. After the war, Queen mounted an inquiry into the state of masculinity and of the world in the wake of unimaginable horrors represented by the death camps and the atomic bomb. During his investigation, Ellery rummaged through the ruins of culture, invoking and evoking figures such as Walt Whitman, Henry David Thoreau, and (naturally) Edgar Allan Poe. Ultimately, this quest brought him up against an unexpected foe: God himself. This book examines the ways Queen pushes against the boundaries of what was (and, in some circles, still is) considered possible or desirable in the genre.

For over two decades, Clues has included the best scholarship on mystery and detective fiction. With a combination of academic essays and nonfiction book reviews, it covers all aspects of mystery and detective fiction material in print, television and movies. As the only American scholarly journal on mystery fiction, Clues is essential reading for literature and film students and researchers; popular culture aficionados; librarians; and mystery authors, fans and critics around the globe.