Femicidal Fears: Narratives of the Female Gothic Experience

by Helene Meyers

Overview

Argues that contemporary female Gothic novels of death can, in fact, breathe new life into feminist debates about victimization, essentialism, agency, and the body.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780791451526
Publisher:	State University of New York Press
Publication date:	10/18/2001
Series:	SUNY series in Feminist Criticism and Theory
Pages:	223
Sales rank:	907,509
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Helene Meyers is Associate Professor of English at Southwestern University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Critical Femicide: A Polemical Preface

1. Introduction: Feminist Gothic/Gothic Feminist

2. Gothic Traditions

3. Love Kills

4. The Construction of the Sadomasochistic Couple

5. Paranoia Will Destroy You, or Will It?

6. The Perils of Postfeminism

7. Beyond Postfeminism: Revaluing the Female Body and the Body Politic

Epilogue: Toward Feminisms without Demons

Notes

Works Cited

Index

Editorial Reviews

"The strength of Femicidal Fears lies in Meyers' development of the analogy between compulsory heterosexuality and Gothic narratives. It also lies in the fact that Meyers—like Foucault, Butler, and other social constructionists—seeks to historicize the social networks of power that legitimize the heterosexual romance and female victimization." — Gothic Studies

"…offers an eloquent and often witty argument for the importance of the Gothic tradition in the work of contemporary women writers who are concerned about continuing problems for women in the remnants of patriarchy. (Indeed, patriarchy is still alive and well.) A valuable contribution." — Anne Williams, author of Art of Darkness: A Poetics of Gothic

"An interesting, readable, and original contribution to the fields of women's literature, contemporary literature, Gothic literature, and feminist theory. Femicidal Fears is full of insightful readings of individual texts and of the connections among them; at the same time, the overview it provides is illuminating, artfully constructed, and provocative." — Eugenia C. DeLamotte, author of Perils of the Night: A Feminist Study of Nineteenth-Century Gothic

From the Publisher