Women's Studies at York Series: The Kiss of Death

Stott, R.

This book examines the rise of the femme fatale as a prominant fictional type in late nineteenth-century British culture. As a stereotype she has been 'fabricated', that is to say constructed as a 'figure in the carpet' of the fin-de-siècle. The book argues that Rider Haggard's She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed , Bram Stoker's female vampires and Conrad's destructive Malayan or African women, even Hardy's Tess , are all caught up in a series of late nineteenth-century contexts: biological determinism, imperialism, race, theories about female sexuality, degeneration and evolutionary theory.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 1992-11-20

Format: Paperback

ISBN-13: 9780333669600

DOI: 10.1057/978-0-230-37670-0

Dimensions: 235cm x155cm

Pages: 257