TY  - BOOK
AU  - Ottilie P. Klein
PY  - 2019
CY  - Berlin, Germany
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
SN  - 2366-5068
SN  - 9783631732656
TI  - Lethal Performances
T2  - Women Who Kill in Modern American Drama
DO  - 10.3726/b11679
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1055152
N2  - This book provides an in-depth analysis of representations of female murderers in modern American drama. Paying close attention to the plays’ plot, form, and style, the study seeks to come to terms with the dramatic and cultural function of this phenomenon. Given the rarity of female murder in real life, the popularity and prevalence of this theme in culture is striking and unsettling at the same time. After all, a woman who kills not only violates against basic social rules, but also upsets gender norms. This potential to break with an ideology that rests on hierarchically structured gender binaries equips the figure of the female murderer with the power to symbolically ‘kill’ established views about gender and sexuality. It is this ideologically disruptive potential that makes the female murderer a fascinating object of study, as her cultural figuration may provide information about the meaning assigned to women at a certain historical moment.
KW  - Female killers, American literature, Sexuality, Gender, Women’s Studies, Crime
LA  - English
ER  -