Fatal Women

A groundbreaking and provocative look at how violent women have been represented in literature, plays, film, and performance

Fatal Women builds a complex and original theory of how the shadow of the lesbian animates representations of violent women, from the Victorian novel to films depicting women who kill. Starting from the historical link between criminality and sexual deviancy, Lynda Hart critiques constructions of gender, race, class, sexualities, and the cultural politics of the 1990s. Her introductory chapter constructs a theory of female violence across the discourses of sexology, criminology, and psychoanalysis. Subsequent chapters detail this theory in the Victorian novel and stage sensation Lady Audley’s Secret; Frank Wedekind’s Lulu Plays, which introduced the “invert” to the European stage; the films Thelma and Louise, Mortal Thoughts, and Basic Instinct; the political intersection of race and gender in Single White Female; the performance art of Karen Finley in the context of the censorship debates; the fate of Aileen Wuornos, dubbed the first “female serial killer” by the FBI; and the Split Britches’ performance Lesbians Who Kill.

A major contribution to lesbian theory and cultural studies, Fatal Women is certain to be read widely by scholars, students, and anyone interested in the politics of representation.

"A key event in the study of women and sexuality. Linda Hart's discussion of the paradox of lesbianism in modern culture offers the most important contribution to lesbian studies to date. Its smooth negotiations among sexology, legal discourses, psychoanalytic theories of desire, and sexual politics in relation to class and race yield a brilliant view of lesbianism as what Hart calls the ghost in white heterosexual patriarchy."—Julia Epstein, Haverford College