The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts

MELANIE BELL Lecturer in Film at Newcastle University, UK ANN DAVIES Senior Lecturer in Spanish at Newcastle University, UK KAREN L. EDWARDS Senior Lecturer in Renaissance Literature at the University of Exeter, UK JULIE GROSSMAN Professor of English and Communication and Film Studies at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York, USA SUSAN HAYWARD Professor of Cinema Studies at the University of Exeter, UK OLGA KOURELOU PhD student at King's College London, UK JOHN L. MARAMBIO Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at the University of San Diego, California, USA STEVE NEALE Professor of Film Studies at Exeter University, UK GRISELDA POLLOCK Professor of Social and Critical Histories of Art at the University of Leeds, UK JOY RAMIREZ PhD Comparative Literature, has taught Italian literature and film at the University of Colorado, the Colorado College and Vanderbilt University, USA MARCIE RINKA taught most recently the University of San Diego, USA JESS SULLY MPhil in Comparative Literature and History of Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, UK ROSIE WHITE Senior Lecturer in English at Northumbria University, UK MARY WOOD Professor of European Cinema at Birkbeck, University of London, UK

These essays trace the femme fatale across literature, visual culture and cinema, exploring the ways in which fatal femininity has been imagined in different cultural contexts and historical epochs, and moving from mythical women such as Eve, Medusa and the Sirens via historical figures such as Mata Hari to fatal women in contemporary cinema.These essays trace the femme fatale across literature, visual culture and cinema, exploring the ways in which fatal femininity has been imagined in different cultural contexts and historical epochs, and moving from mythical women such as Eve, Medusa and the Sirens via historical figures such as Mata Hari to fatal women in contemporary cinema.