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