Killing Women

Description

The essays in Killing Women: The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence find important connections in the ways that women are portrayed in relation to violence, whether they are murder victims or killers. The book’s extensive cultural contexts acknowledge and engage with contemporary theories and practices of identity politics and debates about the ethics and politics of representation itself. Does representation produce or reproduce the conditions of violence? Is representation itself a form of violence? This book adds significant new dimensions to the characterization of gender and violence by discussing nationalism and war, feminist media, and the depiction of violence throughout society.

Sujets

• Sociology
• Women's studies

Informations

• Publié par: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780889205307
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

K I L L I N G W O M E N

Cultural Studies Series

Cultural Studies is the multi- and interdisciplinary study of culture, defined anthropologically as a “way of life,” performatively as symbolic practice, and ideologically as the collective product of media and cultural industries, i.e., pop culture. Although Cultural Studies is a relative newcomer to the human- ities and social sciences, in less than half a century it has taken interdiscipli- nary scholarship to a new level of sophistication, reinvigorating the liberal arts curriculum with new theories, new topics, and new forms of intellectual partnership. The Cultural Studies series includes topics such as construction of iden- tities; regionalism/nationalism; cultural citizenship; migration; popular cul- ture; consumer cultures; media and film; the body; postcolonial criticism; cultural policy; sexualities; cultural theory; youth culture; class relations; and gender. The Cultural Studies series from Wilfrid Laurier University Press invites submission of manuscripts concerned with critical discussions on power rela- tions concerning gender, class, sexual preference, ethnicity, and other macro and micro sites of political struggle. For further information, please contact the Series Editor: Jodey Castricano Department of Critical Studies University of British Columbia Okanagan 3333University Way Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7

K I L L I N G W O M E N The Visual Culture of Gender and Violence

Annette Burfoot and Susan Lord, editors

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publish- ing Industry Development Program for our publishing activities.

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Killing women : the visual culture of gender and violence / Annette Burfoot and Susan Lord, editors.

(Cultural Studies Series ;6) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn-13:978-0-88920-497-3 isbn-10:0-88920-497-7

1. Women murderers in motion pictures.2. Women murderers in mass media.3. Women murderers in popular culture.4. Murder victims in motion pictures.5. Murder victims in mass media.6. Murder victims in popular culture.7. Women—Crimes against—Social aspects. 8. Motion pictures—Social aspects.9. Mass media—Social aspects.i. Burfoot, Annette,1958– ii. Lord, Susan,1959–iii. Series: Cultural studies series (Waterloo, Ont.) ; 6.

hq1206.k53 2006

305.4'896949

c2006-904585-2

Cover design by P.J. Woodland with a contribution from Tyler Clark Burke. Cover photo- graph by Keri Knapp. Text design by Catharine Bonas-Taylor.

©2006Wilfrid Laurier University Press Waterloo, Ontario, Canada www.wlupress.wlu.ca

This book is printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper (100% post-consumer recycled).

Printed in Canada

Every reasonable effort has been made to acquire permission for copyright material used in this text, and to acknowledge all such indebtedness accurately. Any errors and omissions called to the publisher’s attention will be corrected in future printings.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For an Access Copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to1-800-893-5777.

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Illustrations / vii Acknowledgements / ix Introduction / xi Annette Burfoot and Susan Lord

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Section 1 History, Memory, and Mediations of Murder 1Mapping Scripts and Narratives of Women Who Kill Their Husbands in Canada,1866–1954: Inscribing the Everyday /3 Sylvie Frigon 2Neither Forgotten nor Fully Remembered: Tracing an Ambivalent Public Memory on the Tenth Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre /21 Sharon Rosenberg 3Missing: On the Politics of Re/Presentation /47 Zoey Élouard Michele 4Killing the Killers: Women on Death Row in the United States /67 Kathleen O’Shea 5“Dealing with the Devil”: Karla Homolka and the Absence of Feminist Criticism / 83 Belinda Morrissey

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Contents

Section 2 Techniques and Technologies of Representing Violence 6Pearls and Gore: The Spectacle of Woman in Life and Death /107 Annette Burfoot 7“I Am Awake in the Place Where Women Die”: Violent Death in the Art of Abigail Lane and Jenny Holzer /123 Lisa Coulthard 8Women and Murder in the Televirtuality Film /139 Jack Boozer 9“I’m in There! I’m One of the Women in That Picture” /155 Margot Leigh Butler 10Killing Time: The Violent Imaginary of Feminist Media /177 Susan Lord

Section 3 National Trouble: Gendered Violence 11Dario Argento’sThe Bird with the Crystal Plumage: Caging Women’s Rage /197 Frank Burke 12How Positively Levitating! Chinese Heroines ofKung Fu andWuxia Pian/219 Suzie S.F. Young 13The Madwomen in Our Movies: Female Psycho-Killers in American Horror Cinema /237 Steven Jay Schneider 14Reverence, Rape—and then Revenge: Popular Hindi Cinema’s “Women’s Film” /251 Jyotika Virdi 15In the Name of the Nation: Images of Palestinian and Israeli Women Fighters /273 Dorit Naaman Sources /293 Biographical Notes /317 Index /321

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1prisoners at cells (possibly Kingston Penitentiary), c. Women 1900 2. “La Corriveau,” cartoon depicting the public exhibition of Madame Corriveau 3Corday by Louis Muller, c. Charlotte 1880 4dressed up with poodle at Kingston Prison for Women, c. Prisoner 1950 5. Bench, Marker of Change—Nathalie Croteau, Vancouver 6Marker of Change—indentation from top, Vancouver. Bench, 7for Fourteen Queens—“G” in Steel, Montreal. Nave 8for Fourteen Queens—Steel Pillars in Snow, Montreal. Nave 9Polytechnique, Montreal. Plaque—Ecole 10softball team, Kingston Prison for Women,. Angels 1950s 11. Prisoner ballet dancing at Kingston Prison for Women,1950s 12at Kingston Prison for Women,. Kitchen 1961 13. “The Skinned Man,” wax anatomical figure from La Specola, Florence, Italy, c1785 14Holding Her Plait,” wax anatomical figure from. “Woman La Specola, Florence, Italy, c1785 15.“The Doll,” wax anatomical figure from La Specola, Florence, Italy, c1785

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Illustrations

16. “Dissected Uterus with Twins at Term,” wax anatomical figure from La Specola, Florence, Italy, c1785 17. “Beribboned Penis,” wax anatomical figure from La Specola, Florence, Italy, c1785 18from “. Billboard nhi—No Humans Involved” artists’ project, San Diego,1992 19. Gallery installation from “nhi—No Humans Involved” artists’ project, San Diego,1992 20from. Scene Semiotics of the Kitchen,1974 21from. Scene The Smiling Madame Beudet,1923 22. Scene fromThe Smiling Madame Beudet,1923 23from. Scene Broken Mirrors,1984 24. Scene fromThe Book of Knives,1996 25from. Scene The Book of Knives,1996 26. Prisoners’ glee club, Kingston Prison for Women,1955 27Eisert escape site, Kingston Prison for Women,. Mills 1961 28. Scene fromTeesri Manzil/Third Floor,1965 29. Scene fromInsaaf ka Taraazu/Scales of Justice,1980 30from. Scene The Battle of Algiers,1965 31. Scene fromThe Battle of Algiers,1965 32woman holding flag in hand, from. Dead Hill24Doesn’t Answer,1955 33. Dead woman covered with flag, fromHill24Doesn’t Answer,1955 34from. Scene Exodus,1960 35. Prisoners tap dancing at Christmas concert, Kingston Prison for Women,1952

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Killing Womenstarted with Annette’s recognition that popular representa- tions of women who killed related to representations of women’s violent deaths. While it is a hard truth that there is never an untimely moment to think and write about gender and violence, this collection comes at a moment in history when women suicide bombers appear on the front pages of news- papers, when Amnesty International publishes its report on the violence involving, and the murders of, First Nations women in Canada, when Robert “Willy” Pickton is on trial for the murder of women from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, when Karla Homolka is released from prison, and when rising tides of protest address the murders of four hundred women in Juarez and Chihuahua, Mexico. This collection brings together a group of engaged writers with whom it has been both a pleasure and an education to work. We thank them for their patience, diligence, and thoughtful contributions. Thanks to Dave St. Onge from the Prison Museum for helping us gather images from the Archives, and for permission to these images. We acknowl- edgeScreenfor permission to reprint Jyotika Virdi’s essay, Routledge (UK) for permission to publish a substantially revised version of a chapter from

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