Fatal women of Romanticism

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 5
Title......Page 7
Copyright......Page 8
Dedication......Page 9
Contents......Page 13
List of illustrations......Page 14
Acknowledgments......Page 15
Abbreviations......Page 18
Introduction......Page 21
THE FEMME FATALE AND FEMINIST THEORY......Page 35
CHAPTER 1 The subject of violence: Mary Lamb, femme fatale......Page 41
MARY LAMB AND THE VIOLENCE OF THE LETTER......Page 45
POETRY FOR CHILDREN......Page 53
MARY LAMB, FEMME FATALE......Page 58
CONCLUSION: BEAUTY IN UNLOVELINESS......Page 62
CHAPTER 2 Violence against difference: Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary Robinson, and women’s strength......Page 67
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND WOMEN......Page 68
MARY ROBINSON: “WHY MAY NOT WOMEN RESENT AND PUNISH?”......Page 70
MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND THE BODY......Page 78
THE BEGINNING AND THE END OF DIFFERENCE......Page 86
WOLLSTONECRAFT AND SADE......Page 89
RECUPERATING MARIE ANTOINETTE......Page 96
MARIE ANTOINETTE, FEMME FATALE......Page 98
WOMEN WRITERS AND MARIE ANTOINETTE......Page 101
THE ARISTOCRACY OF GENIUS......Page 109
HER SATANING MAJESTY: “AN AWFUL LESSON FOR EACH FUTURE AGE”......Page 118
FEMINIST THEORY AND THE ORDER OF SEDUCTION......Page 127
INTRODUCTION: DACRE’S LITERARY TRADITION AND RECEPTION......Page 130
CHARLOTTE DACRE’S POETRY......Page 135
Undead bodies......Page 137
Sexed and unsexed bodies......Page 139
Demonic bodies......Page 143
“I hasten to be disembodied”: Dacre and Wuthering Heights......Page 148
THE PASSIONS AND ZOFLOYA......Page 150
The Passions......Page 155
Struggle and subjectivity......Page 156
Zofloya; or, The Moor. A Romance of the Fifteenth Century......Page 165
CONCLUSION......Page 173
CHAPTER 5 “In seraph strains, unpitying, to destroy”: Anne Bannerman’s femmes fatales......Page 176
THE PALPABLE OBSCURE......Page 179
“THE DARK LADIE”......Page 184
“THE PROPHETESS OF THE ORACLE OF SEÄM”......Page 190
SPIRITS OF THE STORM......Page 196
“THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY”......Page 203
CONCLUSION: “BLEST BE THE GLOOM”......Page 210
INTRODUCTION: LANDON’S CORPOREAL POETICS......Page 215
ENCHANTRESS AND MERMAID IN LITERARY CONTEXT......Page 219
“The Byron of our poetesses”......Page 222
“The Enchantress”......Page 224
“The Fairy of the Fountains”......Page 229
LANDON’S MERMAIDS IN HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT......Page 235
“A home already half a grave”: poetry and putrescence......Page 242
The dead versus the living: the politics of miasma......Page 247
Landon’s materialism and Wordsworth’s idealism: a critique of “half-knowledge”......Page 250
CONCLUSION......Page 263
INRODUCTION......Page 271
1 THE SUBJECT OF VIOLENCE: MARY LAMB, FEMME FATALE......Page 274
2 VIOLENCE AGAINST DIFFERENCE: MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, MARY ROBINSON, AND WOMEN’S STRENGTH......Page 276
3 “THE ARISTOCRACY OF GENIUS”: MARY ROBINSON AND MARIE ANTOINETTE......Page 279
4 UNNATURAL, UNSEXED, UNDEAD: CHARLOTTE DACRE’S GOTHIC BODIES......Page 284
5 “IN SERAPH STRAINS, UNPITYING, TO DESTROY”: ANNE BANNERMAN’S FEMMES FATALES......Page 292
6 “LIFE HAS ONE VAST STERN LIKENESS IN ITS GLOOM”: LETITIA LANDON’S PHILOSOPHY OF DECOMPOSITION......Page 301
BOOKS AND ARTICLES......Page 311
Index......Page 339