Overview

The Female Avenger, Women’s Anger and Rape-Revenge Film and Television examines the contentious nature of the female rape survivor turned avenger in rape-revenge stories. The focus is on a trend of contemporary rape-revenge film made by women directors. Vaage asks what it might mean for women in particular to watch female avengers, and suggests that the reason some women filmmakers explore the rape-revenge convention is because it is all about an emotion that is difficult for women, and used to label women as difficult, namely anger. The central premise in this book is that understanding the emotions stirred up by this type of story is crucial in order to understand its recurring, controversial presence in popular culture, and also its potential value. Vaage offers a cultural and political analysis of contemporary rape-revenge film made by women grounded in the psychological and philosophical study of the emotions.

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9781399532099

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Reviews

"'Turning a cognitive lens on rape-revenge, Margrethe Bruun Vaage illustrates the political potential of its conventions and affective structures for processing women's rage. This book made me see rape-revenge film and TV shows in a new light, and I strongly recommend it as a significant contribution to the field.'-- ""Tanya Horeck, Professor of Film and Feminist Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin University"" 'Vaage analyses the female rape revenge film genre by making impressive and clear use of relevant resources from feminism, film studies, moral philosophy, race theory and evolutionary biology. She argues that our imaginative engagement with such films can facilitate exploration of diverse reasons for female anger, thus potentially promoting social change.'-- ""Cynthia Freeland, University of Houston"" 'The Female Avenger unfolds the moral, affective and political implications of rape-revenge scenarios with high analytical thoroughness, offering new facets of cinematic anger. It is a great contribution to film studies and strikingly demonstrates that fictional displays of anger by female characters can change mental imageries and affects, and gender stereotypes.'-- ""Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Professor of Media Studies, University of Hamburg"""

'Turning a cognitive lens on rape-revenge, Margrethe Bruun Vaage illustrates the political potential of its conventions and affective structures for processing women's rage. This book made me see rape-revenge film and TV shows in a new light, and I strongly recommend it as a significant contribution to the field.'-- ""Tanya Horeck, Professor of Film and Feminist Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin University"" 'Vaage analyses the female rape revenge film genre by making impressive and clear use of relevant resources from feminism, film studies, moral philosophy, race theory and evolutionary biology. She argues that our imaginative engagement with such films can facilitate exploration of diverse reasons for female anger, thus potentially promoting social change.'-- ""Cynthia Freeland, University of Houston"" 'The Female Avenger unfolds the moral, affective and political implications of rape-revenge scenarios with high analytical thoroughness, offering new facets of cinematic anger. It is a great contribution to film studies and strikingly demonstrates that fictional displays of anger by female characters can change mental imageries and affects, and gender stereotypes.'-- ""Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Professor of Media Studies, University of Hamburg""

Author Information

Margrethe Bruun Vaage is a Senior Lecturer in Film and Media at the University of Kent. She works in cognitive film theory, at the intersection between film theory, philosophy and psychology, and specializes in exploring the spectator's engagement with fictional films and television series, and more specifically emotions and morality. Her work includes The Antihero in American Television, and she has published widely in film and philosophy.

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