Cultural constructions of the femme fatale: from Pandora's box to Amanda Knox

The figure of the beautiful but lethal woman has haunted the Western imagination from ancient myth (Pandora, Eve, Lilith) to contemporary cinema. However, there are also remarkable 'real life' cases of women on trial for murder who have been represented as femmes fatales, including Frances Howard in the court of King James I, Ruth Snyder (the inspiration for The Postman Always Rings Twice) in the 1920s and, most recently, Amanda Knox, accused of murdering a fellow student in Italy in 2007. This interdisciplinary study traces the figure of the femme fatale across a broad cultural map, considering representations in news media, drama, film, art and literature, and the relationships between them. By considering the ways each of these lethal women has been coded, decoded and re-encoded, Stevie Simkin reveals how Western culture and society has struggled to comprehend and contain female violence.