Lexington Books
Pages: 204
•
Trim: 6 x 9
978-1-4985-2963-1 • Hardback • December 2016 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-4985-2965-5 • Paperback • September 2018 • $44.99 • (£35.00)
978-1-4985-2964-8 • eBook • December 2016 • $42.50 • (£33.00)
Cristina Santos is associate professor in the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures at Brock University.
Acknowledgments
Permissions
Introduction
Chapter One: Turning Back the Clock: “Modern” Virginities
Chapter Two: Breaking In vs. Breaking Out: Negotiating the Transition from Girlhood to Womanhood
Chapter Three: Maligned Mother(hood)s
Chapter Four: Fairy Tale Witches and Much More
Chapter Five: Life Isn’t a Fairy Tale and I’m No Princess: The Case of Countess Elizabeth Bathory
Epilogue
Works Cited
Filmography
About the Author
Cristina Santos takes an uncompromising and, at times, deeply poignant view of the sacrifices women are forced to make on a daily basis in order to conform to the constricting and largely male-dominated narratives which shape the society in which they live. With tremendous care and fascinating insight she dissects the cultural language and imagery of the female monster to reveal and recover the means by which this process can be broken down, the chains shaken off and women can un-become the monsters they have been made.— Rob Fisher, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Unbecoming Female Monsters is a thoughtful, well-researched, and poignant examination of female monstrosity . . . It [is] a valuable resource for anyone interested in the intersection of fairy tales and feminism.
— Folklore
Cristina Santos takes an uncompromising and, at times, deeply poignant view of the sacrifices women are forced to make on a daily basis in order to conform to the constricting and largely male-dominated narratives which shape the society in which they live. With tremendous care and fascinating insight she dissects the cultural language and imagery of the female monster to reveal and recover the means by which this process can be broken down, the chains shaken off and women can un-become the monsters they have been made.— Rob Fisher, Inter-Disciplinary.Net
Cristina Santos's Unbecoming Female Monsters offers an incisive examination of female embodiment and the “monstrous woman.” Organized in chapters that address various stages of the female life cycle, Santos reads the commodification of female sexuality and reproduction in relation to three key tropes: witch, vampire, and virgin. Drawing on fairy tales, mythology, literature, film, and television, Santos considers how women’s designation as monster has deleterious effects on females’ ability to form productive relationships with self and other. Arguing that a “positive reappropriation” of female-ness can dismantle such constructions, Santos makes a compelling case for “unbecoming the monster.”— Natalie Wilson, California State University, San Marcos