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Vamps: an illustrated history of the femme fatale
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Pam Keesey |
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1997 |
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6.00 with 2 Votes
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ina |
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its beatifull |
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Amazon.com |
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Books about goddesses, books about vampires, and books about film stars are common, but Vamps: An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale is a rare treat: it combines all those topics and more within a historical context for understanding our long-time fascination with the dangerous, alluring female. The story starts in prehistory with the worship of a mother goddess who was also the Lady of the Beasts, and spans the centuries from ancient Greek and medieval views of harmful women through the hysterics of the romantic period. The history of film vamps goes from Theda Bara in A Fool There Was (1915) to Natasha Henstridge in the Species movies (1990s), and includes beautiful photographs of all the usual suspects--Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson, Tallulah Bankhead, Louise Brooks, Maila Nurmi (a.k.a. Vampira), the two Morticias, and many others. A coffee-table-size paperback, Vamps is also an eye-catching blend of well-researched (but lighthearted) writing and dramatic black-and-white illustrations on every page. Author Pam Keesey is already known for her knowledge of dark female characters, having edited other Cleis publications such as Women Who Run with the Werewolves: Tales of Blood, Lust and Metamorphosis and Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories. She draws on an impressive range of sources, including The Malleus Maleficarum, Robert Graves's The White Goddess, 1950s fetish magazines, and even Pat Robertson on the subject of feminism. The artwork samples ancient stone carvings, medieval engravings, and portraits of dangerous women by John Singer Sargeant and Edvard Munch, among others. Included are a bibliography, a filmography of stars, a videography of titles, and an index. The only thing that seems off-base about this book is that a whole chapter is devoted to Sharon Stone. Maybe Keesey is a big fan. --Fiona Webster |
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Entertainment Weekly, Margot Mifflin |
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...[a] smart, steamy guide. |
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From Booklist |
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Keesey's lavishly illustrated survey of screen sirens and bad girls traces "the image of the fatal woman, both sacred and profane." It provides historical context to make the case that the archetype of the femme fatale is the ancient goddess, "the ultimate expression of women's ancient power," which "was and is a sexual power." Keesey asserts that the femme fatale blossomed in the nineteenth-century vampire craze before becoming manifest in the screen "vamp." Whatever. The book is as concerned with pop-culture bad girls in general and what has made them irresistible. Keesey weaves legend and folklore into the fabric of her portrait of the vamp in pop culture in fine style. Both the feminists and the "goths" (who try to look like something out of a vampire flick) among film fans will find this resource to their liking. Mike Tribby |
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Book Description |
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Popular vampirologist Pam Keesey invites you to feast in the company of the most beautiful, alluring and untamed women in history. From Dark Goddesses to flappers, Vamps: An Illustrated History of The Femme Fatale presents 2,000 years of campy, witty and dangerous Bad Girls -vampires, witches, bitches, vamps, femmes fatales, & screen trash together for the first time. Popular culture - especially film - is filled with images of the femme fatale, the woman who destroys those she seduces. According to Keesey, all bad girls can trace their origins to the vampire, that quintessential evil woman who uses sex as a weapon. From Greta Garbo to Sharon Stone, these irresistible women are marked as excessively sexual, creatures of great appetites who step outside the realm of acceptable feminine behavior to satisfy their desires. Keesey's fascinating cultural history is punctuated by excerpts of interviews with film stars and critics. Vamps book is a must-buy for vampire lovers and movie fans who treasure images of women as powerful, sexual beings. Includes 100 black and white photographs (including rare photographs of film favorites) along with complete annotated filmography, bibliography and video resources. |
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Ingram |
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Popular culture--especially film--is filled with images of the femme fatale, the woman who destroys those she seduces--from Greta Garbo to Sharon Stone. Popular vampirologist Pam Keesey presents over 100 riveting photographs of women as vampires and sexual predators, from ancient goddesses and witches to the vamps of the silver screen. |
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About the Author |
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Pam Keesey is a nice girl who has always wanted to be bad. She is the editor of Daughters of Darkness: Lesbian Vampire Stories, Dark Angels: Lesbian Vampire Stories, and Women Who Run with Werewolves: Tales of Blood Lust and Metamorphosis. She received her M.A. in Women's Studies from the University of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. A dedicated vampirologist, she wrote her master's thesis on lesbian vampires in literature. She lives in Minneapolis. |
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Excerpted from Vamps : An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale by Pam Keesey. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved |
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Good Girls and Bad: Introduction I don't know if I can tell you what first drew me to the femme fatale. It must have started at the tender age of four with my burgeoning love of horror movies, a passion that quickly developed into a love of all movies. Perhaps it was the first time I saw The Wicked Lady (1945). Or maybe it was simply that I was raised to be a good girl, obedient, polite, and friendly, always giving more than I took and asking little in return. And I was a good girl. My parents knew I would behave. My teachers thought me the ideal student. But in my mind's eye, and in the privacy of my own playtime, I lived the life of a lady pirate. Sometimes I was a dance hall floozie. I dearly wanted to be Cleopatra, floating down the Nile. But most of all, I wanted to be exciting, exotic, demanding. I wanted to be in control. And perhaps that's why I was so drawn to the dark and mysterious heroines of the movies I loved so much. They may have paid dearly for their freedom, but still, they lived life on their own terms. As I got older, I realized that I wasn't the only one who wanted to break free from my Good Girl past. That's what the women's movement of the seventies was all about. By challenging the stereotypes of good woman and bad, Madonna and whore, feminists expanded the range of possibilities for girls like me. But what they didn't count on was how much girls like me loved the Bad Girl. We embraced her, not because she was everything we wanted to be, but because she let us express parts of ourselves that we had been taught to deny. And she looked so damn good doing it, too. The femme fatale: as icon is a complex icon. She is, we are often told, what young women should never aspire to be, a cautionary example of the consequences of bad behavior. Men have used her as a representation of their fears and desires, marking themselves as innocent victims of her ill will. But there was a time when she was worshipped, too, in the form of the Devouring Mother, the destroyer aspect of the great goddess: worship. Although the phrase "femme fatale" is relatively new, the archetype she represents is as old as the ancient Goddess in whom she finds her roots. The Goddess was the ultimate expression of women's ancient power held in awe. Hers was and is a sexual power. She contained all of the mysteries of universe within her in her three phases, as girl, mother, and crone, she embodied the universal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. goddess: worship (Contemporary Goddess worship is about reclaiming the power of the feminine, celebrating the cycle of women's lives and their fertility, and holding women's sexuality to be sacred.) women's sexuality: as sacred to be sacred.)With the transition to a god-centered religion and an emphasis on the male as the sacred center of the universe, the image of the Goddess was shattered. But even in god-centered religions, aspects of the Goddess were maintained. As the virgin, the mother, and the wife, she was celebrated and revered. In her dark element, the devouring mother who delivers her children unto death, we find the witch, the hag, and the whore. Her sexuality in service to the male gods was valued and revered, while her autonomous sexuality was viewed as corrupt and evil. women's sexuality: as evil women's sexuality: autonymous From her status as the Mother of All Being, she was reduced to her various elements, a menagerie of monsters, demons and bogeys. In the Middle Ages, the mystical and wondrous Other of the Goddess became the feared and dangerous witch, the woman who cast her spells and worked her magic to seduce both women and men into the realm of evil through desire. The rites and rituals associated with the Goddess were maintained throughout rural Europe with the help of village midwives and healers, the priestesses of their communities. They posed a direct challenge to the authority of the Church and its ability to maintain control over the religious expression of rural populations. To discredit these women and the religions they practiced, Church authorities proclaimed them witches, threats to good and decent people everywhere. The power of witches, like the power of the Goddess, lay in the sexual realm, for through "the wantonness of the flesh [witches] have much power over men." This aversion to women's sexuality fueled the hatred and fear of the witch hunts. In the hands of the Church, and with the help of the legal establishment, the once-sacred Goddess becomes the consort of the Devil, a danger and a threat to society and Christian faith. Christianity Worshipping her became a crime punishable by death. The early eighteenth century, the "golden age of vampires," introduced the vampire as we now know it. Austrian authorities began systematic investigations into reports of vampirism. Drawing on folklore, legend, and the anxieties of people living in a plague-ridden era, the image of the vampire coalesced into the revenant, the creature who returns from the grave to drink the blood blood-drinking of loved ones. These tales, combined with earlier legends of ruthless leaders and blood-sucking ghosts, served as the foundation of the vampire literature that would begin to flourish in the nineteenth century. The femme fatale returned to command mainstream attention in the nineteenth century. Artists, writers, and designers drew on earlier images, the names and faces of the Goddess, the trickery and malevolence of witches, and the effusive imagery of the Romantics to create the femme fatale as we know her today. These artists came of age in the midst of a cultural revolution marked by the rise of industrialization and the formation of a European middle class. Women asserted their rights as the battle for women's suffrage came to the center stage. feminism In the midst of it all was the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases, with syphilis at the forefront, that reached epidemic proportions by the end of the century. The femme fatale, deadly as ever, found a spotlight in the works of artists such as Dante Gabrielle Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, and Edward Munch. Ever vigilant and always aware of her next opportunity, the femme fatale transformed, entering the twentieth century through the movies, a new medium and a burgeoning art form. The pristine prudishness of Victorianism mores had made the evil women: as evil a worthy foil. The sensationalism of the fallen woman was made socially acceptable by its implicit condemnation of her evil nature. The self-righteous tone of the message failed to dim the spectacular nature of the woman who left a trail of destruction in her wake. As the techniques and styles of movie-making evolved, so did the image of the femme fatale. filmmaking From the mortal woman whose capacity for evil warranted her reputation as "The Vampire," she became increasingly human, more sympathetic, and less deadly. She continued to be desirable, although she was still touched with the potential for danger. To love her was to come to a tragic end. She knew this and resisted the urge to draw her prey, but to love until death was her raison d'tre, whether the death be hers or her lovers'. As the culture surrounding sex and sexuality became more open, so did the representation of sexual women. women's sexuality: in popular culture By the 1950s, with World War II behind and Playboy just ahead, social norms and sexual politics made the femme fatale less threatening and more acceptable. The femme fatale was no longer fatal, at least not to others. Stripped of her power, but maintaining her allure, the femme fatale became the sex kitten. Her openness and her vulnerability marked her as women's sexuality tamed. By the 1960s, with the sexual revolution just around the corner, the sexual image of women in popular culture had returned once again to the supernatural for the edge, the frisson, the risk that we associate with the classic femme fatale. She is, after all, the woman who both attracts and repels. Once the now-diluted image of the vamp has become clich, no longer able to instill fear, to repel, to incite passion, "The Vampire" returns to the silver screen, ready to work her charms. vamp: becomes clich In the nineties, vampires and vamps exist side-by-side. Mainstream films such as Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula and Neil Jordan's Interview with the Vampire have kept vampires in the forefront, while the vamp can be seen in a wide variety of movies, including Basic Instinct, The Last Seduction, Bound, and even Irma Vep. vampire: in popular culture The Dark Goddess is still with us. She is the vital essence of women's power-the power of life and death, the realm of darkness that leads us into the light. The once sacred image of the Devouring Mother has become profane, but she still exists and is still worshipped in her various forms and with her many names-Theda Bara, Louise Brooks, Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Sharon Stone. She tells us as much about who we are as individuals and a society as she does about herself, her needs, and her desires. Vamps |
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an illustrated history of the femme fatale |
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