Framed: the new woman criminal in British culture at the fin de siecle

Abstract

Framed uses fin de siecle British crime narrative to explore a central question: why do female criminal characters tend to be alluring and appealing while fictional male criminals of the era are unsympathetic or even grotesque? In this elegantly argued study, Elizabeth Carolyn Miller examines popular literary and cinematic culture of the fin de siecle era - roughly 1880 to 1914 - to shed light on an otherwise overlooked social and cultural type: the conspicuously glamorous New Woman criminal. Drawing on a rich body of archival material, including films and novels, Miller argues that the New Woman Criminal exploited iconic elements of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century commodity culture, including cosmetics and clothing, to fashion an illicit identity which enabled her to authority in both the public and the private spheres.By introducing us to the New Woman Criminal, Framed offers a profoundly different view of the fin de siecle British crime narrative.