Female Monster Research Articles

The Riddle of the 'sp(h)ij-': The Greek Sphinx and Her Indic and Indo-European Background

The name of the Sphinx, the Greek female monster who had fun killing passers-by who could not answer her riddle, has long been an etymological conundrum. On the basis of literary, linguistic, and anthropological evidence from, above all, Greece and India, this paper comes to a novel understanding of the Sphinx' origin, concluding that her oldest moniker, (S)F∞k-, is related to a newly uncovered Greek noun f€ki° 'buttocks' and to a Sanskrit word for the same body part, sphij-, a hitherto misunderstood form of which appears, in turn, in a riddle in the oldest Indic text, the Rigveda. This derivation situates the Greek creature squarely in the cross-culturally typically aggressive and sexually charged genre of riddling.

Female monsters: Horror, the Femme Fatale and World War II

The article is an examination of critical reception of the figure of the female monster as it emerged from the horror film during World War II, and it seeks to analyse discourses through which this figure was understood during the period of their initial release. In the process, the article demonstrates that the figure currently referred to as the femme fatale was not understood as a coherent or unified phenomenon in the period, and that it did not develop as part of a reaction against the working women of wartime. On the contrary, the essay demonstrates the ways in which the female monster developed around the start of the war and the way in which she was both identified with the figure of slacker and often overtly opposed to the figure of the independent woman of wartime.

Terror as White Female in Mudrooroo’s Vampire Trilogy

Mudrooroo’s vampire trilogy, The Undying, Underground and The Promised Land was published at the end of the last century amid an unrelenting public questioning of the author’s claim to Aboriginal heritage through a matrilineal link. The Gothic narratives feature a white female vampire named Amelia (an anagram of Lamiae), whose violent acts of penetration and (dis)possession act as metaphors for the colonial invasion of Australia by the British. The article reads the trilogy mainly through Barbara Creed’s theorization of the monstrous feminine and examines the ways in which Mudrooroo presents his post-conquest female vampire as castrating and all-consuming. It also argues that it is possible to see Mudrooroo’s female monster as a textual representation of the legendary soulless mother who would devour her own son to feed her sense of self and reality - with all the connotations of the author’s discredited claim to Aboriginal identity this implies.

Monster Pains: Masochism, Menstruation, and Identification in the Horror Film

Abstract Aviva Briefel examines the ways in which the horror film's gendering of the monster's pain affects audience identification. Male monsters in these films are associated with acts of masochism that allow for a comfortable spectatorial distance. In contrast, female monsters precede their sadistic rampages with moments of menstruation, which claustrophobically draw their audiences to them.

The rape of Medusa in the temple of Athena: Aspects of triangulation in the girl

The relationship between the Greek goddess Athena and her father Zeus, together with the competitive hostility she displays towards other females, is presented as illustrating some previously neglected aspects of triangular developmental conflicts in the little girl. Literature on ‘the Oedipus complex in the female’ is reviewed and discussed. The mythological early histories of both Athena and the female monster Medusa are examined for the light they can shed on female developmental vicissitudes and resultant conflicts in both women and men. Unconscious split representations of women as assertive, phallic and dangerous, or alternatively passive, castrated and receptive result in defensive repudiation of the idea that a woman can be both actively assertive and also feminine and sexual. Athena's enraged action of transforming the beautiful young maiden Medusa into a monster as punishment for the ‘crime’ of having been raped in her temple is discussed as illustrating an outcome of the lack of resolution of the little girl's early triangular conflicts.

The rape of Medusa in the temple of Athena: aspects of triangulation in the girl.

The relationship between the Greek goddess Athena and her father Zeus, together with the competitive hostility she displays towards other females, is presented as illustrating some previously neglected aspects of triangular developmental conflicts in the little girl. Literature on "the Oedipus complex in the female" is reviewed and discussed. The mythological early histories of both Athena and the female monster Medusa are examined for the light they can shed on female developmental vicissitudes and resultant conflicts in both women and men. Unconscious split representations of women as assertive, phallic and dangerous, or alternatively passive, castrated and receptive result in defensive repudiation of the idea that a woman can be both actively assertive and also feminine and sexual. Athena's enraged action of transforming the beautiful young maiden Medusa into a monster as punishment for the "crime" of having been raped in her temple is discussed as illustrating an outcome of the lack of resolution of the little girl's early triangular conflicts.

Images of Evil: Male and Female Monsters in Heroic Fantasy

Images of Evil: Male and Female Monsters in Heroic Fantasy

Comment on Susan Gubar's "The Female Monster in Augustan Satire" (Vol. 3, No. 2)

Comment on Susan Gubar's "The Female Monster in Augustan Satire" (Vol. 3, No. 2)

The Female Monster in Augustan Satire

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Female Monster in Augustan SatireSusan GubarSusan Gubar Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Signs Volume 3, Number 2Winter, 1977 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/493471 Views: 31Total views on this site Citations: 12Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1977 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Daniel Cook Reading Swift's Poetry, 48 (Aug 2020).https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108888172Sandra Plastina Letters on Natural Philosophy and New Science: Camilla Erculiani (Padua 1584) and Margherita Sarrocchi (Rome 1612), (Jul 2020): 55–80.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44548-5_4Daniel Cook Reading Swift's poetry, 1967-2017, Literature Compass 15, no.55 (Apr 2018): e12467.https://doi.org/10.1111/lic3.12467Miglena Sternadori The Witch and the Warrior, Feminist Media Studies 14, no.22 (Nov 2012): 301–317.https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2012.739571Érik Martiny « I am hiding from my father/ On the roof of Joyce's tower » : le père et le précurseur littéraire chez Sharon Olds et Paul Durcan, Études anglaises Vol. 65, no.44 (Dec 2012): 467–479.https://doi.org/10.3917/etan.654.0467Erik MARTINY « Salvation addiction » : vers une vision post-confessionnelle de la mère dans la poésie de Sharon Olds, E-rea , no.9.19.1 (Sep 2011).https://doi.org/10.4000/erea.1908 Siyeon Lee Swift’s “Excremental Vision” and the Female Body Consuming and Consumed, Feminist Studies in English Literature 16, no.11 (Jun 2008): 91–115.https://doi.org/10.15796/fsel.2008.16.1.005Jonathan Swift A Critical History of Gulliver’s Travels, (Jan 1995): 269–304.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-12357-2_3Christopher Fox A Critical History of Gulliver’s Travels, (Jan 1995): 269–304.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13715-2_3Ruth Salvaggio Swift and psychoanalysis, language and woman, Women's Studies 15, no.44 (Dec 1988): 417–434.https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.1988.9978743Beth Kowaleski‐Wallace Hannah and her sister: Women and evangelicalism in early nineteenth‐century England, Nineteenth-Century Contexts 12, no.22 (Sep 1988): 29–51.https://doi.org/10.1080/08905498808583286Mary Libertin Female friendship in women's verse: Toward a new theory of female poetics, Women's Studies 9, no.33 (Jul 2010): 291–308.https://doi.org/10.1080/00497878.1982.9978573

Congenital pericardial defects.

AbstractA congenital partial defect of the left pericardium associated with a left diaphragmatic hernia and total myeloschisis in a stillborn dicephalus dibrachius triotus female monster is described. It is pointed out that the generally accepted view, viz., that pericardial defects result from either a failure of closure or incomplete closure of the pleuropericardial foramen, holds good only for the partial forms of the pericardial defects. It is proposed that complete defects of the pericardium are due to imperfect development of the pleuropericardial membrane, resulting in a rent, either medial or lateral to the phrenic nerve, through which the lung bud grows into the pericardial cavity. The hypothesis that imperfect development of the pleuropericardial membrane is due to a primary defect in the septum transversum is discussed. Rotation of the heart is proposed as an additional possible factor responsible for preponderance of left‐sided defects.

The visceral anatomy of a double female monster

The visceral anatomy of a double female monster