Idols of perversity : Fantasies of feminine evil in Fin-de-siècle culture.

Description

A provocative and absorbing analysis of the unprecedented eruption of misogyny at the turn of the century in the works of the key artists of the age. Illustrated throughout. CHAPTER I Raptures of Submission: the Shopkeeper’s Soul Keeper and the Cult of the Household Nun 3 CHAPTER II The Cult of Invalidism; Ophelia and Folly; Dead Ladies and the Fetish of Sleep 25 CHAPTER III The Collapsing Woman: Solitary Vice and Restful Detumescence 64 CHAPTER IV The Weightless Woman; the Nymph with the Broken Back; and the Mythology of Therapeutic Rape 83 CHAPTER V Women of Moonlight and Wax; the Mirror of Venus and the Lesbian Glass 119 CHAPTER VI Evolution and the Brain: Extinguished Eyes and the Call of the Child; Homosexuality and the Dream of Male Transcendence 160 CHAPTER VII Clinging Vines and the Dangers of Degeneration 210 CHAPTER VIII Poison Flowers; Maenads of the Decadence and the Torrid Wail of the Sirens 4 235 CHAPTER IX _Gynanders and Genetics; Connoisseurs of Bestiality and Serpentine Delights; Leda, Circe, and the Cold Caresses of the Sphinx 272 CHAPTER X Metamorphoses of the Vampire; Dracula and His Daughters 333 CHAPTER XI _—_— Gold and the Virgin Whores of Babylon; Judith and Salome: The Priestesses of Man’s Severed Head 352 Bibliography 403 Sources and Credits 425 Index