A Vindication of the Redhead: The Typology of Red Hair Throughout the Literary and Visual Arts

Description

A Vindication of the Redhead  investigates red hair in literature, art, television, and film throughout Eastern and Western cultures. This study examines red hair as a signifier, perpetuated through stereotypes, myths, legends, and literary and visual representations. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier provide a history of attitudes held by hegemonic populations toward red-haired individuals, groups, and genders from antiquity to the present. Ayres and Maier explore such diverse topics as Judeo-Christian narratives of red hair, redheads in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, red hair and gender identity, famous literary redheads such as Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, contemporary and Neo-Victorian representations of redheads from the Black Widow to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and more. This book illuminates the symbolic significance and related ideologies of red hair constructed in mythic, religious, literary, and visual cultural discourse.   Acknowledgments Contents About the Authors Chapter 1: Introduction: “Hair is the woman’s glory”—Unless It’s Red Bibliography Chapter 2: The Devil Has Red Hair and So Do Other Dissemblers in Ancient Discourses Gothic Roots of Red Hair Satan Is a Redhead Thor as a Redhead Goat Gods with Red Hair Red-Headed Devils Babylonian Redheads Adam and Eve and Their Red Hair Lilith and Lamia Redheads The First Murderer Had Red Hair Red Hairy Esau and Deceit Villainy and Red Hair A Dancing Redhead The Emerging Stereotype in Judeo-Christian Culture Bibliography Chapter 3: “Real are the dreams”: Red Hairy Incubi and Unheavenly Succubi Red Hair and Evil Red Hairy Nightmares The Intercourse of Incubi and Succubi with Humans Rosemary’s Baby and Afterward Bibliography Chapter 4: Les Roux Fatales: The Plaits of Pre-Raphaelite Redheads The Debut of the PRB Redhead The Roots of Pre-Raphaelite Redheads Vampires and Red Hair Lady Audley’s Pre-Raphaelite Look-Alikes Lydia Gwilt and Red Hair Daphne du Maurier’s Neo-Gothic and Red Hair The Woman, aka, Whore and Red Hair Daphne: A Plait of Red Hair From Boudica to Victoria Bibliography Chapter 5: The Agency of Red Hair on the Male Gender Equivocal in Mr. Rochester, The Little Stranger, The Danish Girl, and Elsewhere The Unmanning of Mr. Rochester Dickensian Redheads The Desexing of the Red-headed Patriarch in The Little Stranger The Queering of Red Hair in The Danish Girl Raped Fathers The Power of Red Bibliography Chapter 6: “Here we are again!” Red-Haired Golems Galore Including Those in Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem A Jewish Mythical Creature with Red Hair The First and the Last The Golem in Us The Red-haired Metaphors Red-haired Golems Golems Galore Golem Murders Bibliography Chapter 7: Tangled Webs of Red Hair from the Grimm Brothers to Kate Morton Grimm Redheads Hair as Sexual Trope in Art Mrs. Redhead: Angel or Demon? The Forgotten Garden The Clockmaker’s Daughter Hairline Note About The House at Riverton Bibliography Chapter 8: The Other Redheads Throughout Asia and Africa Orange Creatures in the East Enlarging One’s Circle of Acquaintance Bedouins Red-haired Fan Red Hair in Japan Red Hair in Korea Red Hair in Africa Centricisms, Gingerphobia, and Gingerphilia Bibliography Chapter 9: Tough Little Red-Headed Orphans: Anne (of Green Gables), Little Orphan Annie, Madeline, and Pippi Anne with an “E” Little, and Orphaned, Annie Redhead Out of Line Pippi with Long Stockings and Braids Bibliography Chapter 10: Rebellious Royals: From Disney’s Ariel to Pixar’s Merida Disney’s Monstrous Mer-Maid Pixar’s Scraggly-Haired Lassie Bibliography Chapter 11: Neo-Victorian Freakery: Flaming-Haired Women, Dolls, Art, and Detection Guys, Art, and Dolls Collecting and Detecting Women Bibliography Chapter 12: STEAM(y) and Marvel(ous) Women: Agent Scully, Lisbeth Salander, Beth Harmon and the Black Widow The Truth (About Scully) Is Out There The Girl as Dragon Queen Harmon and Her Gambit Supersmart Superspy One Final Redhead Bibliography Chapter 13: Epilogue: The Splitting of Red Hairs Bibliography Index