The Scarlet Goddess and the Wine of Her Fornications

2019 ◽  
pp. 35-80
Author(s):  
Manon Hedenborg White
Keyword(s):  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Great Goddess ◽  
Positive Reinterpretation ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Aleister Crowley

Beginning with an overview of feminine stereotypes in fin-de-siècle culture, the chapter introduces Aleister Crowley and his concepts of Babalon and the related figure of the Scarlet Woman. An unconventional figure and founder of the religion Thelema, Crowley led an openly bisexual life and advocated free sexuality. In 1909, Crowley experimented with Enochian magic in the Algerian desert with his lover and disciple Victor B. Neuburg, beholding a series of visions, including one featuring a great goddess. Based on a positive reinterpretation of the Whore of Babylon (Rev. 17), Crowley linked this goddess—called Babalon—to the initiatory ordeal of crossing the Abyss, when the seeker must annihilate their ego to become one with all. I argue that Crowley’s articulation of Babalon built on the fin-de-siècle trope of the femme fatale, which he reinterpreted as a soteriological ideal, thus challenging notions of feminine sexual modesty and bourgeois, masculine rationality.

scholarly journals De perseguidas a fatais: personagens femininas, sexo e horror na literatura do medo brasileira

Opiniães ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 51
Author(s):  
Júlio França ◽  
Daniel Augusto P. Silva
Keyword(s):  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Fin De Siècle

As temáticas sexuais e a figura feminina são sistematicamente exploradas pelas narrativas de horror. Desde a literatura gótica no século XVIII, a mulher é retratada em situações associadas à morte e ao medo. Nessas histórias, é recorrente o tópos da damsel in distress, isto é, a presença de uma personagem feminina que é vítima dos mais diversos tipos de violência, física e/ou psicológica. Já no século XIX, as representações da mulher na literatura se tornam mais diversificadas. No Romantismo, ganha força a femme fatale e o sexo é encarado como conflito entre alma e corpo. Se durante a literatura romântica tal mulher é idealizada e constitui uma ameaça emocional, no fin-de-siècle ela representa um perigo eminentemente físico. No final do XIX, ela encarna a busca por independência e a contestação do domínio masculino. Este trabalho pretende apresentar um panorama dessa transformação na literatura do medo brasileira, tomando como demonstração as seguintes obras: Noite na taverna (1855), de Álvares de Azevedo; A ilha maldita (1879), de Bernardo Guimarães; “Palestra a horas mortas” (1898), de Medeiros e Albuquerque; “O bebê de tarlatana rosa” (1910), de João do Rio; e “Noites brancas” (1920), de Gastão Cruls.  

“The Rage of Caliban”

2019 ◽  
pp. 46-61
Author(s):  
Michael Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Difference ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
High Modernism ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Otto Weininger ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Bodily Difference ◽  
A Site

Chapter 2 focuses on works that mark the transition from fin de siècle aestheticism to works of high modernism. The primary focus is the role of embodiment in modernist aesthetics, specifically as it appears in music. The chapter looks at several works based on Velázquez’s Las Meninas (1656) in which the figure of the court dwarf represented in the painting becomes a site for anxieties about bodily and sexual difference. Alexander Zemlinsky’s opera Der Zwerg (The Dwarf) from 1922 is the primary text, based on Oscar Wilde’s story “The Birthday of the Infanta” (1891). The libretto for Zemlinsky’s opera by George Klaren transforms Wilde’s story of recognition and betrayal into an allegory of dysgenic characterology, based on the work of Otto Weininger. What Wilde perceived as a story about the noble soul beneath the grotesque body, Zemlinsky transformed into a eugenicist allegory of man’s fatal alliance with the femme fatale. As a work that embodies elements of late Romantic chromaticism as well as modernist atonality, Der Zwerg is a site for studying musical representation of bodily difference.

The Femme Fatale inVogue: Femininity Ideologies in Fin-de-siècle America

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 270-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuko Minowa ◽  
Pauline Maclaran ◽  
Lorna Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Culture Media ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Fin De Siècle

This article explores how marketing influences ideologies of femininity. Tracing the evolution of femme fatale images in Vogue magazine in 1890s America, we develop a typology around four archetypal forms of the femme fatale that prevailed during this period. In doing so we respond to calls for more critical historical analyses on femininity. While studies on masculinity ideologies proliferate, there is a paucity of research on dissonant representations of femininity in popular culture media. The femme fatale, often a self-determined seductress who causes anguish to the men who become involved with her, is an intriguing and enduring challenge to traditional notions of femininity. Thus, in studying the femme fatale in her historical context and revealing the multiplicity of feminine ideologies contained within this trope, we contribute to a deeper understanding of marketing’s role in both reflecting and reinforcing societal assumptions, attitudes and problematics around gender norms.

scholarly journals Narcissus and femme fatale

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Χριστίνα Σεραφείμ
Keyword(s):  
Oscar Wilde ◽  
Vladimir Nabokov ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Femme Fatale ◽  
Frank Wedekind ◽  
Ludwig Tieck ◽  
Joseph Von Eichendorff ◽  
Fin De Siècle

Λολίτα, Λόλα, Λουλού: Κυρίες με τέτοιου είδους υποκοριστικά ονόματα τις συναντάει κανείς συνήθως ως πλανεύτρες ακαταμάχητης ομορφιάς στη Λογοτεχνία, την Τέχνη και τον Κινηματογράφο. Και όμως υφίσταται το ερώτημα εάν υπάρχει πραγματικά μια κάποια τέχνη της αποπλάνησης ή εάν η ομορφιά – όπως λέει ο λαός – εξαρτάται αποκλειστικά από τη ματιά του παρατηρητή. Μια απάντηση σε αυτό το ερώτημα υπόσχεται να δώσει η ανάλυση των ακόλουθων έργων του Ρομαντισμό, της περιόδου του Fin de Siècle και της Λογοτεχνίας και του Κινηματογράφου του 20ού αιώνα, με θέμα την αποπλάνηση. Τα έργα έχουν ως κεντρική ηρωίδα μία γυναίκα πλανεύτρα και έναν – συνήθως άντρα – πλανεμένο ήρωα. Κοινό χαρακτηριστικό σχεδόν όλων των ηρωίδων είναι ότι κατέχουν έκαστες τεχνικές αποπλάνησης: μπορούν να τραγουδάνε, να χορεύουν και να ποζάρουν άριστα. Οι ρομαντικές διηγήσεις είναι οι εξής: "Der Runenberg" (1804) του Ludwig Tieck, "Das Marmorbild" (1818) του Joseph von Eichendorff και δύο διηγήσεις από το ρεπερτόριο του E.T.A. Hoffmann: "Das öde Haus" (1817) και "Der goldne Topf" (1813/1814). Παραδείγματα από την περίοδο του Fin de Siècle είναι τα δράματα "Salome" (1893) του Oscar Wilde και "Lulu" (1913) του Frank Wedekind. Ως σύγχρονο παράδειγμα επιλέχθηκε το μυθιστόρημα σκάνδαλο και κλασικό έργο της παγκόσμιας λογοτεχνίας "Lolita" (1955) του Vladimir Nabokov. Ταινίες καλτ που δεν πρέπει να λείπουν από τη φιλμογραφία μίας εργασία περί γυναικείας αποπλάνησης είναι: "Der Blaue Engel" (1930) του Joseph von Sternberg, "Orpheus" (1939) του Jean Cocteaus και "Carmen" (1983) του Carlos Saura. Κεντρική ιδέα της διατριβής είναι ότι η θηλυκότητα καθ’ εαυτή – και ακόμα περισσότερο η αποπλανητική – δεν υφίσταται, αλλά αποτελεί ένα κατασκεύασμα, μία φαντασίωση, μία προβολή ή είναι ακόμα και αποτέλεσμα σκηνοθεσίας. Αρχική ιδέα είναι ότι οι θηλυκές μορφές λειτουργούν συνήθως ως καθρέφτισμα του ανδρικού πόθου αποτελώντας μονάχα προβολές επιθυμίας και φόβου. Στην αιτιολόγηση του ερευνητικού στόχου η φιγούρα του νάρκισσου αποκτάει ένα διπλό ρόλο: από τη μία το μοτίβο αντικατοπτρίζει την αυτο-ποθούμενη ματιά και τη σχετιζόμενη κατασκευή της θηλυκότητας, από την άλλη ο νάρκισσος λειτουργεί ως σύμβολο μιας τέχνης που παρατηρεί τον εαυτό της και έτσι πολλαπλασιάζεται.

Encountering the Scarlet Goddess

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Manon Hedenborg White
Keyword(s):  
Source Material ◽  
Fin De Siecle ◽  
Fin De Siècle ◽  
Aleister Crowley ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
Feminine Sexuality ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Esotericism

This chapter sets the scene for the study by briefly introducing some of its core contents and defining the aim of the book: to analyze constructions of femininity and feminine sexuality in interpretations of the goddess Babalon from the fin-de-siècle until today. The chapter presents Babalon and her origins in the writings of the British occultist Aleister Crowley and establishes the focus of the study. The idea of a “Babalon discourse,” comprising written, verbal, textual, and embodied interpretations of the goddess, is introduced. The source material for the present study is related to broader categories within the history of religions, such as Western esotericism, occultism, and magic, which are briefly explained and demarcated. Sources and methodology are cursorily presented, and the chapter concludes with an outline of the study.

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