TY - CHAP
T1 - Maternal Revenge and Redemption in Postfeminist Rape-Revenge Cinema
AU - Henry, Claire
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Recent rape-revenge films such as Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/ 2004) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, 2005) display a post-feminist emphasis on maternity, which impacts the nature of their revenge narratives. In these contemporary variations on the 1970s exploitation genre, revenge is never just revenge for rape – the heroine’s construction as ‘mother’ adds an additional layer to raise the stakes and justify her acts of vengeance. At the same time, her return to motherhood requires a transformative journey of redemption, which results in an ambivalence towards revenge.
AB - Recent rape-revenge films such as Kill Bill Vol. 1 & 2 (Quentin Tarantino, 2003/ 2004) and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-Wook, 2005) display a post-feminist emphasis on maternity, which impacts the nature of their revenge narratives. In these contemporary variations on the 1970s exploitation genre, revenge is never just revenge for rape – the heroine’s construction as ‘mother’ adds an additional layer to raise the stakes and justify her acts of vengeance. At the same time, her return to motherhood requires a transformative journey of redemption, which results in an ambivalence towards revenge.
U2 - 10.1163/9781848880436_013
DO - 10.1163/9781848880436_013
M3 - Chapter
SN - 978-1-84888-043-6
T3 - Probing the Boundaries
SP - 105
EP - 113
BT - Best Served Cold: Studies on Revenge
A2 - Bibb, Sheila C.
A2 - Escandell, Daniel
PB - Brill
CY - Oxford, United Kingdom
ER -