Heartbreakers: Women and Violence in Contemporary Culture and Literature [Paperback]

From Medea to Goneril to Sharon Stone's ice-pick murderer to Susan Smith, the image of the violent woman has fascinated readers and audiences in a way that other figures have not. Jo Hendin looks at the figure of the violent woman in her latest book where she argues that a violent woman is a grenade pitched towards both conservative and liberal views of women. Peopled with some of the most fascinating women in history, both real and imagined, Heartbreakers is a thought-provoking read.The Medea Effect Mother Love on the Rocks Love on the Knife Edge and Lethal Families The Lady is a Terrorist Violence Light: Entertaining Aggression Patterns

'The same as reading a very edgy novel; you want to do it with the lights on and the doors locked. Recommended for all academic libraries.' - Marka Kochis, California State University Library, in The Library Journal

JOSEPHINE HENDIN is Professor of English and Tiro A Segno Professor of Italian American Studies at New York University. Her novel, The Right Thing To Do, won an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation in 1988-1989 and was reprinted by The Feminist Press in 1999. She is the author of The World of Flannery O'Connor and Vulnerable People: A View of American Fiction Since 1945. She has received a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and the Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Award as a leading Italian American scholar. Her literary essays have appeared in The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, American Literary History, and other publications.