"The Bitch is Back"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the book "The Bitch is Back: Wicked Women in Literature", by feminist writer Sarah Apleton Aguiar. It discusses her position that for a while the bitch was banished from feminist fiction as it became politically incorrect to create evil women in literature. The paper describes the roles of women in literature from as far back as the wicked stepmother in Cinderella, to more modern films and novels.

From the Paper:

"It could be argued that she is a new representation of an old, basic type in fairy tales--the stepmother who hates and resents her stepchild. It helps to consider the historical context of the stepmother in fairy tales in order to understand her. Mothers often died in childbirth, which left the home motherless. A new wife, who married to earn a living, agreed to raise the surviving orphans. Sellers (2001) argues that the stepmother is really a victim herself of patriarchy. Be that as it may, the stepmother is self-absorbed and heartless. She interprets everything the stepchild does maliciously, as though the child were out to ruin her. The fairy tale stepmother also wants to be certain that her own child reaps all the material advantages and inherits the father's money. She wants to turn the father against his own child. The twist is that in Ordinary People, Beth's "own" child, Buck, is dead. Both boys were in the sailboat when the storm came up, but Buck "let go." Conrad, on the other hand, hung on and lived. So she hates him for it. Her own child is dead, and she's stuck with the stepchild."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Aguiar, S. A. (2001). The bitch is back: Wicked women in literature. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.
• Brashinsky, M. (2006). Deadly is the female. Films in Review, 14 (2), 36.
• Henke, J. B., Umble, D. Z. and Smith, N. J. (1996). Construction of the female self: Feminist readings of the Disney heroine. Women's Studies in Communication, 19 (2), 229-249.
• Jeffner, A. (1983). Motherhood: The annihilation of women. Mothering: Essays in Feminist Theory. Ed. J. Trebilcot. Ottowa: Rowman, 315-330.
• Sellers, S. (2001). Myth and fairy tale in comtemporary women's fiction. London: Palgrave.

More papers on "The Bitch is Back":

• Term Paper # 127155 : "The World is Flat"
• Book Review # 121925 : "The World Is Flat"
• Book Review # 124244 : "Five Concepts in "The World Is Flat"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: