Hollywood's Gothic Heroines: Gender and Genre 1940-2000

The project re-examines the gothic heroines in Hollywood cinema. This figure has been stereotyped as passive and masochistic by exciting film criticism, which has concentrated on archetypes like the femme fatal and the actin heroine. My study provides a detailed and revealing re-examination of the gothic heroine in Hollywood cinema from1940-2000, showing that she is a figure of complexity and enduring interest. My research provides fresh perspectives on the gothic women's film, and women's genres more widely, and offers new ways of thinking about classic and contemporary Hollywood heroines, and about the interrelationship of gender and genre.