Poison Woman: Figuring Female Transgression in Modern Japanese Culture
By (Author) Christine L. Marran
University of Minnesota Press
University of Minnesota Press
5th June 2007
United States
Tertiary Education
Non Fiction
Feminism and feminist theory
Gender studies: women and girls
Ethnic studies
305.43
Paperback
264
Width 150mm, Height 229mm, Spine 15mm
Based on the lives and crimes twenty women, dokufu (poison women) narratives emerged in Japan during the 1870s. During this tumultuous time, as the nation moved from feudalism to oligarchic government, such accounts articulated the politics and position of underclass women, sexual morality, and female suffrage. Over the next century, the figure of the oversexed female criminal, usually guilty of robbery or murder, became ubiquitous in modern Japanese culture. In Poison Woman, Christine L. Marran investigates this powerful icon, its shifting meanings, and its influence on defining women's sexuality and place in Japan.