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Author Downing, Lisa, author

Title The subject of murder : gender, exceptionality, and the modern killer / Lisa Downing
Published Chicago ; London : University of Chicago Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (241 pages)
Contents Murder and gender in the European nineteenth century -- "Real murderer and false poet": Pierre-François Lacenaire -- The "angel of arsenic": Marie Lafarge -- The beast in man: Jack and the rippers who came after -- The twentieth-century Anglo-American killer -- "Infanticidal" femininity: Myra Hindley -- "Monochrome man": Dennis Nilsen -- Serial killing and the dissident woman: Aileen Wuornos -- Kids who kill: defying the stereotype of the murderer -- By way of brief conclusion
Summary The subject of murder has always held a particular fascination for us. But, since at least the nineteenth century, we have seen the murderer as different from the ordinary citizen-a special individual, like an artist or a genius, who exists apart from the moral majority, a sovereign self who obeys only the destructive urge, sometimes even commanding cult followings. In contemporary culture, we continue to believe that there is something different and exceptional about killers, but is the murderer such a distinctive type? Are they degenerate beasts or supermen as they have been depicted?
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Wuornos, Aileen.
Lacenaire, Pierre François, 1800-1836.
Hindley, Myra.
Lafarge, Marie, 1816-1852.
Nilsen, Dennis Andrew, 1945-2018.
Jack, the Ripper.
SUBJECT Hindley, Myra fast
Jack, the Ripper fast
Lacenaire, Pierre François, 1800-1836 fast
Lafarge, Marie, 1816-1852 fast
Nilsen, Dennis Andrew, 1945-2018 fast
Wuornos, Aileen fast
Subject Murderers -- Press coverage
Women murderers -- Press coverage
Murder in literature.
TRUE CRIME -- Murder -- General.
Murder in literature
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780226003689
022600368X
9781299156579
1299156576