Thanks for your patience during our recent outage at scalar.usc.edu. While Scalar content is loading normally now, saving is still slow, and Scalar's 'additional metadata' features have been disabled, which may interfere with features like timelines and maps that depend on metadata. This also means that saving a page or media item will remove its additional metadata. If this occurs, you can use the 'All versions' link at the bottom of the page to restore the earlier version. We are continuing to troubleshoot, and will provide further updates as needed. Note that this only affects Scalar projects at scalar.usc.edu, and not those hosted elsewhere.
The Bestselling Novel: Currents in American History and CultureMain MenuIntroductionIntersectionality and Power Relations in BestsellerismAn intersectional analysis of the concepts of gender, race and power relationships, highlighting how the overlap between these concepts fueled the novels’ rise as bestsellers.Slavery Beyond ChainsThe Variation of the Forms of Slavery Inflicted on Charlotte in Susanna Rowson's _Charlotte Temple_ and Dana in Octavia Butler's _Kindred_.Perception of Women in SocietyInspecting the ways in which the woman’s default “doomed” status can be blamed on the society's narrow perception of women in Susanna Rowson's Charlotte Temple and Edith Wharton's House of Mirth.Gendered Violence and Racism: The Short End of the StickThe Struggle of the Black Woman Across the CenturiesBrief summaries of course textsStudents in ENG 410: American Novel, an upper-level undergraduate seminar8105943177cf94521fefbbebb901e86333202954
Amy Dunne is a character that carries a great deal of controversy everywhere. Her actions in the novel and film are bold and different to how most women are portrayed. People either view her as a strong independent female character, who does whatever she has to to get her way in the world, while others view her as a psychotic woman using a man to motivate her actions.
Nonetheless, Amy's character is not one frequently seen in the literary or film world. Amy strategizes and plans her every move with meticulous attention to detail. Even when things don’t go according to plan, Amy figures out a way to not only maneuver around obstacles but also make them her strengths. A female character is rarely ever portrayed in such a complex (and evil) light that somehow demands sympathy from her audience (in the context of the story as well as the audience in reality) and feeds off of that sympathy to further her plans.
Though unique, Amy could be argued to align with the “Femme Fatale” figure, which puts this intricate character full of surprises and twists into a box. This character was very famous during the rise of the Film Noir.
According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, there are two definitions of a Femme Fatale:
a seductive woman who lures men into dangerous or compromising situations.
a woman who attracts men by an aura of charm and mystery.
Yet Amy is more complicated than these definitions. In her "Gone Girl Video Essay," Christine Nguyen explores how the different camera angles and positions of Amy differ from the two-dimensional Film Noir’s Femme Fatale characters.
The Femme Fatale character usually acts solely to disrupt a man’s life, and as stated in the definition above, she attracts men by an aura of charm and mystery. This is true in some instances in Gone Girl; however the major differing factor is that Amy understands this character trope and manipulates it to her own ends.
References:
Forouzan, Elham, and David J. Cooke. “Figuring Out a Femme Fatale: Conceptual and Assessment Issues Concerning Psychopathy in Females.” Behavioral Sciences & the Law, vol. 23, no. 6, 2005, pp. 765–778., doi:10.1002/bsl.669.
