Abstract
In the classic retro-noir movie, Chinatown, the private eye, Jake Gittes, makes a significant statement regarding the dynamics of power between men and women in hard-boiled narratives. Ostensibly trying to reassure the mysterious Evelyn Mulwray, Gittes’s comment is extremely revealing about his attitude to the femme fatale:
Just tell me the truth. I’m not the police. I don’t care what you’ve done. I’m not going to hurt you, but one way or another I’m going to know. (Chinatown, Polanski and Towne 1974)
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© 2013 Zoë Brigley Thompson
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Thompson, Z.B. (2013). Male Fantasy, Sexual Exploitation, and the Femme Fatale: Reframing Scripts of Power and Gender in Neo-noir Novels by Sara Paretsky, Megan Abbott and Stieg Larsson. In: Åström, B., Gregersdotter, K., Horeck, T. (eds) Rape in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy and Beyond. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291639_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137291639_9
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