THE WOMAN ON THE SCAFFOLD Open Access

Abstract

Abstract

THE WOMAN ON THE SCAFFOLD
By Theresa Ann Starkey

Nathaniel Hawthorne's Hester Prynne functions as a
springboard for my discussion of women on display. The
transgressing female body becomes a source of spectacle, a
prismatic site on which society's fears, anxieties and
desires are projected.

Lizzie Borden, Iva Toguri ("Tokyo Rose"), Patricia Hearst,
and Martha Stewart are controversial, prismatic figures
that have captured the American public's imagination with
their notorious (sometimes merely legendary) crimes.

They, like Hester, are icons and symbols of female
rebellion. The way these criminalized women are represented
in popular culture provides a profound cultural index of
American subjectivity in terms of how female sexuality and
agency are perceived. Each chapter is a case study, an
examination of how a woman's real life tale has become a
consumable commodity that demands a fictionalized
articulation, one that struggles and fails to contain each
woman's ambiguities.

THE WOMAN ON THE SCAFFOLD
BY
Theresa Ann Starkey
B.A., History, B.A., Film Studies
Georgia State University, 2001
Advisor: Catherine Ross Nickerson, Ph.D.
A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the
James T. Laney School of Graduate Studies of Emory University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree
of Doctor of Philosophy
in Graduate Institute of the
Liberal Arts
2010

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1 2. Hester Prism 11 3. The Bodies of Lizzie Borden 54 4. Aid and Comfort: Tokyo Rose and the 99 Subversion of the Feminine Ideal 5. The Abductions of Patricia Hearst 145 6. From Homemaker to Heretic: The Domestic 189 Interloper and the Marketplace 7. Bibliography 240

8. Filmography 251

About this Dissertation

Rights statement

• Permission granted by the author to include this thesis or dissertation in this repository. All rights reserved by the author. Please contact the author for information regarding the reproduction and use of this thesis or dissertation.

School	Laney Graduate School
Department	Graduate Institute of the Liberal Arts
Degree	PhD
Submission	Dissertation
Language	English
Research Field	Cinema American Studies Women's Studies
Keyword	Patty Hearst Tokyo Rose Gender Hester Prynne Lizzie Borden Martha Stewart icon Crime The Scarlet Letter
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Nickerson, Catherine, Emory University
Committee Members	Wallace-Sanders, Kimberly, Emory University Prude, Jonathan, Emory University

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