The New Fatale: 1980–1999

Abstract

In the introduction, I established that there are generally conceived to be two cycles of neo-noir production, the first occurring from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, the second commencing in the early 1980s. This period was not only marked by the widespread return of the dark lady on screen, it also coincided with the emergence of postfeminism; as such, the fatale figure of this period directly prefigures postmillennial representations of the character that are the main focus of this book. Chapter 1 determined that the spider woman of classic noir is the product of anxieties over felt masculine impotence and the disintegration of patriarchal order, especially in relation to defined gender boundaries and traditional conventions associated with romance and marriage. In this chapter, I examine how these fears flow through to neo-noir and the ways in which the 1980s and 1990s fatale acts as a medium for emergent popular cultural discourses.