...and if looks could kill: making up the face of evil

Drawing on a Bakhtin like conception of ‘grotesque realism’ this essay analyses the representation of the disorderly woman and the ways in which cosmetics and their perceived misuses become a literal and metaphorical device in the construction of the female face of evil on film.

Publisher's text about this book:

The papers collected in this volume are expanded from papers given at the 6th Global Conference on Evil and Human Wickedness, which took place in March 2005. The chapters here represent the diversity and interdisciplinary nature of the conference itself covering topics such as historical and theological concepts of evil, media representations of evil, contemporary debates surrounding the Bosnia war and woman perpetrators in Birkenau, and the construction of the Other as evil in the face of the continuing hysteria over AIDS. The range of the papers collected here makes this book essential reading for students of all humanities disciplines.

Table of Contents

Colette BALMAIN: Preface
Images of Evil

Geraldine BIDDLE-PERRY and Janice MILLER: “…and if Looks Could Kill:” Making Up the Face of Evil

Colette BALMAIN: Oriental Nightmares: The ‘Demonic’ Other in Contemporary American Adaptations of Japanese Horror Film

Karil KUCERA: Hoping for Heaven, Landing in Hell: Lessons Learned at a Medieval Chinese Grotto

Charles NUCKOLLS: The Cartoon Nationalism of Contemporary Japan

Ethics and Responsibility

Merdijana SADOVIC: Collective Denial: Serbs and the War in Bosnia

William Andrew MYERS: Ethical Aliens: The Challenge of Extreme Perpetrators to Humanism

Alan WATT: The Problem of Evil Beyond Theology

Chris BELL: The Way of the Transgressor is Hard: Personal Experience on Death, Suffering and “Community Responsibility”

Robert W. BUTLER: Teaching About Evil in History: Demonizing Historical Figures

Sex and Seduction

Stephen MORRIS: Remarriage and Ass-F**king: Shifty Byzantine Views of Sex

Anthony F. CRISAFI: The Seduction of Evil: An Examination of the Media Culture of the Current White Supremacist Movement

Frank FAULKNER: “Get Your Kicks on Route 666,” or Why the Devil has all the Best Tunes: Trekkin Through the Darker Side of Heavy Metal Music

Margarita CARRETERO-GONZÁLEZ & Mª Elena RODRÍGUEZ-MARTÍN: Wicked Women: The Menace Lurking Behind Female Independence
Notes on Contributors