Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman

This collection of new essays looks carefully at the broad spectrum of Neil Gaiman’s work and how he interacts with feminism. Sixteen diverse essays from Gaiman scholars examine highlights from Gaiman’s graphic novels, short stories, novels, poems and screenplays, and confront the difficult issues he raises, including femininity, the male gaze, issues of age discrimination, rape, and feminine agency. Altogether the essays probe the difficult and complex representation of women and issues of femininity in the worlds of Neil Gaiman.

Tara Prescott is a lecturer in Writing Programs at the University of California, Los Angeles. She lives in Los Angeles.

Aaron Drucker is an instructor in Los Angeles.

Edited by Tara Prescott and Aaron Drucker

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 296
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6636-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0092-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      vii
Preface      1
Introduction
AARON DRUCKER and TARA PRESCOTT      3
A Note on Citation      9

Speaking the Cacophony of Angels: Gaiman’s Women and the Fracturing of Phallocentric Discourse
RACHEL R. MARTIN      11
The Power of the Perky: The Feminist Rhetoric of Death
LANETTE CADLE      32
Agency Through Fragmentation? The Problem of Delirium in The Sandman
JUSTIN MELLETTE      47
It’s Pretty Graphic: Sexual Violence and the Issue of “Calliope”
TARA PRESCOTT      64
Empowering Voice and Refiguring Retribution: Neil Gaiman’s Anti-Feminism Feminist Parable in The Sandman
AARON DRUCKER      81
Feminist Subjectivity in Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid
SARAH CANTRELL      102
When Superheroes Awaken: The Revisionist Trope in Neil Gaiman’s Marvel 1602
RENATA DALMASO      116
Outfoxed: Feminine Folklore and Agency in The Dream Hunters
CORALLINE DUPUY      131
“A boy and his box, off to see the universe”: Madness, Power and Sex in “The Doctor’s Wife”
EMILY CAPETTINI      148
Unmasking M(other)hood: Third-Wave Mothering in Gaiman’s Coraline and MirrorMask
DANIELLE RUSSELL      161
The Fairest of All: Snow White and Gendered Power in “Snow, Glass, Apples”
ELIZABETH LAW      177
Inverting the Fairy Tale: The Value of the Complex Female in “Chivalry”
JENNIFER MCSTOTTS      192
Feminist Fairy Tales in Who Killed Amanda Palmer
MONICA MILLER      206
Liminality and Empowerment: The Aged Woman in Neil Gaiman’s “Queen of Knives” and “Chivalry”
AGATA ZARZYCKA      221
“Anathema liked to read about herself ”: Preserving the Female Line in Good Omens
JESSICA WALKER      246
Doors, Vortices and the In-Between: Quantum Cosmological Goddesses in the Gaiman Multiverse
KRISTINE LARSEN      261

About the Contributors      280
Index      283

• “Valuable”—Library Journal