The Female Avenger, new in paperback
Margrethe Bruun Vaage
The Female Avenger, Women’s Anger and Rape-Revenge Film and Television
NEW paperback edition out in late January, pre-book now from EUP for a 30% discount
Use discount code PAPER30 at check-out
The Female Avenger examines the affective response to rape-revenge films, and how this response can be harnessed to work through complex questions about rape
- Extends the interdisciplinary reach of cognitive film theory by creating a dialogue with feminist film theory and feminist philosophy in an exploration of women's anger and the female avenger
- Focuses particularly on contemporary rape-revenge films made by women, such as M.F.A, Holiday, Promising Young Woman, Revenge, The Nightingale and Violation, as well as television series with rape-revenge plotlines, as in Orange Is the New Black and I May Destroy You
- Expands the fertile mapping of emotional engagement with fiction in cognitive film theory by narrowing in on anger, an under-explored emotion in film theory
Reviews
'Turning a cognitive lens on rape-revenge, Margrethe Bruun Vaage illustrates the political potential of its conventions and affective structures for processing women’s rage. This book made me see rape-revenge film and TV shows in a new light, and I strongly recommend it as a significant contribution to the field.' Tanya Horeck, Professor of Film and Feminist Media Studies, Anglia Ruskin University
'Vaage analyses the female rape revenge film genre by making impressive and clear use of relevant resources from feminism, film studies, moral philosophy, race theory and evolutionary biology. She argues that our imaginative engagement with such films can facilitate exploration of diverse reasons for female anger, thus potentially promoting social change.' Cynthia Freeland, University of Houston
'The Female Avenger unfolds the moral, affective and political implications of rape-revenge scenarios with high analytical thoroughness, offering new facets of cinematic anger. It is a great contribution to film studies and strikingly demonstrates that fictional displays of anger by female characters can change mental imageries and affects, and gender stereotypes.' Kathrin Fahlenbrach, Professor of Media Studies, University of Hamburg
‘Will stimulate the reader to pose new questions regarding rape and rape-revenge. It deals in bracing concepts and is coherently structured [...] The Female Avenger should be in the library of any serious student of rape-revenge. It will repay the investment.’ Joy McEntee, Journal of Popular Film and Television
‘The book is to be recommended for more reasons than I can count, but I want to highlight the amazing job it does in showing how fiction can have important ethical and political value [...] I deeply recommend this book and I praise its capacity to illuminate important aspects of our culture, our society, and ourselves.’ Iris Vidmar Jovanović, Projections
‘Taking into account different aspects and arguments, Bruun Vaage effectively bridges affect, film, and feminist studies to provide multi-faceted, sensitive analyses about a plethora of films. The monograph serves as an important, essential piece of literature in feminist film theory, and possibly a soon-to-be staple of course materials.’ Fruzsina Papp, Eger Journal of English Studies
‘The Female Avenger is an important work for anyone concerned with philosophy of film, philosophy of art, philosophy of emotion, feminist philosophy, and critical philosophy of race. Vaage has written a strikingly original, compelling work focusing on matters that should concern us all.’ Dan Flory, British Journal of Aesthetics
Hun / She
Professor i filmvitenskap / Professor of film studies
NTNU / Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Recent monograph: The Female Avenger (2024, new in paperback 2026)
Recent article on the miniseries Unbelievable (2025)
Recent introduction to co-edited special issue of Projections on cognitive media studies, stigma and inclusion (2024) here