Author: Lisa K. Haegele, Deptartment of World Languages & Literatures, Texas State University

Abstract: »This chapter compares the bubblegum-pop aesthetic of Emerald Fennell’s rape-and-revenge thriller Promising Young Woman (USA/UK 2020) to Ziska Riemann’s German coming-of-age drama Lollipop Monster (GER 2011). Using Carrie Smith-Prei and Maria Stehle’s concept of “popfeminist awkwardness” as a framework for analysis,I argue that the films produce awkward affects to subvert tropes of rape-and-revenge cinema. I show how the awkward politics of the films expose the “cruelly optimistic” fantasies – to borrow Lauren Berlant’s foundational term – of female empowerment, justice, and retribution that rape-and-revenge narratives often perpetuate. To conclude, I suggest that Promising Young Woman and Lollipop Monster represent a transnational feminist film aesthetic that reactivates the political in rape-and-revenge cinema in and for the era of #MeToo.« (Source: Article)

Contents:

	Abstract (p. 193)
	Introduction (p. 193)
	The “Awkward Politics” of Popfeminism (p. 194)
	Awkward Endings: PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (p. 196)
	Awkward Adolescence: LOLLIPOP MONSTER (p. 201)
	Awkward Approaches to Rape-and-Revenge (p. 208)
	Bibliography (p. 209)
	Filmography (p. 210)

Wikipedia: History of Europe: History of Germany | History of the Americas: History of the United States | Film: Rape and revenge | Promising Young Woman | Sex and the law: Rape / Rape in Germany, Rape in the United States