Seven week class taught online via zoom

Sundays November 10 - December 22, 2024
2pm - 4pm ET (NYC Time)
$150 Paid Patreon Members / $175 General Admission

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will be recorded for those who cannot attend live

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the femme fatale (the deadly female) has been a powerful concept in the visual and literary representations of Western European cultures. The female character who is both a seductive source of creative inspiration and a surreptitious force transgressing the boundaries of established rationality and social morality is central to elite and popular culture.

The idea of the dangerous, beautiful female (whether human or supernatural) functions as a foil for saints, heroes, and other protagonists, especially as a symbol of temptation bringing personal ruin and even death. The enduring popularity of the femme fatale is a key to patriarchy’s structure, as well as a potent reminder of its fragility. The femme fatale can be seen as a fantastic projection of the repressed terror of the Great Mother who brings forth all life and takes it back at will. Femme fatales have their origins in the mythologies of past epochs and contain rich layers of meaning from many different traditions. In each generation the femme fatale is recreated and used for specific purposes, which can sometimes be subversive and liberating.

In this course, you will be invited to dive deep into the histories and anthropological roots of six specific femme fatale archetypes that have been the sources of a complex legacy influencing the arts and cultures of the West, especially since the late Romantic period when mass culture as we know it began to flow through global communication networks. The efflorescence of the femme fatale in the nineteenth century can be read as both a celebration of ancient female power as well as a dark reflection of the patriarchal project of global imperialism. Through image rich lectures and suggested readings and film viewings, students will be invited to question and discuss the materials as well as offer their own reflections on how the femme fatale can or has influenced their own intellectual understanding, lived experiences and creative outputs.

In the final session, participants will be invited to, if they wish, share something that they have created (in any medium they choose) that engages with or touches on the archetypes and materials covered in this course.

Week 1: INTRODUCTION & SALOME, DANCER OF THE SEVEN VEILS
We begin with an introduction to the origins of the term femme fatale, as well as some of the sources of the six archetypes which inform the class. We will begin with Salome, the Biblical princess who dances for the decapitated head of John the Baptist. Although unnamed in the Bible, Salome (as she is later known) became a glamourous symbol of nubile evil hiding under a mask of innocence. 

Week 2: SPHINX, GUARDIAN OF MYSTERIES AND SECRETS
Middle Eastern and North African legends of hybrid she-monsters who devour desert travelers merged with the classical Greek literature to bring us the sphinx. This famous figure is an emblem of Oedipal origins, visual trope of Egyptomania, and a symbol of occult secrecy in the modern world. 

Week 3: SIREN, SINGER OF SEDUCTION AND DESTRUCTION
Legends of bird-women, mermaids and other nature spirits who can sing people to their deaths are found in many cultures. The legend of the sirens in the classical Greek and other ancient Indo-European traditions continue their impact in popular visual culture and in the magico-musical theories of the human voice.

Week 4:  SORCERESS, PRIESTESS OF ARCHAIC POWERS
From Medea to Morgan Le Fay, from mixer of love philters to raiser of storms, the sorceress (by whose archaic arts a hero is saved from death or destroyed) looms large in Western myth and legend. Often seen as a throwback to earlier (pagan) times, the sorceress is sought out and often hunted down by virtue of her access to and mastery of dark forces. She is a source of powers that are coveted, and feared.

Week 5:  SCARLET WOMAN, SHE WHO RIDES THE BEAST
The image of a woman riding a beast (or a beastly man) is perhaps most famously captured in the Scarlet Woman, also known as the Great Whore of Babylon, a bizarre apocalyptic figure in the New Testament Book of Revelation. The material components of this beautiful giantess from scarlet silks to golden jewelry feature prominently as signs in Christian culture and are continually used as warnings to men to beware of the female arts of seduction. But “Scarlet Women” are also major players in political and social power, from Empress Theodora of Byzantium to the great courtesans of the Belle Epoque.

Week 6:  SYNTHETIC EVE, ARTIFICIAL WOMEN AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF SUBVERSION
The concept of the perfect woman made by a male god or a mortal man is foundational in the Western mythos: from Eve (born out of Adam’s side) to Galatea, the living statue carved by the artist Pygmalion (though brought to life by Venus). Drawing on a long history of artificial women across time, we will see how the rise of monotheism’s singular “Lord God,” the male gaze in natural philosophy/science, and Karen Horney’s theory of “womb envy” help illuminate many of these strange stories of men making women.

Week 7:  PERSONAL PROJECTS, EXPLORING THE ARCHETYPES AND THEIR POWER
Participants in the course are encouraged to share something that they have created (in any medium they choose) that engages with or touches on the archetypes and materials covered in this course. This is an optional project, but the instructor hope that those who participate will find value in sharing their insights and creative output with their fellow explorers of the archetypes of the femme fatale!

Jason Lahman is a visual artist and cultural historian. He holds a masters degree in the History of Science and Technology and has taught a variety of classes on diverse subjects, including A Cultural History of Robots and A History of Fairies for Morbid Anatomy.

Images: Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, Cranach, 1526; The Satiated Siren (Die gesättigte Sirene), Gustav Adolf Mossa, 1905