Neo-Victorian Sapphic Femme Fatales: Manipulation and Double Game in Sarah Waters’ Affinity
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The concept of a manipulative evil woman, the seductive and dangerous femme fatale in literature results from historical oppression of the female voice and the patriarchal nature of writing. The prevalent male perspective has depicted a femme fatale as a direct threat to masculine power and dominance. Such a portrayal of woman has been deeply ingrained in literary tradition and became a timeless archetype. Yet, in her neo-Victorian novel Affinity (1999) Sarah Waters broke this pattern by queering the archetypal femme fatale with the creation of two Sapphic evil sirens - Ruth Vigers and Selina Dawes, who attempt to corrupt and manipulate other women through their sexuality, labyrinth of lies, deception and disguise. Therefore this paper focuses on the rules of double game and the ways of manipulation used by the queer femme fatales - Dawes and Vigers - on different women in the novel. I will also argue that from the perspective of queer theory a lesbian femme fatale is twice as dangerous as a heterosexual one and that Waters’ creation of such Machiavellic lesbian characters challenges the normative - patriarchal way of depicting women as posing a threat to male dominance.