The contemporary nasty woman: Narrating subversive female characters from a gendered perspective. A comparative study between men and women’s directorial approaches in English language thrillers from 2010-2020

Abstract

This study will focus on exploring the representation of unruly behaviours of female-lead characters in film. I intend to research the portrayal of female anger on screen and the subversion of pre-established gendered narratives about disobedient women. Using the concept of the nasty woman proposed by Agnieszka Piotrowska, this study will take a comparative approach to analyze the representation of female anger by women and men directors. The study will focus on four contemporary films and will draw a parallel between the narrative arcs of the lead characters in the attempt to understand the anxieties and complexities of their anger within their cinematic universe. The main question of this research is what contemporary anxieties do the angry female leading characters portray in cinematic universes created by women and men directors? And based on this, I will look at sub-questions that will help me understand if there are gendered representations of this anger. Precisely, how are the subversive central female characters portrayed? Do men and women depict female anger differently? Are the angry women portrayed on screen a fantasy and if so, whose?