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A Vindication of the Redhead

The Typology of Red Hair Throughout the Literary and Visual Arts

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  • © 2021

Overview

Authors:
  1. Brenda Ayres

    1. Liberty University, Lynchburg, USA

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  2. Sarah E. Maier

    1. English, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada

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  • Contributes to the fields of cultural studies, Victorian studies, and Neo-Victorian studies
  • Considers a range of topics especially myths and stereotypes present in representations of redheads
  • Investigates key tropes and themes related to red hair that are revisited in historical periods and media

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: “Hair is the woman’s glory”—Unless It’s Red

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 1-20

  3. The Devil Has Red Hair and So Do Other Dissemblers in Ancient Discourses

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 21-48

  4. “Real are the dreams”: Red Hairy Incubi and Unheavenly Succubi

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 49-69

  5. Les Roux Fatales: The Plaits of Pre-Raphaelite Redheads

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 71-103

  6. The Agency of Red Hair on the Male Gender Equivocal in Mr. Rochester, The Little Stranger, The Danish Girl, and Elsewhere

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 105-126

  7. “Here we are again!” Red-Haired Golems Galore Including Those in Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 127-146

  8. Tangled Webs of Red Hair from the Grimm Brothers to Kate Morton

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 147-170

  9. The Other Redheads Throughout Asia and Africa

    • Brenda Ayres
    Pages 171-195

  10. Tough Little Red-Headed Orphans: Anne (of Green Gables), Little Orphan Annie, Madeline, and Pippi

    • Sarah E. Maier
    Pages 197-221

  11. Rebellious Royals: From Disney’s Ariel to Pixar’s Merida

    • Sarah E. Maier
    Pages 223-241

  12. Neo-Victorian Freakery: Flaming-Haired Women, Dolls, Art, and Detection

    • Sarah E. Maier
    Pages 243-260

  13. STEAM(y) and Marvel(ous) Women: Agent Scully, Lisbeth Salander, Beth Harmon and the Black Widow

    • Sarah E. Maier
    Pages 261-280

  14. Epilogue: The Splitting of Red Hairs

    • Sarah E. Maier
    Pages 281-287

  15. Back Matter

    Pages 289-294
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Keywords

About this book

A Vindication of the Redhead  investigates red hair in literature, art, television, and film throughout Eastern and Western cultures. This study examines red hair as a signifier, perpetuated through stereotypes, myths, legends, and literary and visual representations. Brenda Ayres and Sarah E. Maier provide a history of attitudes held by hegemonic populations toward red-haired individuals, groups, and genders from antiquity to the present. Ayres and Maier explore such diverse topics as Judeo-Christian narratives of red hair, redheads in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, red hair and gender identity, famous literary redheads such as Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, contemporary and Neo-Victorian representations of redheads from the Black Widow to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and more. This book illuminates the symbolic significance and related ideologies of red hair constructed in mythic, religious, literary, and visual cultural discourse.  

Authors and Affiliations

  • Liberty University, Lynchburg, USA

    Brenda Ayres

  • English, University of New Brunswick, Saint John, Canada

    Sarah E. Maier

About the authors

Brenda Ayres, now semiretired, teaches online English courses for Liberty University and Southern New Hampshire University, USA. 

Sarah E. Maier is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of New Brunswick Saint John, Canada. 

Ayres and Maier have coedited several collections of essays. The most recent are The Theological Dickens (2021), Neo-Victorian Madness: Rediagnosing Nineteenth-Century Mental Illness in Literature and Other Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), Neo-Gothic Narratives: Illusory Allusions from the Past (2020), Animals and Their Children in Victorian Culture (2019) and Reinventing Marie Corelli for the Twenty-first Century (2019).

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