The Historical Enigma of the Snake Woman from Antiquity to the 21st Century
This book provides an exploration of the historical conditions that gradually defined subordinating symbols and conflictual values in social relations between the sexes. It reveals how snakes and the gelid eyes of Medusa—the archetypical snake-woman—have reverberated across the visual arts and written sources throughout the ages in association with negative emotions: fear, anger, scorn and shame.
The outcomes and implications of the disturbing correlation between the dangerous female gaze, the malignitas of the snake and the lethal power of menstruation that have been woven through the fabric of the Western imaginary are analysed here. This analysis reveals an intriguing history of female reptilian hybrids—from the pleasing Minoan snake goddesses to the depressing Gorgon, Echidna, Amazons, Eve, Melusine, Basilisk, Poison-Damsel, Catoblepas and Sadako/Samara—and gives the reader an opportunity to explore things that never happened but have always been.
Angela Gíallongo is a History of Education Professor at the DISCUI Department at the University of Urbino, Italy. Her main research interests are informal educational issues in the European Medieval and early modern periods; body, gestures and sensory experiences; beliefs in the secular didactic literature and stereotypes in visual arts about female and children; and the imaginary and emotions in the Western history of gender education. She has published various articles and books on education, including the Italian version of this book (2013), which was awarded First Prize in the Italian National Award for Women’s Writing and Studies in 2013, and was a Finalist in 2014 in a competition sponsored by the Italian Publishers’ Association and the National Research Council. In 2016, it won the Italian Centre for Education History Research International award for Italy, and it has already been translated into Spanish.
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