F***bois of Literature Book Podcast 1: Rebecca - Claire Willett
Feb 5, 2020
01:03:17
Playwright and author Claire Willett (@ClaireWillett) joins host Emily Edwards (@MsEmilyEdwards) to discuss one of the English language's most popular books– Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA. Since its first publication in 1938, REBECCA has never gone out of print, proving Maxim de Winter, the Second Mrs. de Winter, Mrs. Danvers, and almost every other character in the entire novel to be some of literature's most enduring fuckbois. We take on the text as the emblematic novel of the push-pull of heteronormative patriarchy, discuss the essential factors or race and class, and also ruminate on REBECCA as a queer text, thanks to some new details neither reader knew before recording! This is Fuckbois of Literature.
Summary of REBECCA
A nameless lady's maid meets the debonaire Maxim de Winter while working in Monaco. The recently widowed Maxim, who is many years her senior, is taken with her innocence and marries her, and brings her back to his manor home, Manderley, where he immediately expects her to become lady of the house. The Second Mrs. de Winter is overshadowed constantly by the community's memory for Maxim's first wife, Rebecca, and is ostracized by Manderley's lead housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers. As the Second Mrs. de Winter becomes more unhinged, she discovers Maxim murdered Rebecca for having an affair and falling pregnant, and Mrs. Danvers is undone by Maxim avoiding murder charges, so she burns down Manderley.
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