The Silence of Clarice Starling: Exploring the Female Investigator Popular American Thrillers.

Abstract

This thesis explores and discusses the problematic position of females in popular literature/culture, especially thrillers. Females usually do not have important roles in thrillers because they are usually femme fatales. Thomas Harris's well-known thrillers, The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, are the exceptions. Clarice Starling is the protagonist and hero of these novels. I will mainly focus on arguments within feminist psychoanalysis and feminist sexuality to demonstrate that Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal is repressed simply because she is a female. Her thoughts, characteristics, appearance and sexuality stress her so-called femininity and, they are powerful tools. Her relationship with other characters, particularly the notorious cannibal Dr. Lecter, stress her unique status as the hero of these novels.