When Women Kill

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By Alia Trabucco Zerán & Sophie Hughes

Publisher Description

A genre-bending feminist account of the lives and crimes of four women who committed the double transgression of murder, violating not only criminal law but also the invisible laws of gender.

When Women Kill: Four Crimes Retold analyzes four homicides carried out by Chilean women over the course of the twentieth century. Drawing on her training as a lawyer, Alia Trabucco Zerán offers a nuanced close reading of their lives and crimes, foregoing sensationalism in order to dissect how all four were both perpetrators of violent acts and victims of another, more insidious kind of violence. This radical retelling challenges the archetype of the woman murderer and reveals another narrative, one as disturbing and provocative as the transgressions themselves: What makes women lash out against the restraints of gendered domesticity, and how do we—readers, viewers, the media, the art world, the political establishment—treat them when they do?

Expertly intertwining true crime, critical essay, and research diary, International Booker Prize finalist Alia Trabucco Zerán (The Remainder), in a translation by Sophie Hughes, brings an overdue feminist perspective to the study of deviant women.

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When Women Kill Reviews

3.5

Velourtine

Created about 1 month ago

“When women kill portrays four Chilean women who committed murders in the 20th century. This literary essay does not aim to praise these women or clear their names, but to make their voices heard when everything possible has been done to make them disappear. Alia Trabucco Zerán reflects on their murders, but especially on their judgments. She explains the feminist issues linked to women's crime. Corina Rojas, Rosa Faùndez, Carolina Geel, and Teresa Alfaro killed out of love, hysteria, madness, and jealousy—supposedly feminine feelings. These are the labels attached to them by the press, lawyers, and judges, because a violent woman does not exist and certainly should not exist in 20th-century Chile, where feminist movements were emerging and instilling fear. But is this the truth behind their murders? This is what the author wanted to explore. By delving into their cases, she calls into question the newspapers and the judges. The author tells us that these women were described as "abnormal, femme fatales, vampires, or witches" in an effort to hide a woman's potential for danger. In fact, all four were either pardoned or released after a short sentence, a move intended to consign them to oblivion and to comfort society about their powerlessness. The author argues that to address feminism, we must include all women, and therefore include criminals as well. This is a very interesting and accessible essay. A tremendous amount of research has been done. Thanks to this author, I once again learned a lot about Chile, because one must take into account the political, sociological context, and even the literature of the time. I also suppose that Teresa Alfaro's case inspired her novel "Clean." I usually prefer fiction over non-fiction, but I do recognise the importance of such essays. 🇫🇷 Assassines dresse le portrait de quatre femmes chiliennes qui ont commis des meurtres au XXe siècle. Cet essai littéraire n’a pas pour but d’encenser ou de dédouaner ces femmes de leurs actes, mais de faire entendre leurs voix quand on a tout fait pour les faire disparaître. Alia Trabucco Zerán revient sur leurs meurtres, mais surtout sur leurs jugements. Elle explique les enjeux féministes liés à la criminalité des femmes. Corina Rojas, Rosa Faùndez, Carolina Geel et Teresa Alfaro ont tué par amour, hystérie, folie, et jalousie. Des sentiments supposément féminins. Ce sont les étiquettes que leur ont collé la presse, les avocats, et les juges. Car une femme violente n’existe pas et ne doit surtout pas exister au Chili, au XXe siècle, où les courants féministes commencent à se développer et à faire peur. Mais est-ce vraiment la vérité derrière leurs meurtres ? C’est ce que l’autrice a voulu savoir. En s’intéressant à leurs cas, elle remet en cause les journaux et les juges. L’autrice nous dit que ces femmes ont été décrites comme « anormales, des femmes fatales, vampires ou sorcières », pour masquer le fait qu’une femme puisse être dangereuse. Elles ont d’ailleurs toutes les quatre étaient soit graciées, soit libérées après une courte peine, pour qu’elles puissent tomber dans l’oubli, et pour rassurer la société sur leur absence de pouvoir. L’autrice défend que pour aborder le féminisme, il faille inclure toutes les femmes, et donc inclure les criminelles également. C’est un essai qui est très intéressant à découvrir, et plutôt abordable. Énormément de recherches ont été réalisées. J’ai de nouveau, grâce à cette autrice, appris pas mal de choses sur le Chili, car on ne peut pas passer à côté de la situation politique, sociologique, et même sur la littérature de l’époque. Je suppose d’ailleurs que le cas de Teresa Alfaro lui a inspiré son roman « Propre ». Je n’ai pas pour habitude de lire de la non-fiction, ce n’est pas ce que je préfère. Je ne peux pas dire que je suis surprise par les résultats de ses recherches, mais ce type d’essai est toujours nécessaire.”

Francesca Caselli

Lauren

natmaceda

Caroline

Educational Persuasive Provocative Well-researched Well-argued

About Alia Trabucco Zerán

Alia Trabucco Zerán was born in Chile in 1983. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for a master's in creative writing in Spanish at New York University, where she wrote her debut novel La resta (The Remainder). La resta won the prize for Best Unpublished Literary Work awarded by the Consejo Nacional del Libro de Chile, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International in 2019. It has been translated into seven languages. Las homicidas is her second book. She lives between Santiago and London.

Sophie Hughes is a British translator of Spanish-language writers such as Alia Trabucco Zerán, Fernanda Melchor and Enrique Vila-Matas. She has been nominated three times for the International Booker Prize, as well as for the Dublin Literary Award, the Valle Inclán Translation Prize, the National Book Award in Translation, the PEN Translation Prize, the National Translation Award in Prose, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.