The Story of Lizzie Borden: Axe Murder in American Culture

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Description: In 1892, Lizzie Borden was accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe. She was eventually acquitted, but her story had captured the American cultural imagination. This course examines representations of the Lizzie Borden story in news reports, true crime, short fiction, poems, novels, plays, a ballet, and multiple films, exploring how changing concepts of gender shape the way in which the story is told in different media and in different moments in American history.