ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the liminality of the prostitute, who is signified differently in various discourses. It discusses the construction of prostitution and representation of the prostitute from the eighteenth century onward, using as illustrations Daniel Defoe’s Moll Flanders (1722), as well as other popular sources. It then moves on to the public debate concerning prostitution in the nineteenth century and the sentimental portrayals of the prostitute, exemplified by Mary Wollstonecraft’s The Wrongs of Woman (1798). It later addresses contemporary cultural artifacts, such as the films Frankenhooker (1990) and Dangerous Beauty (1998), Emma Donoghue’s novel Slammerkin (2000), and the television show Harlots (2017–), exploring common places such as state control over women’s bodies, society’s double standards, and violence against women.
