The contributors aim to consider how frequently 19th-century narratives of female prostitution—hence the label ‘fallen women’—are still recycled in contemporary visual contexts, and to understand how widespread, and in what contexts, the destigmatization of female sex work is underway on screen.

1. Danielle Hipkins and Kate Taylor-Jones, Introduction.- 2.  Jane Arthurs, Distant Suffering, Proper Distance: Cosmopolitan ethics in the film portrayal of trafficked women.- 3. Alice Bardan, “Through Hardships To the Stars”: The Moldovan prostitute in Nicolae Margineanu’s Schimb Valutar.- 4. Adam Bingham, Duality and Ambiguity: Prostitution, performance and the vagaries of modernity in Japanese cinema.- 5. Molly Hyo Kim, The Idealization of Prostitutes: Aesthetics and discourse of South Korean hostess films (1974-1982).- 6. Saheed Aderinto, Inside the “House of Ill Fame”: Brothel prostitution, feminization of poverty, and Lagos life in Nollywood’s The Prostitute.- 7. Niamh Thornton, Where Cabaret Meets Revolution: The prostitute at war in Mexican film.- 8. Teresa Ludden, Distorted Antigones: Dialectics and prostitution in Lola and Shirins Hochzeit.- 9. Aparna Sharma, Becoming and Contradiction in the Muslim Courtesan — The case of Pakeezah.- 10. Danielle Hipkins and Katharine Mitchell, Le traviate: Suffering heroines and the Italian state between the 19th and 21st centuries.- 11. Katie N. Johnson, Consumptive Chic: The postfeminist recycling of Camille in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!.- 12. Fiona Handyside, Postcards and/of Prostitutes: Circulating the city in Atom Egoyan’s Chloe.- 13. Kate Taylor-Jones, Handbags, Sex and Death: Prostitution in contemporary East Asian cinematic urban space.

“From Romania to Nigeria, Mexico to Hong Kong, this lively anthology crosses continents with its stimulating inquiry into the sex trade and its portrayal on screen. Well-researched and provocatively argued, these in-depth interdisciplinary studies reveal how ambivalently contemporary cultures continue to view the figure of the female prostitute.” (Russell Campbell, author of Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema)

Addresses how increasing public attention towards the trafficking of women and girls has resulted in the narrative of the prostitute (forced or enforced) being entwined with discourses and debates on immigration, intentional patterns of abuse, and global economic inequalities The first edited volume to identify transnational trends in the representation of prostitution, sex work, and sex trafficking in visual media Demonstrates how frequently nineteenth-century narratives of female prostitution are still recycled in contemporary visual contexts Offers case studies from around the globe including the cinema of Nigeria, India, South Korea, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, Romania and Germany Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras