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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 November 2022
Abstract
At least since the short story ‘The Whore of Mensa’, published in the New Yorker in 1974, the female prostitute – whether she appears on a film's margins or takes on a more prominent role – has been a recurrent figure in Woody Allen's oeuvre. In the case of Mira Sorvino's character Linda Ash, the prostitute is the story's protagonist alongside Woody Allen's character in the widely acclaimed 1995 film Mighty Aphrodite. This chapter investigates the various perspectives on the image of ‘the fallen woman’ that Allen's writing provides.
Keywords: prostitute, Mighty Aphrodite, Shadows and Fog
Introduction
‘I rarely think in terms of male characters, except for myself only. I have a tremendous attraction to movies or plays or books that explore the psyches of women, particularly intelligent ones’, Allen once said (quoted in Shone 2015: 54), explaining his noticeable ‘affinity with women’ (Rapf 2013: 257). His exploration of the opposite sex runs like a common thread throughout his oeuvre and casts female characters in all sorts of roles: mothers and mothers-in-law, sisters, daughters and nieces, friends, girlfriends, fiancés, wives and ex-wives, lovers and mistresses. One of these diverse female characters, however, stands out both for the frequent appearances she makes in his works and for her position at the margins of society, which her profession brings with it. Ever since the publication of Allen's short story ‘The Whore of Mensa’ in the New Yorker on 8 December 1974, the prostitute, whether she appears on the margins or takes a more prominent role, has been a solid institution in his oeuvre. Yet whereas the girls in this parodic story offer their intellects to paying customers, the prostitute characters in his films sell their bodies. So striking is the presence of the prostitute in Allen's creative mind that one can even find an online column that offers ‘A Complete Guide To Woody Allen's Many Hooker Characters’ alongside rather laboured miniature reviews trying to determine the degree of funniness of each of these prostitute characters.
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