Author: Prof. Dr. Haider Ghazi Jassim Al-Moosawi

Abstract: The portrayal of the femm fatale is quite common in the literature: a persona defies all and then finds inevitable choices to die as a master or to live as a slave, to stay as a female-led relation, FLR, or an accomplice for the sake of certain intents. The current paper delimits itself to trace the differences and similarities between three samples from the Arabic and English poetry on the femm fatale to trace five functions in the light of an eclectic model the study creates after applying both the classical literary Arabic theory and feminist literary criticism to the samples in question: Political Function, Societal Function, Moral Function, Authority Function and Elegiac Function. As for the functionality of the femm fatale, it strikes deep roots in various spheres of knowledge; literature and social sciences. Some try to prove it psychological, some political, but in literature in general and poetry in particular it takes hold of five functions and wields panoramic versatile isles in the East and West poems that are respectively Elegy on Imam Al-Hassan, Affinity between Prophethood and Imamate, No Oblivion for Imam al-Hassan, La Belle Dame sans Merci, On the Medusa of Leonardo da Vinci in the Florentine Gallery and Body`s Beauty. The statistical part will have so much to say: a/function/s the East or the West employ more than other functions, “how?” and “why?”.

Keywords: femm fatale poems, FLR, east-west literature, poeticism, classical literary Arabic theory, feminist literary criticism

Article Info: Received: 25 Jul 2025; Received in revised form: 24 Aug 2025; Accepted: 27 Aug 2025; Available online: 31 Aug 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.104.98