Zsámba, RenátaRenátaZsámba2024-04-152024-04-152024978-3-86309-973-2https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/handle/uniba/94619Female characters demonstrate new forms of agency in domestic noir as it is exhibited in S.J. Watson’s novel as well as in its film adaptation: in middle-class homes ofthe twenty-first century, housewives are active participants of their own lives and ably interpret their victimisation against which they fight with alternative strategies in the hope of making a change. This chapter relies on Carisa R. Showden’s hypothesis which holds that female agency can develop in situations where it is the least accounted for, such as in abusive relationships. Both texts give special attention to the relationship between female agency and victimisation, although the two texts apply different strategies to illustrate how the amnesiac protagonist, Christine Lucas, fights for the (re-)construction of a conscious and independent self. While the book is rather backwardlooking in the treatment of the female experience, the movie takes a much broader view in opening up a dialogue with the technological challenges of everyday life. In domestic noir, instead of a reassuring ending where the victim becomes a hero, the aim is more to demonstrate the recognition of victimhood and the emergence of agency in tension.engDomestic noirvictimisationfemale agencydomestic violenceamnesiathrillerdetective fiction820conferenceobject