SOURCE: Berni, Christine. “Taking an Axe to History: The Historical Lizzie Borden and the Postmodern Historiography of Angela Carter.” CLIO: A Journal of Literature, History, and the Philosophy of History 27, no. 1 (fall 1997): 29-55.

In the following essay, Berni reads Carter's short story “The Fall River Axe Murders” as a commentary on traditional literary and historical representations of the past.

Immortalized in the grisly economy of a children's rhyme, Lizzie Borden's legend continues to fascinate. Since the axe murders occurred in 1892, Borden's story has been dramatized on stage and screen, in novels, short stories, and poems. She has achieved the status of cult figure and feminist heroine, her name adopted by radical film-makers and rock bands alike. Feminist film-maker Linda Borden, for example, of Working Girls fame, has long adopted Lizzie's first name, and the all-female rock band “Lizzie Borden and the Axes” made the rounds in Boston in...