The contradictions at the heart of the spider's symbolism fascinated the Argentinian writer Manuel Puig (1932-90), who placed it at the centre of his most famous work, Kiss of the Spider Woman. This story of the unlikely friendship between two cellmates - Valentin, a Marxist revolutionary, and Molina, a gay man who sees himself as a woman - has gone through several incarnations. The novel was published in Spain in 1974, having first been banned in the author's homeland. In 1985 the film version, starring William Hurt and Raul Julia, earned Hurt an Oscar and brought the tale to a wider audience.
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