FILM VIOLENCE: History, Ideology, Genre - James Kendrick

Wallflower

(Short Cuts)

144 pages

            I already gave a recommendation for this book in the June issue of RUE MORGUE, but I think it deserves a more detailed review, so here's a longer, cyber-version.

            FILM VIOLENCE is another in a long line of concise & condensed studies, or at least clever overviews, of significant film topics, themes and (sub)genres coming from Wallflower. It is number 45 in their ever-growing Short Cuts series. I've already covered some previous titles here, like FILM GENRE: From Iconography to Ideology by Barry Keith Grant.

            The book is divided into four chapters. Part one deals with "What do we mean by 'film violence'?" and maps the complexity of the problem. First and foremost, Mr. Kendrick presents the topic as crucial to understanding cinema itself, since violence in all its guises is inherent to the flickering, "moving" image (violence on the technological level: light piercing the eyeball and deluding the brain with a deception of life). More obviously, it is linked to the necessity for drama and conflict in what is basically narrative art. Furthermore, "understanding film violence is central to understanding the social and historical role of the cinema" (p. 4). 

The author endeavors (and succeeds) in his attempt to provide a general foundation for understanding film violence from historical, ideological and generic perspectives, which entails looking at how film violence has affected and been affected by governmental policies, box-office receipts, gender difference, shifting notions of genre, well-known auteurs, changes in narrative and broad social trends. Violence, for Mr. Kendrick, is a "complex signifier" and he consistently refuses monolithic definitions, preferring its presentation as a complex mode of signification that needs to be thoroughly grounded in historical, cultural and industrial contexts as well as subjective experience. 

            Chapter two traces the depiction of film violence from the silent era until the present day, focusing on aesthetic innovations (special effects, slow motion etc) and various social responses to it. As the author puts it, "people have been shooting and stabbing and slaughtering each other onscreen since the movies began, and the only difference between then and now is that filmmakers have adopted and made conventional increasingly graphic means of depicting these violent behaviors" (p. 14). The crucial shift comes in the 1960s, when explicit cinematic violence ventured from the disreputable grindhouse B-movies into the respectable mainstream – first in Europe and Japan (esp. samurai films), then in the USA, too (largely thanks to Hitchcock's PSYCHO and BIRDS).

            Chapter three focuses on how violence was used in several of Hollywood's most popular genres (western, horror and action). Representation of violence in these genres is connected to their ideological functions and their changes over time. Horror is dealt with in about 10 pages, with special stress put on concepts of taboo, monstrosity and transgression (thematic, ideological and visual).  

Mr. Kendrick's brief analysis of Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankenstein (1973) is rather unconvincing and problematic: this film is labeled "reactionary" because it offers "a sharp critique of excess in any form, particularly meaningless sexual excess" (p. 87). So it would seem, according to Mr. Kendrick, that "meaningless sexual excess" should, actually, be presented as progressive? Morrissey's film is called "conservative" because of its ironic stance towards the sexual revolution of its time. This is reminiscent of Robin Wood's famous misunderstanding of Cronenberg's early horror films, criticized for being against the "liberal" party line according to which meaningless sexual excess was progressive and deserved all the praise. This is surprisingly narrow-minded in an otherwise quite decent overview of the role of violence in horror film and various theoretical approaches attendant to it.

            Finally, chapter four offers a case study of the central role of violence in the films of directors of the New American Cinema in the 1970s, also known as The Film-School Generation (F. F. Coppola, Martin Scorcese, Paul Schrader, Brian de Palma...) and shows how they have reworked classical representations of violence to distinguish themselves from the previous generations of filmmakers. With this chapter the book ends somewhat abruptly, without conclusion of any kind. Instead, there are helpful items like selected Filmography, Bibliography and Index.

            FILM VIOLENCE: History, Ideology, Genre is a scholarly text, but it is clear and highly readable for those who are not film students. Its arguments are well supported with a wide selection of quotes from relevant studies on the subject so that it provides a rich overview of the variety of implications that film violence can have. As such, it is vastly informative and educational, insightful and revelatory to all readers interested in one of the essential cinematic traits, fundamental for understanding cinema itself.

FILM GENRE: From Iconography to Ideology - Barry Keith Grant

Wallflower (Short Cuts)

London and New York, 2007

132 pp

 

by

DEJAN OGNJANOVIC

 

This book is another one in the long and precious series 'Short Cuts' by Wallflower, made up of short guides to various aspects of cinema. The series includes titles like CRIME FILM: Investigating The Scene, SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: Such Things as Dreams Are Made Of, WAR CINEMA: Hollywood on the Front Line, THE NEW HOLLYWOOD: From Bonnie and Clyde to Star Wars, FILM NOIR: From Berlin to Sin City, THE HORROR GENRE: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch and dozens of others.

            The high standards established in the previous books are met in this one as well. No big surprise since the author, Barry Keith Grant, is the professor of Popular Culture and Film at Brock University and is one of the leading authorities on film genre – among other things, he is the editor of the three huge volumes of the indispensable FILM GENRE READER. No wonder, then, that he provides this highly readable, informative and authoritative introduction to all issues pertaining to the question of genre.

            Mr. Grant opens the book reminding us that the term genre has at least three major meanings: 1) it refers to a particular mode of film production, 2) it is a convenient consumer index announcing the kind of content to be expected in a given film, and 3) it is a critical concept, mapping out the taxonomy of popular film and pop culture in general. Then he goes on to analyze the term on the level of the generic system (the relation of individual genres to each other and to Hollywood production in general), individual genres (defining individual genres and their common elements) and individual films (reading specific films in their generic context).

            Genre as a concept is placed in its context within the popular culture and its origin is found in the classical studio system from 1920ies to 1950ies., with their economy of expression (through recognizable iconography and conventions) as the key factor in their market value. The studio system provided a stable context for filmmakers to work with consistency and to be creative and expressive within the given confines. The key elements of genre are recognized in conventions, iconography, setting, types of stories and characters, stories and themes. These are all illustrated with examples from well-known genre films.

            Never losing itself in abstractions and definitions, this guide constantly goes back to examples, providing minute case studies to elaborate a given concept: thus, film noir, the musical and horror film are among those singled out to illustrate the application of various theoretical tools in their understanding. Special place is given to analysis of genre and its role in society: genre is basically seen as a modern myth in which gathering in front of the cinema screen has the same purposes that in previous centuries gatherings around the fire were used. Of course, these shared dreams, hopes, fears and values are liable to be abused, and Mr. Grant pays due attention to various ideological uses of generic stories.

            The common complaint implied in the dichotomy: genre vs. art is explained and convincingly negated by the case study of John Ford and his use of the western genre conventions for his idiosyncratic style. It is even better supported by the case studies of Howard Hawks, as another 'genre director' who managed to be an 'author' at the same time, and of Fritz Lang and his peculiar use of genre. The chapter on gender and genre provides a very interesting modern reading of such action classics as DIE HARD and BLUE STEEL and the book concludes with a brief chapter on the genres outside of Hollywood: Italian 'spaghetti western', Hong Kong action films, Japanese samurai and monster movies, etc. Sadly, the book is limited to Hollywood's genres, and not enough space is given to their influence on film genres in Europe and Asia, which is merely hinted.

            If you're theoretically inclined, this book provides an invaluable essence of all varieties of approaches to genre and its meaning. At the same time, FILM GENRE is a clear, easily understandable, well-supported account of what a genre means and how it accomplishes what it set out to do. Because of that, it can serve as an eye-opener to any genre film buff out there who may not have wondered about the possible ideological readings of his or her favorite entertainment. No entertainment is innocent and no genre film is 'just for fun': Barry Keith Grant's books reminds us of the uses and abuses of generic iconography and of hidden meanings inherent to our favorite genres. That's why it is strongly recommended to every student of popular culture and to every cinemagoer who doesn't leave their brain at the box office.

PROMETHEUS (2012)

Ghoul's rating: 3/5

PROMETHEUS is pretty far from what it could and should have been, and from what we had the right to expect from Ridley Scott and his premise. However, despite all its problems, it still represents a very rare, almost unique breed of filmmaking which definitely deserves to be enjoyed in the cinema theater, not at home. That which is undoubtedly great - pompous scenery, spectacular space ships, alien landscapes, special effects and the like - can be experienced only on the big screen. If you should see one movie in the cinema in the coming days / weeks, it's definitely PROMETHEUS. But do not forget to enter the cinema with reduced expectations. Try not to be influenced by the hype machine and, if possible, to forget the heights achieved by ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER some 30-35 years ago. PROMETHEUS is a decent, intriguing, somewhat exciting film, but it's far from a masterpiece.

It is good enough that it shouldn't be spoilt for you, and I certainly don't want to do that. This is the reason why, instead of a thorough analysis, at this point I offer only the listing of the film's major qualities and faults, without arguments, examples and spoiler material which would be inevitable if I were to illustrate my points with examples from the film.

So, these are the best elements of the film:

+ A good concept, intriguing ideas, more (sporadic) intelligence displayed than in the average recent American blockbuster.

+ Excellent visual component, especially in areas based on the designs by H. R. Giger.

+ Exceptional visual effects, excellent make-up efx and creatures.

+ Intriguing character of David (the android) and wonderful acting by Michael Fassbender portraying him.

+ At least one "mystery" from ALIEN is now clarified: the nature and purpose of the "Space Jockey", and indirectly, those of alien xenomorphs themselves.

+ Good pacing, no boredom; a fluent and entertaining film.

On the other hand, these are the film's main problems:

- Viewed as a prequel to ALIEN (which it definitely is), PROMETHEUS is unsatisfactory both in terms of ideas and overall effect.

- The plot is designed as if this were a pilot episode for a series, not a separate film; too many crucial issues at the core of the plot remain vague, underdeveloped and unsatisfying.

- A number of illogical situations and unmotivated behavior, inadequate to the context, including an amazingly chaotic disregard for basic procedures appropriate for such an expedition (security, weapons, quarantine, the principle of subordination, command line, etc).

- Blatantly unfounded and unconvincing motivation for the trillionaire Weyland to jumpstart the entire long, complicated and expensive expedition, which motivation remains unchallenged even when the hostile nature of the planet's environment and the Engineers themselves become more than apparent.

- Ambivalent, vague motivation for the android.

- Too much freedom in the departments of physics and physiology of both human and nonhuman organisms; credibility and physical probability are dramatically stretched almost to the realm of miracles and fairy tales.

- Lack of clear and firm rules regarding the "anything goes" liquid in the alien vessels; haphazard modes of reproduction and life cycles of different creatures resulting from contact with it.

- The conclusion is too rushed, with plenty of action, sound and fury, but with progressively less and less sense, tension and emotional involvement towards the end.

- A terribly bad ending (the last five minutes).

- Not enough Giger: they re-used his old, well-known designs for ALIEN, but they did not hire him to produce anything really new and unseen. The non-Giger visuals are okay, but far from memorable and unique like Giger's.

To conclude: it is fine to see a film brave enough to be playful with big questions and occasional nihilism and blasphemy, but it's a pity that nothing much is really done with those, probably leaving a lot for the sequel which may or may not happen. The film's main problem is trying to merge an ALIEN-like horror film with a concept which would've been better off without the forced links to ALIEN mythology. The result is neither a gripping, suspenseful horror nor is it a very clever Sci-Fi film of big ideas: PROMETHEUS is middling in both departments. Still, it is not entirely a failure, there is some courage and cleverness amid the silly clichés and forced scenes, and PROMETHEUS deserves to be seen – but, like I said, with lowered expectations.

SPEAKING OF MONSTERS: A Teratological Anthology

Edited by Caroline Joan S. Picart and John Edgar Browning

Hardcover: 336 pages  

Palgrave Macmillan

Available from 20 July 2012

            I am pleased to announce SPEAKING OF MONSTERS: A Teratological Anthology, a wonderful new book of theory of horror edited by renowned scholars, coming from a prestigious academic publisher and filled with intriguing essays by the leading scholars in the field. I'm honored to have my essay on postmodern slashers (esp. HAUTE TENSION) included in this anthology. Listed below you'll find literally "who's who" in today's horror theory!

            Brief description of the book follows.

Despite its apparently monolithic definition, 'teratology' (from the Greek words teras, meaning 'monster,' and logos, meaning 'a speaking, discourse, treatise, doctrine, theory, science') seems infinitely malleable, flourishing in various rhetorical environments. Teratologies are more than a bestiary: a catalogue of 'freaks' designed to celebrate the 'normal.' Rather, teratologies illustrate how humor, horror, fantasy and the 'real' cross-fertilize each other, resulting in the possibility of new worlds, ethics, and narratives, emerging. As a general anthology of teratologies, this book simply maps what, in many ways, has already been occurring across several fields, as it tracks the expansion of this term, creating lacunae that form connections across multiple interpretive communities. It is a cross section of how "monster narratives" intersect with "outsider" positions, from different perspectives - such as those of literary critics, film critics, criminologists, law professors, historians, philosophers - and looks into various strategies of destabilizing normative binaries.

CONTENTS:

Introduction: On Monstrosity and Multiculturalism - Caroline Joan ('Kay') S. Picart and John Edgar Browning

PART 1: GENERAL THEORIES OF MONSTROSITY

Monster Culture (Seven Theses) - Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

Dread, Taboo, and The Thing (1982): Toward a Social Theory of the Horror Film - Stephen Prince

Nightmare and the Horror Film: The Symbolic Biology of Fantastic Beings - Noël Carroll

Our Vampires, Our Neighbors - Ken Gelder

'Psychological Thriller': Dead of Night (1945), British Film Culture, and the 1940s Horror Cycle - Mark Jancovich

PART 2: TERATOLOGIES OF NATIONALITY AND RACE

Monsters in the Literary Traditions of Asia: A Critical Appraisal - Andrew Hock-Soon Ng

Slayer as Monster in Blood+ (2005-2006) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003) - Margaret L. Carter

'Shapeless Deformity': Monstrosity, Visibility, and Racial Masquerade in Thomas Grattan's Cagot's Hut (1823) - Daniel Novak

PART 3: IN BETWEEN FEAR AND DESIRE

Apt Pupil (1998): The Hollywood Nazi-As-Monster Flick - Caroline Joan ('Kay') S. Picart and David Frank

Demons Driven: Religious Teratologies - Jason C. Bivins

An Age of Mechanical Destruction: Power Tools and the Monstrous in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre Films - Ian Conrich

PART 4: QUEER THEORY AND BOUNDARY CROSSINGS

'Way Too Gay to Be Ignored?': The Production and Reception of Queer Horror Cinema in the Twenty-First Century - Harry Benshoff

Seed of Chucky: Transbiology and the Horror Flick - Judith ('Jack') Halberstam

PART 5: CRIMINOLOGY, LAW, AND TERATOLOGIES: BETWEEN THE REAL AND THE REEL

Stage Four: Virulency - Lonnie H. Athens

Profiling the Terrorist as a Mass Murderer - Caroline Joan ('Kay') S. Picart and Cecil E. Greek

What Makes Stalking Monsters So Monstrous, and How to Survive Them? - Ôrît Kāmîr

Race and Serial Killing in the Media: The Case of Wayne Williams - Caroline Joan ('Kay') S. Picart

PART 6: THE BIOLOGICAL MONSTROUS AND GENDER: THE HUMAN-ANIMAL-MACHINE DIVIDES

''Nature Abhors Normality': Theories of the Monstrous from Aristotle to The X-Files (1993-2002) - Kathleen Long

Monster Spawn of Animal Experimentation in the Early Work of H. G. Wells: On the Containment of Psychopathic Violence as Preliminary to the Onset of the Capacity for Mourning - Laurence A. Rickels

Why Is the Tension So High? The Monstrous Feminine in (Post)Modern Slasher Films - Dejan Ognjanović

Blood and Bitches: Sexual Politics and the Female Lycanthrope in Young Adult Fiction - June Pulliam

PART 7: TERATOLOGIES AND ETHICS

The Queer Ethics of Monstrosity - Patricia MacCormack

Reopening the Question of the Human and the Animal - Dominick LaCapra

Where Reality and Fantasy Meet and Bifurcate: Holocaust Themes in Pan's Labyrinth (2006), X-Men (2000), and V (1983) - Caroline Joan ('Kay') S. Picart, John Edgar Browning, and Carla María Thomas

            About the editors:

CAROLINE JOAN (KAY) S. PICART formerly a tenured Associate Professor of English and Humanities at Florida State University, USA, is a Juris Doctor Candidate at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and an Adjunct Professor of Humanities at Santa Fe College. She is also currently Editor-in-chief of the Florida Journal of International Law and articles editor of the Journal of Technology Law and Policy. She has authored and co-authored/co-edited 14 books, including Monsters in and Among Us: Towards a Gothic Criminology (2007), Frames of Evil: The Holocaust as Horror in American Film (2009), Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms (2009), and Dracula in Visual Media (2010) - winner of the 2011 Lord Ruthven Award.

JOHN EDGAR BROWNING, PhD student and Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow in American Studies at SUNY-Buffalo, USA. He has co-written eight books, including Draculas, Vampires, and Other Undead Forms (2009), Dracula in Visual Media (2010, winner of the 2011 Lord Ruthven Award), and The Vampire, His Kith and Kin: A Critical Edition (2011).

Reviews

"This book is a must-read for students and scholars of teratology, monsters, the fantastic, and the detested other. Spanning a fascinating gulf of disciplines and genres, the authors illustrate just how interconnected we are with the monsters in our midst and the extent to which our understandable desire to define ourselves in opposition to the monstrous both creates and destroys the barriers between the human and the other. This book will change the way you think about crime, victimhood, knowledge, the normal, and our own place in the universe. From Dracula to the Holocaust, from gender to disability, this book challenges our own belief in the possibility of self-knowledge and questions the foundations of our self-defined humanity.'

- Danaya C. Wright, Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law, Levin College of Law, University of Florida

"All too often topics are betrayed in their treatment - creativity is discussed unimaginatively, art is approached unartfully or even artlessly, philosophy itself taken up thoughtlessly (at least without sufficiently sustained, probing thoughtfulness). Not so in this instance. Indeed, the category of monstrosity is itself monstrous. It is at once dependent upon traditional distinctions between the normal and a forever shifting array of opposites and in conflict with those historically entrenched dichotomies. The essays in this volume exhibit in detail the monstrous - in the sense of both the frighteningly huge and fiercely unsettling - force of this philosophical category. They do so in reference to a broad spectrum of cultural phenomena. The editors' finely crafted introduction however provides a useful map to this vast terrain.'

- Vincent Colapietro, Liberal Arts Research Professor of Philosophy, The Pennsylvania State University

"This collection of essays offers more than a unique contribution to social theory - it is a comprehensive framework for understanding how humans construct otherness. The work is critical for law since judges, police, and other legal actors repeatedly construct the criminal as monster, which lays the foundation for punishment that knows no bounds, including death. In an age of mass incarceration and fears of terrorism, this work is as timely as it is fascinating."  

- SpearIt, Assistant Professor of Law, Saint Louis University, School of Law

If you click HERE, you can download a PDF sample, with the full table of CONTENTS, the entire INTRODUCTION + the INDEX, to give you a better idea of the book.

SPEAKING OF MONSTERS will be available from 20 July 2012.

THE EVIL DEAD – Kate Egan

Wallflower Press, 2011

120 pages

On this blog and elsewhere I've already sung praises to the Cultographies series of books, namely, to those devoted to Bad Taste, by Jim Barratt, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, by Jeffrey Weinstock, Donnie Darko, by Geoff King and This Is Spinal Tap, by Ethan De Seife. 

Well, good news: here's the latest batch of titles from the same series, dealing with Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, by Ian Cooper, Blade Runner, by Matt Hills, Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, by Glyn Davis and - The Evil Dead, by Kate Egan. Cultographies is published by Wallflower Press, home of independent specialist publishing across the full spectrum of cinema and the moving image.

Since this blog deals mostly with horror, it was inevitable that the first book to check out from the new series should be the one devoted to the cult-favorite, The Evil Dead. How is it, you wonder? Briefly, it's pretty good, approximately on the level of the first batch – with some asides and drawbacks which have less to do with the quality of writing and research as they have with the selected title itself.

One problem is that there already exists an exhaustive account of the origin and making of the cult of The Evil Dead – and that is Bill Warren's The Evil Dead Companion (2000). It is a deep well of information about all things relevant to how a small film that could became the root of a legend – and established Sam Raimi as one of the major filmmakers of today (at least as far as Hollywood blockbusters are concerned). The truth and legends of creating a cult constitute a large part of its appeal – but with that ground already covered, and exhaustively, Kate Egan decides not to try the impossible, and deals with this aspect (the production) in barest terms.

Another problem is that the book is devoted to the original film, whose position in the canon is somewhat questionable for many fans, since it was its sequel - Evil Dead II – which established the huge cult and become the favorite part of what became a trilogy (so far). Kate Egan addresses this fact and deals with it respectably. This means that she deals with the effect of retroactive cult-making, when the sequels strengthen the status of the original film, "the illicit little brother" (called so due to its crude low budget origins and various goofs of the inexperienced crew). As she puts it: "The wider popularity of the two sequels has therefore served, for many fans and critics, to further emphasize the low-budget, amateur qualities of The Evil Dead and to turn it into the neglected and marginalized bad little brother of the trilogy: the film that has retained a 'cult' following and thus fully deserves, even for those who prefer the sequels, the 'cult' badge of honor" (p. 52).

Finally, another problem with The Evil Dead is that this particular film is intrinsically critic-proof. Unlike literally all the other films covered in the Cultographies series, this one had absolutely nothing on its mind in terms of subtext (in this regard it is closest to Bad Taste). The "ideological ambiguity" that many critics recognized in reference to cult movies in this case should be virtual "ideological irrelevance". For this reason the author's analysis of gender issues ("a particularly male nightmare" – since Ash's opponents are mostly possessed women) seems a bit forced, and the same can be said for the attempts to connect The Evil Dead's cosmos with the worldview of H. P. Lovecraft. Both of these make some sense mostly if a sequence or two are taken out of context, but not very much if the film is viewed as whole. 

To her credit, Kate Egan grudgingly admits that her attempted readings are "complicated" by the film's anarchic qualities. Even more, some of those readings are presented in a convincing manner, as when she discusses the use of grotesque splatstick humor for creating malevolent Lovecraftian implications for the characters and the world they inhabit, "a perspective from which all human life (including romance and sex) is meaningless and all the characters, including Ash, are ultimately at the mercy of the abyss of irrational evil that the demons represent in the film" (p. 86).

The Evil Dead is convincingly contextualized in various terms:

- in its director's opus (trying out the film technique and drawing attention to himself as the main driving forces behind it),

- in the horror genre (especially its connection to comedy),

- the generic trends (the rise of special make-up efx extravaganzas in early 1980s; the significance of genre magazines like Fangoria and genre conventions as further venues for cultivating the cult),

- the distribution practices and media (the decline of drive-in, the rise of video market),

- the role of new technologies and media (DVD and internet as tools for enhancing and prolonging the cult),

- controversies of reception ("video nasty" label in UK) and evaluation (retroactive effect of sequels upon the original film's perception), etc.

A strong emphasis is put on internet forums, especially comments from IMDb users, many of whom would be surprised to find themselves quoted in a publication like this one. The analysis of their comments serves to demonstrate and illustrate the cult-audience response to this trilogy, but perhaps these quotes occupy a bit too much space of this brief study to be really relevant. Since there are literally thousands of such, throughout message boards all across the internet, these samples are at the same time too few and too many. Perhaps a serious statistical analysis of those remains for a researcher with some other goals.

All in all, this is another valuable addition to a quality series: if you liked the previous books you'll probably be satisfied with this one, too.

PS: It's a pity that this book is "illustrated" literally with thumbnail photos (approx. size 1,5 x 1 inch). Because of this one can barely guess what's presented on them. But then again, real fans know this film by heart, right? Who needs huge pics anyway?

HISTORICAL POETICS OF HORROR GENRE

             I got my doctoral degree in Literature at Belgrade's Faculty of Philology (English Department) on February 22. My PhD mentor was Prof. Dr. Zoran Paunović, and the title of my dissertation is HISTORICAL POETICS OF HORROR GENRE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE. Basically, its 470 pages cover the rise and development of horror literature in English from Gothic until 21st century with close analysis of selected representative key works and their poetics. This is the first academic degree in Serbia received for a disertation on horror genre.

            Below you can see this dissertation's summary and contents, illustrated with photos from the PhD ceremony.

           

HISTORICAL POETICS OF HORROR GENRE IN ANGLO-AMERICAN LITERATURE

SUMMARY

            This thesis is based on the following premises: a) there is a kind of prose devoted to eliciting fear in its readers; b) the works belonging to it constitute a distinctive literary genre; c) this kind of prose was first shaped into a distinctive genre in the form of English Gothic novel, in the second half of the 18th century; d) there is a clear and recognizable formal and poetical continuity from Gothic novel to today's horror literature; e) therefore, Gothic novel is considered an early historical stage in the development of horror genre.

            The thesis assumes that horror is a complex aesthetic construct whose poetics and development were influenced by a variety of historical and aesthetic factors, so that it can only be fully understood by taking into account its predecessors and influences and by viewing its aesthetic distinction (elicting fear in the reader by specific themes and narrative devices) in the cultural and historical contexts that shaped it from late 18th until early 21st century within Anglo-American literature.

            Horror is defined as a type of fictional narrative prose defined by three key factors: particular themes (the clash between the homely known and the threatening unknown Other), adequate motifs (related to various emanations of Otherness, which may or may not belong to the fantastic mode) and aesthetic intent (causing fear, terror, suspense). The latter is realized in two ways: 1) through selection of appropriate themes and adequate motifs, and b) through a genre-specific rhetoric directed towards causing the reader to feel insecurity, fear, terror. The common motifs, themes and rhetorical tropes constitute a horror-specific horizon of expectations whose synchronic and diachronic variations move the generic boundaries while constantly reinvigorating the genre and creating genre-specific effect and meaning expectant within a specific cultural context which is defined by the triad: author, publisher and reader. 

            The poetics of genre is viewed as the result of merging the individual authors' poetics with specific extra-literary and extra-aesthetic influences which shape the fears dominant in certain periods as well as the modes of their artistic representation. Therefore, genre is not seen as merely aesthetic category, but is shown to be influenced by extra-literary influences such as: the cultural climate and dominant views and values, historical events, great discoveries and scientific theories, emergence of similar literary schools, movements and genres. This idea of genre is reflected in the methodology of this work: it is based on close reading and notions of aesthetics of reception by H. R. Jauss but also on literary history and history of art and culture in general, so as to define the contexts which shaped the literature of terror and enabled its greatest development precisely within Anglo-American literature. This approach answers the two basic questions related to any historical poetics: 1) What are the principles according to which works of art are constructed and by means of which they achieve particular effects? and 2) How and why have these principles arisen and changed in particular empirical circumstances?

            The structure of this work is shaped by the desire to present the poetics of horror in a clear and well-supported manner. Its first task is to define the key concepts like genre, aesthetic intent, horizon of expectations, romance, Gothic, gothic novel, horror and historical poetics. A general overview of the basic tendencies towards defining horror genre in theory in English is followed by a chapter devoted to rare attempts of doing the same in Serbian literary (and film) theory.

            After providing the theoretical basis for horror as a literary genre the thesis analyzes the origin of the poetics of horror in the form of Gothic novel, in its two phases: early Gothic, constituted by Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764) and late Gothic, represented by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818). The period of Gothic horror culminates with the works of American writer Edgar Allan Poe which have fundamentally reconstituted the Gothic tradition providing a modern, complex content and most appropriate form (short story).

This is followed by defining the classical period of horror and the dominant three varieties of horror poetics in it: the ghost story, exemplified by "The Turn of the Screw" (1898) by Henry James, Victorian neo-Gothic of Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) as the most typical and influential representative, and the "weird tale" of cosmic horror with its apex in the stories by H. P. Lovecraft (whose "The Colour from outer Space", 1927, is analyzed as its best example). All these works serve to re-examine and further develop the Gothic legacy, accommodated for the new societal, cultural and aesthetic circumstances of the late 19th and early 20th century.

The final part od the thesis deals with the modern horror literature, defines the horror bestseller phenomenon and analyzes the poetics of Stephen King (exemplified by his novel The Shining, 1977) which made him one of the bestselling authors of the 20th century and which, also, indirectly enabled an unprecedented expansion of horror fiction. It facilitated the rise and development of new original voices in modern horror fiction whose representative works are analyzed in the final chapters.

Analysis of each of the key variables of poetics of horror stresses the governing formal principles through which the aesthetic intention of horror genre is manifested, such as: identification, retardation, ellipsis, parallel plots and subplots, epistolar and/or diary form, unreliable narrator, indetermination, ambivalence and ambiguity, plot structure based on the race with time, gradation of horrific events, accumulation of apparently insignificant hints, clues and allusions, cognitive horror, strong allusiveness, unexpected plot twist. These formal elements can be found in works of other genres, too, but never in such number nor governed by the same aesthetic intent leading to the effect of causing fear.

This historical poetics of horror genre demonstrates the significance of horror fiction for Anglo-american literature. This genre is revalued as a legitimate, respectable kind of writing which has attracted numerous literary giants and whose themes, ideas and aesthetic qualities make it an equal and inseparable part of literature in general. Progressive ideas in the best horror fiction are reflected, among other things, in its attitude to the "monstrous" Other, i.e. in showing the complex interrelations the Otherness has with the representatives of authority of the community. One of the common effects of horror is contained in showing the fluidity of borders and limits: it is a genre defined by its questioning of boundaries, breaking down the taboos, unveiling the hidden, undesirable, nightmarish, irrational. The rich variety of horror themes can be reduced to one idea: what we consider known is actually interwoven with the unknown. The world is not what it seems; behind the veil of appearances there are other, threatening forces. We are not what we seem; behind the reflection in the mirror there is something else, which questions the powers of reason and morals. The clash between the known and the unknown initially causes fear, but this fear is not the ultimate goal of horror fiction: the result produced by the juxtaposition between the homely and the Other brings about the (cognitive) understanding and (emotional) catharsis to the reader.

           

CONTENTS:

1.  INTRODUCTION

2. DEFINITION OF BASIC CONCEPTS AND PROBLEMS

2.1. Defining basic concepts
2.11. Genre, aesthetic intention and "horizon of expectations"
2.12. Romance
2.13. Gothic / Gothic novel
2.14. Horror
2.15. Historical poetics

2.2. Defining the problem
2.21. Horror theory in English language
2.22. Horror theory in Serbian language

3. FROM GOTHIC TO HORROR: ORIGIN OF GENRE

3.1. Early Gothic
3.11. Horace Walpole: The Castle of Otranto - cultural climate, intention and reception
3.12. The Castle of Otranto and the rhetoric of horror
3.13. The legacy of Early Gothic

3.2 Late Gothic
3.21 Mary Shelley: Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus - the cultural climate, intention and reception
3.22 Frankenstein: the aesthetic and conceptual achievements
3.23 Frankenstein and the poetics of horror
3.24 Legacy of Late Gothic

3.3. Horror Story
3.31. Themes and motifs of American Gothic
3.32. Edgar Allan Poe and the poetics of short (horror) story
3.33. Thematic cycles of Poe's horror fiction
   3.331. Dead beloved woman
   3.332. "The Imp of the Perverse"
   3.333. Cosmic horror
3.34 Legacy of Poe's poetics of horror

4. HORROR: CLASSICAL PERIOD

4.1. Ghost story
4.11. The role of the supernatural in the works of Henry James
4.12. "The Turn of the Screw": intention and reception
4.13. Conceptual and aesthetic achievements of  "The Turn of the Screw"
4.14. Legacy of ghost story

4.2. Victorian neo-Gothic novel
4.21. Vampires in literature before Dracula
4.22. Bram Stoker's Dracula: intention and reception
4.23. Dracula: conceptual and aesthetic achievements
4.24. Legacy of Dracula and the neo-Gothic

4.3. "Weird Tales" of cosmic horror
4.31 H. P. Lovecraft's poetics of fantasy and horror
   4.311. Lovecraft's attitude towards science and fantasy
   4.312. Lovecraft and the horror tradition: influences and differences
   4.313. Lovecraft's style
   4.314. Reception of Lovecraft's poetics
4.32. The conceptual and aesthetic achievements of "The Color out of Space"
4.33. Legacy of Lovecraft's fiction

5. MODERN HORROR LITERATURE

5.1. Horror as best-seller
5.11. Stephen King and poetics of horror
   5.111. Stephen King and horror tradition
   5.112. Stephen King's poetics of horror
5.12. The Shining as a modern bestselling horror novel
5.13. Legacy of Stephen King's poetics of horror

5.2. Trends in modern horror fiction
5.21. Modern Gothic: Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter, Joyce Carol Oates
5.22. Psychological horror: Robert Bloch, Thomas Harris
5.23. Modern ghost story: Robert Aickman
5.24. Body horror: Clive Barker
5.25. The cosmic horror: Tomas Ligotti

6. CONCLUSION

7. BIBLIOGRAPHY