A cultural analysis of the contemporary horror film as genre.
Item
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Title
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A cultural analysis of the contemporary horror film as genre.
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Identifier
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AAI9130362
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identifier
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9130362
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Creator
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Pinedo, Isabel Cristina.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michael Brown
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Date
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1991
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, General | Cinema | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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The postmodern horror genre escapes the taboos which constrain other representational practices. As a taboo-violating practice, the genre is a site of contradictions, and thus exposes the gendered social relations which have to be repressed in other sorts of films. It is only through violation that the conditions of representational practice become evident, and this is precisely what horror does. It presents the female body in the moment of violation, thus exposing the taken-for-granted, gendered representational practices of classical Hollywood cinema.;The genre is a form of popular culture which indulges in an examination of the culturally repressed. Specifically, this genre, more explicitly than most, breaks down gender as a binary term in the process of spectator identification. Spectatorial pleasure derives, not from the fixity but, from the oscillation between masculine and feminine positionings. Cross-gender identification--female (audience) identification with the male (gaze) and male (audience) identification with the female (gaze)--is central to the pleasure of the genre. Thus, the genre provides an opportunity to subvert fundamental operations of cultural repression. It is this very quality--the breakdown of repression--which forms the basis for the popularity of the genre.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
