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November 1996, Week 2

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Subject:
From:
David Conner <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 8 Nov 1996 14:00:25 -0500
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Tanita,
 
I think you'll find that practically all recent (i. e. since the Seventies)
academic criticism of the horror film genre has something to do with
sexuality since most of it draws heavily on psychoanalysis.
 
A good place to start might be Robin Wood's chapter "The American Nightmare"
in his Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. He gives a solid introduction to
some basic psychoanalytic concepts in horror film crit, and offers a great
disc. of another 30s horror film, Murders in the Rue Morgue.
 
For a little more sophistication in this vein (*ahem*), you might want to
look at some of the criticism from the Screen school of film theory. Roger
Dadoun has a great piece on the Universal version of Dracula (sorry, I can't
find the exact ref.) which has been reprinted, I believe, in the BFI
publication, Fantasy and Cinema. Barbara Creed was also writing a lot on
horror around this time, and her very insightful essays have been collected
in her book, The Monstrous Feminine.
 
For more recent, (post?)feminist, less directly psychoanalytic treatments of
sexuality in horror films, look at Carol Clover's Men, Women and Chainsaws -
perhaps not directly relevant for you since it's on the slasher film, but a
milestone work for horror film criticism. More apropos might be Rhona
Berenstein's recent book, Attack of the Leading Ladies, which concentrates
almost exclusively on classic horror from the Thirties. Also very
interesting is Judith Halberstam's Skin Shows, which tries to offer a
different paradigm for the study of sexuality in the horror film and other
gothic forms.
 
Finally, if you really want to go off the theory deep-end, Slavoj Zizek does
a fascinating neo-Lacanian reading of The Phantom of the Opera (though he
concentrates on the novel) in his "Grimaces of the Real" chapter of Enjoy
Your Symptom!
 
Hope this helps, and sorry in advance for any repetition.
 
David Conner
UCSC, History of Consciousness
 
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