House of Horrors: Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction

by Agnieszka Kotwasinska

Overview

An analysis of intimate relationships in modern American horror fiction.

This is a study of tumultuous transformations of kinship and intimate relationships in American horror fiction over the last three decades. Twelve contemporary novels are grouped into four familiar thematic clusters—haunted houses, monsters, vampires, and hauntings—but it is primarily social scripts and concerns linked to intimacy and family life that structure the volume.
 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781837720125
Publisher:	University of Wales Press
Publication date:	09/14/2023
Series:	Horror Studies
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Agnieszka Kotwasińska is assistant professor at the American Studies Center, University of Warsaw.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Defining Horror
Horror and the Gothic
Women Writers in Horror Fiction and Horror Studies
Defining Intimacy
Overview of Chapters
Chapter 1. Uncanny in the House of Fear
Introduction
Uncanny Houses
Void Dreams in Dead in the Water
Unhomely Funhole in The Cipher
The Queer (Uncanny) Desire in Drawing Blood
Conclusions
Chapter 2. Grotesque Monsters and Hybrid Subjectivities
Introduction
Grotesque Bodies
Hybrid Lesbian Bodies in The Drowning Girl
Male Grotesque in Sineater
Monstrous Girlhood in The Rust Maidens
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Blood(y) Ties in Vampire Fictions
Introduction
Towards Abjection
Gilda’s Sensual Vampires
Escaping the ‘Little Wife’ in Black Ambrosia
Prodigal Children (Not) Coming Home
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Spectral Kinship and Ghostly Selves
Introduction
The Ghostly Other in Horror Fiction
Dangerous Dis/possessions in Come Closer
The ‘Wandering Subject’ in The Between
Familial Disintegration in Within These Walls
Conclusion
Afterword
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Editorial Reviews

"Theoretically savvy and demonstrating an impressive command of Gothic Horror, Kotwasińska’s analysis of kinship, intimacy, and corporeality in women’s horror makes clear how ideas of family often act as sources of dread rather than comfort in the work of Kathe Koja, Poppy Z. Brite, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Tananarive Due and others. This is an essential contribution to the study of modern horror."

Central Michigan University Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock