Reading American Horror Story: Essays on the Television Franchise

by Rebecca Janicker (Editor)

Overview

Looming onto the television landscape in 2011, American Horror Story gave viewers a weekly dose of psychological unease and gruesome violence. Embracing the familiar horror conventions of spooky settings, unnerving manifestations and terrifying monsters, series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk combine shocking visual effects with an engaging anthology format to provide a modern take on the horror genre.

This collection of new essays examines the series' contribution to television horror, focusing on how the show speaks to social concerns, its use of classic horror tropes and its reinvention of the tale of terror for the 21st century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476628929
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Publication date:	02/19/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	228
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Rebecca Janicker is a senior lecturer in film and media studies at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.
Rebecca Janicker is a senior lecturer in film and media studies at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part One: Industry and Culture
American Horror Stories, Repertory Horror and Intertextuality of Casting (Lorna Jowett)
Haunted History: American Horror Story as Gothic Tourism (Stacey Abbott)
Seasons, Family and Nation in American Horror Story (Derek Johnston)
Part Two: Issues of Representation
Static Femininity: Gender and Familial Representation
deleteMurder House (Nikki Cox)
The Minotaur, the Shears and the Melon Baller: Queerness and ­Self-Mortification in Coven (Kyle Ethridge)
“Wir sind alle freaks”: Elevating White Gay Male Oppression Through Representations of Disability (Carl Schottmiller)
Part Three: Genre Tropes and the Horror of History
“There’s a power in it. A power we can use”: Perpetuating the Past in Murder House (Rebecca Janicker)
“They were monsters”: The Alien Abduction Plotline and Race, Sexuality and Social Unrest in Asylum (Philip L. Simpson)
Piecing It Together: Genre Frameworks in American Horror
deleteStory (Emma Austin)
Nightmares Made in America: Coven and the Real American Horror Story (Conny Lippert)
Epilogue: Past Nightmares and Anticipated Horrors (Rebecca Janicker)
Glossary
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

American Horror Story, FX’s hit anthology series, has captured the imagination of viewers with its intriguing tales, quality writing, and noble actors.... [T]his collection explores the shows literary themes and social issues...as well as how series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Fulchuk use familiar horror tropes in innovative ways.”—Library Journal.

From the Publisher

05/01/2017
American Horror Story, FX's hit anthology series, has captured the imagination of viewers with its intriguing tales, quality writing, and notable actors. Edited by Janicker (film & media studies, Univ. of Portsmouth, UK; The Literary Haunted House), this collection of scholarly essays explores the show's literary themes and social issues within the context of the genre, as well as how series creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk use familiar horror tropes in innovative ways. The essays—written by academics from the United States and the UK—cover the first five seasons of the show, which airs its seventh season later this year. While contributors examine a variety of social topics such as racism, gender, and sexuality within the framework of such conventions as the haunted house, freak shows, and alien abductions, they also weave in the show's overarching theme of "the other" within traditional American society of the 1950s through today. VERDICT For literature and media studies students and fans who want to delve more deeply into the themes and characters of the show.—Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Library Journal