The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film and Media Studies Series)

by Barry Keith Grant

Overview

An undying procession of sons of Dracula and daughters of darkness has animated the horror film genre from the beginning. Indeed, in this pioneering exploration of the cinema of fear, Barry Keith Grant and twenty other film critics posit that horror is always rooted in gender, particularly in anxieties about sexual difference and gender politics.

The book opens with the influential theoretical works of Linda Williams, Carol J. Clover, and Barbara Creed. Subsequent essays explore the history of the genre, from classic horror such as King Kong and Bride of Frankenstein to the more recent Fatal Attraction and Bram Stoker's Dracula. Other topics covered include the work of horror auteurs David Cronenberg, Dario Argento, and George Romero; the Aliens trilogy; and the importance of gender in relation to horror marketing and reception.

Other contributors include Vera Dika, Thomas Doherty, Lucy Fischer, Christopher
Sharrett, Vivian Sobchack, Tony Williams, and Robin Wood. Writing across a full range of critical methods from classic psychoanalysis to feminism and postmodernism, they balance theoretical generalizations with close readings of films and discussions of figures associated with the genre.

The Dread of Difference demonstrates that horror is hardly a uniformly masculine discourse. As these essays persuasively show, not only are horror movies about patriarchy and its fear of the feminine, but they also offer feminist critique and pleasure.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292727946
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	12/01/1996
Series:	Texas Film Studies Series
Edition description:	Older Edition
Pages:	456
Product dimensions:	6.03(w) x 9.15(h) x 1.16(d)

About the Author

Editor Barry Keith Grant is Director of the Film Studies Program at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Part One
1. When the Woman Looks (Linda Williams)
2. Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection (Barbara Creed)
3. Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film (Carol J. Clover)
Part Two
4. "It Will Thrill You, It May Shock You, It Might Even Horrify You": Gender, Reception, and Classic Horror Cinema (Rhona J. Berenstein)
5. Bringing It All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange (Vivian Sobchack)
6. Trying to Survive on the Darker Side: 1980s Family Horror (Tony Williams)
7. Genre, Gender, and the Aliens Trilogy (Thomas Doherty)
8. Taking Back the Night of the Living Dead: George Romero, Feminism, and the Horror Film (Barry Keith Grant)
9. Gender, Genre, Argento (Adam Knee)
10. "Beyond the Veil of the Flesh": Cronenberg and the Disembodiment of Horror (Lianne McLarty)
11. The Horror Film in Neoconservative Culture (Christopher Sharrett)
Part Three
12. Horror, Femininity, and Carrie's Monstrous Puberty (Shelley Stamp Lindsey)
13. The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People (Karen Hollinger)
14. Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Gender and Race in Bride of Frankenstein (Elizabeth Young)
15. King Kong: The Beast in the Boudoir or, "You Can't Marry That Girl, You're a Gorilla!" (Harvey Roy Greenberg)
16. The Stepfather: Father as Monster in the Contemporary Horror Film (Patricia Brett Erens)
17. Burying the Undead: The Use and Obsolescence of Count Dracula (Robin Wood)
18. Daughters of Darkness: The Lesbian Vampire on Film (Bonnie Zimmerman)
19. From Dracula-with Love (Vera Dika)
20. The Place of Passion: Reflections on Fatal Attraction (James Conlon)
21. Birth Traumas: Parturition and Horror in Rosemary's Baby (Lucy Fischer)
Selected Bibliography
Notes on Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

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From the Publisher