The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis

ISBN-13: 9780415052597 / Angielski / Miękka / 1993 / 216 str.

Barbara Creed

Opis

In almost all critical writings on the horror film, woman is conceptualized only as victim. In The Monstrous-Feminine, Barbara Creed challenges the mythical patriarchal view that woman terrifies because she is castrated, by arguing that woman primarily terrifies because of a fear that she might castrate. With close reference to a number of classic horror films including Alien, The Brood, The Hunger, Carrie, The Exorcist, Sisters, I Spit on Your Grave and Psycho, she presents a sustained analysis of the seven faces of the monstrous-feminine from a feminist and psychoanalytic perspective, discussing woman as monster in relation to woman as archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator. Her argument disrupts Freudian and Lacanian theories of sexual difference, as well as existing theories of spectatorship and fetishism in relation to the male and female gaze in the cinema, to provide a challenging and provocative re-reading of classical and contemporary film and theoretical texts.

Spis treści

Part I Faces of the Monstrous-Feminine: Abjection and the Maternal INTRODUCTION 1 KRISTEVA, FEMININITY, ABJECTION 2 HORROR AND THE ARCHAIC MOTHER: ALIEN 3 WOMAN AS POSSESSED MONSTER: THE EXORCIST 4 WOMAN AS MONSTROUS WOMB: THE BROOD 5 WOMAN AS VAMPIRE: THE HUNGER 6 WOMAN AS WITCH: CARRIE Part II Medusa's Head: Psychoanalytic Theory and the Femme Castratrice, 7 'LITTLE HANS' RECONSIDERED: OR THE TALE OF MOTHERS TERRIFYING WIDDLER' 8 MEDUSA'S HEAD: THE VAGINA DENTATA ANDFREUDIAN THEORY 9 THE FEMME CASTRATRICE: I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, SISTERS 10 THE CASTRATING MOTHER: PSYCHO 11 THE MEDUSA'S GAZE

O autorze

Barbara Creed (Author)