The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema: Youth Rebellion and Queer Spectatorship

ISBN-13: 9781137488503 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 193 str.

Andrew Scahill

Opis

Drawing together film theory, queer theory, childhood studies, and reception studies, The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema examines the "revolting child" in such films as The Bad Seed, Village of the Damned, Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Omen. It argues that monstrous child stands in for the queer child by taking on its various incarnations: the child with a secret, the child "taken over" by monstrosity in adolescence, the changeling child, and the cabal of queer youth. The child monster is both revolting and repellant, and yet is also a body in revolt against patriarchal institutions like state, family, and religion. As such, they offer a variety of subject positions for the spectator: from a pedophobic rage directed at children to a queer identification with the revolting child and against a heteronormative culture. Indeed, the cinema of revolting children allows us to have our child and beat it too.

Recenzje

"The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema is an insightful contribution to queer studies, communication/media studies and childhood studies. While providing needed scholarship on the figure of the child in horror cinema, Scahill also opens up new and exciting possibilities for queer viewing practices and spectator identity negotiations, simultaneously highlighting possibilities and impossibilities, pleasure and disruptions" (Sasha Cocarla, Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, Vol. 02 (3), September 01, 2017)

"Deftly weaving together similar strands of queer theory, childhood studies, and horror film scholarship, Andrew Scahill argues for the queer pleasures and revolutionary potentials inherent in the figure of the monstrous child. His work makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on childhood and monstrosity, offering fresh perspectives on iconic bad kids from Rhoda (The Bad Seed) to Regan (The Exorcist). Informed, informative, and fun-to-read, The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema explores why we love to hate our monstrous offspring." - Harry Benshoff, author of Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and Horror Film

"Andrew Scahill knows that childhood can be scary. His new book seeks to explain the real terrors of The Exorcist and Village of the Damned by using a convincingly sharp, jargon-free discussion of queer theory that breathes new life into cinematic texts weighed down by past interpretations. Politically vibrant and thoughtfully subversive, The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema is a welcome addition to the growing number of cultural studies on horror." - W. Scott Poole, author of Monsters in America and Vampira

O autorze

Andrew Scahill is Lecturer in the Department of English at Georgetown University, USA.