Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror

Description

Mastering Fear analyzes horror as play and examines what functions horror has and why it is adaptive and beneficial for audiences. It takes a biocultural approach, and focusing on emotions, gender, and play, it argues we play with fiction horror. In horror we engage not only with the negative emotions of fear and disgust, but with a wide range of emotions, both positive and negative. The book lays out a new theory of horror and analyzes female protagonists in contemporary horror from child to teen, adult, middle age, and old age. Since the turn of the millennium, we have seen a new generation of female protagonists in horror. There are feisty teens in The Vampire Diaries (2009–2017), troubled mothers in The Babadook (2014), and struggling women in the New French extremity with Martyrs (2008) and Inside (2007). At the fuzzy edges of the genre are dramas like Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and Black Swan (2010), and middle-age women are now protagonists with Carol in The Walking Dead (2010–) and Jessica Lange’s characters in American Horror Story (2011–). Horror is not just for men, but also for women, and not just for the young, but for audiences of all ages. Cover Half-title Title Copyright Contents List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgments Introduction: Approaching the Problem Playing with Horror Unpleasant and Fun Only Humans have Gender Defining Horror The Structure of Mastering Fear 1. The Dark Stage Emotions What are Emotions? System 1 and System 2 Positive and Negative Emotions The Horror Experience Gender Throwing Like a Girl Thinking Like a Woman Gender and Change Evofeminism Play What is Play? Play Fighting From Animal Play to Human Play Playing on the Edge Aggression Three Basic Horror Narratives Horror as Play Child 2. Mud, Blood, and Magic: Genre and Gender in Pan’s Labyrinth Anchor Points and Default Rules Into the Labyrinth Fairy-Tale Expectations With a Child’s Eyes The Meaning of Mud A Task and a Monster Beauty Meets the Beast A Trial and Disobedience The Meaning of Magic The Fantastic and the Melodrama Hero or Victim? A Final Anchor Point 3. The Bio-Logic of Vengeance in Let the Right One In The Vampire Triptych The “Piggy Game” Play Fighting and Cruel Play Sex and Gender: “I am not a girl” From Friends to Lovers: The Romeo and Juliet Theme The Bio-Logic of Justice The Ethics of Vengeance Scar as Passage and Border Conclusion Teen & Emerging Adult 4. “She Made a Choice”: Werewolf Affordances and Female Character Development Lycanthrophy Werewolf Affordances Wilderness: Wolf as Zen Master Ginger Snaps: Menarche as Mayhem Menarche: Disease and Shame Hemlock Grove: A Crazy Vargulf Fantastic Transformations Explosive Plasticity as Character Development Deep Ecology Bitten: The Neofeminist Wolf Sex and the Single Werewolf Mastering Change and Desire The Evofeminist Werewolf 5. Lust, Trust, and Educational Torture: The Vampire Diaries Sexual Selection Theory Revisited Caroline: Stupid and Shallow The Sexual Emotions Abuse and Self-Confidence Managing Lust and Love Trust, Pain, and Play Friends and a Climate of Trust Restoring Trust Who Do You Trust? Trust, Educational Torture, and Change The Doubling of Choices Adult 6. Disgust and Self-Injury: In My Skin, Martyrs, Black Swan Disgust New French Extremity Self-Injury In My Skin: Fascinating Flesh Cut N Slash Transgression A New Ethics of Viewing Martyrs: Third Wave French Extremity When Self-Injury is Comforting The White Mouse The Feel-Bad Experience Black Swan: A “Delicate Cutter” Ordinary Disgust “To Beauty” The Magic Circle and the Moral Circle Conclusion 7. The Maternal Myth: Birth, Breastfeeding, Mothering Mother: The Good, the Bad, and the Real Inside: “Completely Unwatchable” Terror and a Real Maternal Body Who is the Good Mother? Grace: “It’s All About Maintaining Your Diet” Milk: “A Whole New Level of Freaky” Mother Discourses The Babadook: “This Monster Thing” Meta-Play Princess Play and Monster Play Wild, Deep, and Dark Play Conclusion Middle Age 8. Home and Road: Carol’s Change in The Walking Dead Graphic-Novel Carol and Television Carol Change House and Home Home Is Where You Die Alexandria The Chronotope of the Road The End of the Road Stepping Up “You Have to Change” Two Kinds of Freedom Eudaimonia Surviving Middle Age 9. Age Anxiety and Chills: Jessica Lange and American Horror Story The Emotion of Interest Fiona, Supreme Witch Ageism Millennials and WAGs The Bad Mother Sex, Love, and Hell Freaks and Chills Piecing Together Elsa Mars Lange Doing Lange The Void of Identity Old 10. Abyss and Peak: The New Old Woman Penny Dreadful and Patti LuPone The Old Woman Joan: Witch and Wise Woman The Witch in History Dr. Seward: Scientist and Survivor The Wise Woman in the White Room Cool and Edgy The New Old Woman Exit: Playing the Ball Back to the Universe Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Notes Bibliography Filmography Index