Mastering Fear
Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Published:23rd Jan '20
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Mastering Fear: Women, Emotions, and Contemporary Horror employs a cognitive reading of the role of women in horror as more proactive, creative and productive and not simply as victims or villains.
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.
A fascinating look at female viewership of horror, challenging the stereotype of horror as a male genre ... This is a landmark study. * CHOICE *
Rikke Schubart has written a lively and well-informed account of horror films and their emotional appeals, with particular reference to women viewers and issues of gender as presented in the films. Schubart injects humor into her writing, an attractive blend of academic rigor and serious analysis with playful, drily ironic observations, often of a very personal nature. This is an interesting, original and provocative study. * Stephen Prince, Professor of Cinema Studies, Virginia Tech, USA *
Mastering Fear will be a game-changer! Rikke Schubart has produced an exciting and innovative book that is breathtaking in scope. While centred on horror case studies, it offers new perspectives for emotion, gender, feminist, cultural and horror studies. Conceiving of horror media as a mode of ‘play fighting’, Schubart develops a biocultural approach that she intertwines with her concept of ‘evofeminism’. The reader goes on a rich and nuanced theoretical journey that challenges gender stereotypes and both understands and arms the female protagonist and spectator with powerful tools that master fear and positively shape identity. A must read! * Angela Ndalianis, Professor of Media and Entertainment, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia *
ISBN: 9781501361616
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 508g
384 pages