Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Gabbard, Krin | Reich, Jacqueline | Kaplan, E. Ann | Sharrett, Christopher | Lowenstein, Adam | .
Date
2016-12-01
Keywords
Comparative literature
Department
Department of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/77205
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
This dissertation examines the definition of the monstrous child in horror cinema and media. Spanning from 1955 to 2009 and beyond, the question of what counts as a monstrous child illuminates a perennial cinematic preoccupation with monstrosity and the relation between the normal and the pathological. Films like The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955), The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy, 1956), Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960), The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961), Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973), Profondo rosso/Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975), Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976), Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978), Child’s Play (Tom Holland, 1988), and Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009) explore the normative and pathological specificity of childhood across a range of historical, religious, and economic awakenings and crises, from the work of Jonathan Edwards and Henry James to Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma. Ultimately the monstrous child is not a force of evil, but a rebellious and motivated figure at odds with a range of social and cultural norms found in the classic and modern American and European horror film. Specifically, the cultural function of the figure of the child in horror films works against norms of good and evil it is often linked to. By extension, the monstrous child and its function vary according to different historical periods and major historical events during the years 1955-2009 and beyond. These include: the Great Depression, World War II, Britain’s age of affluence, Italy’s Years of Lead or anni di piombo, the Cold War, 9/11, and the financial meltdown of 2008. In short, the monstrous child is a rebel with a cause, a figure that assumes a vital dimension of modern consciousness. To that end, I propose that a theoretical and historical analysis of the monstrous child in horror cinema and media during the twentieth and twenty-first century should be approached via three concepts: innocence, criminality, and anxiety. Focusing on the child in horror, I expand the theoretical scope of my dissertation to include: film and media studies, genre and popular culture, gender and sexuality, and psychoanalysis. | This dissertation examines the definition of the monstrous child in horror cinema and media. Spanning from 1955 to 2009 and beyond, the question of what counts as a monstrous child illuminates a perennial cinematic preoccupation with monstrosity and the relation between the normal and the pathological. Films like The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955), The Bad Seed (Mervyn LeRoy, 1956), Village of the Damned (Wolf Rilla, 1960), The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961), Don’t Look Now (Nicolas Roeg, 1973), Profondo rosso/Deep Red (Dario Argento, 1975), Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976), Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978), Child’s Play (Tom Holland, 1988), and Orphan (Jaume Collet-Serra, 2009) explore the normative and pathological specificity of childhood across a range of historical, religious, and economic awakenings and crises, from the work of Jonathan Edwards and Henry James to Alfred Hitchcock and Brian De Palma. Ultimately the monstrous child is not a force of evil, but a rebellious and motivated figure at odds with a range of social and cultural norms found in the classic and modern American and European horror film. Specifically, the cultural function of the figure of the child in horror films works against norms of good and evil it is often linked to. By extension, the monstrous child and its function vary according to different historical periods and major historical events during the years 1955-2009 and beyond. These include: the Great Depression, World War II, Britain’s age of affluence, Italy’s Years of Lead or anni di piombo, the Cold War, 9/11, and the financial meltdown of 2008. In short, the monstrous child is a rebel with a cause, a figure that assumes a vital dimension of modern consciousness. To that end, I propose that a theoretical and historical analysis of the monstrous child in horror cinema and media during the twentieth and twenty-first century should be approached via three concepts: innocence, criminality, and anxiety. Focusing on the child in horror, I expand the theoretical scope of my dissertation to include: film and media studies, genre and popular culture, gender and sexuality, and psychoanalysis. | 238 pages
Recommended Citation
Staats, Hans, "Don’t Look Now: The Child in Horror Cinema and Media | Don’t Look Now: The Child in Horror Cinema and Media" (2016). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 3036.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/3036