Cockrum, Casey A FEMALE FIGHT, FRIGHT, AND FATALE: SURPLUS REPRESSION AND GENDER DYNAMICS OF WOMEN IN CONTEMPORARY HORROR LITERATURE. 2024. Radford University, Thesis. Radford University Scholars' Repository.
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Abstract
I explore the neglected impact of the cultural collective as it influences female characters in horror and discuss societal influence upon atypical expressions of gender, the violent results determined through social value and complacency, and the formation of heroines and villains in horror as defined by cultural constructs. My main framework includes such theorists as Herbert Marcuse, Judith Butler, and Robin Wood who each expound upon and implement aspects of Freudian psychoanalysis which focus less upon the sexual identity of victims in favor of focusing upon the primal and cultural constructs under which identities form. I use the theoretical framework provided by Marcuse, Wood, and Kristeva to explore three contemporary horror texts with female protagonists. These works include The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, A Certain Hunger by Chelsea Summers, and The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix. I discuss the separate aspects of surplus repression and social otherization while positing a new concept which expounds upon Marcuse’s work. I establish the expression of revolutionary surplus repression through the “final girl” in The Final Girl Support Group. Then I demonstrate the cultural impact of repression on gender performativity as it forms into neurotic surplus repression in The Haunting of Hill House. Finally, I posit the concept of absence repression as it demonstrates itself through psychopathy and the inability to form surplus repression in A Certain Hunger.
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PE English |
| Divisions: | Radford University > College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences > Department of English |
| Date Deposited: | 03 Jun 2024 03:12 |
| Last Modified: | 03 Jun 2024 05:04 |
| URI: | http://wagner.radford.edu/id/eprint/1113 |
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