Buy this book with From Reverence to Rape: Treatment of Women in the Movies by Molly Haskell today!

Buy Together Today: £29.94

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (European Perspectives) by J Kristeva  (2)  £17.05

The Horror Film Reader (In Focus) by Mark Jancovich  (1)  £19.99

The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film & Media Studies) by Barry Keith Grant £19.48

From Reverence to Rape: Treatment of Women in the Movies by Molly Haskell  (2)  £10.00

Gender Trouble (Routledge Classics) by Judith Butler  (2)  £10.99

› Explore similar items : Books (30) DVD (9)

Synopsis
In almost all critical writings on the horror film, woman is conceptualised only as victim. In The Monstrous-Feminine Barbara Creed challenges this patriarchal by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the female reproductive body. Women as castrator constitutes the most significant face of the monstrous-feminine in film and Creed challenges the mythical patriarchal view that women primarily terrifies because of a fear that she might castrate . With close reference to a number of classic horror films including Alien, The Brood, The Hunger, The Exorcist, Sisters, I Spit on Your Grave and Psycho she presents the first sustained analysis of the seven faces' of the monstrous-feminine from a feminist and psychoanalytic perspective, discussing woman as monster in relation to woman as archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator.

Her argument disrupts Freudian and Lacanian theories of sexual difference as well as existing theories of spectatorship and fetishism in relation to the male and female gaze in the cinema to provide a challenging and provocative re-reading of classical and contemporary film and theoretical texts.

First Sentence
The honor film is populated by female monsters, many of which seem to have evolved from images that haunted the dreams, myths and artistic practices of our forebears many centuries ago. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover

Search inside this book:

The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film & Media Studies) by Barry Keith Grant £19.48

Bitches, Bimbos and Virgins: Women in the Horror Film by Gary J Svehla

Michelangelo (Routledge Classics) (Routledge Classics) by Adrian Stokes £8.99

The Horror Film Reader (In Focus) by Mark Jancovich  (1)  £19.99

Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny by Barbara Creed £18.50

› Explore similar items : Books (44) DVD (2)

1 Review 5 star:    (0) 4 star:  (1) 3 star:    (0) 2 star:    (0) 1 star:    (0)           Average Customer Review (1 customer review)		Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews   4 of 4 people found the following review helpful: A new look at the horror movie, 27 Oct 2003 By  "maniacwithtiara" - See all my reviews Creed's book draws on Freudian psychoanalysis to examine the horror film. She performs close textual analysis of key horror films including Carrie, The Exorcist, Psycho and Alien. This book is sometimes hard to read, and the concepts of psychoanlaysis that she draws on are often dubious. However, some of her arguments regarding the construction of the monstrous feminine in horror in relation to women as mothers, witches, vampires and so on is certainly interesting. One word of warning to potential readers is that the book, being a decade old, does not consider more recent horror films. Other than that though, this is an indispensable read for anyone interested in the horror genre, or in film studies in general.  Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? (Report this) › See all customer reviews...		Search Customer Reviews Only search this product's reviews