Project Title
Self, Family, Gender: Explorations of Identity in Horror Cinema
Start Date
21-4-2021 2:40 PM
End Date
21-4-2021 3:40 PM
Abstract
The engine of horror cinema is frequently its negotiation of culturally-explosive categories of identity. From Norman Bates’ violent inhabitation of his mother’s personality in Psycho (1960) to the protagonist’s struggle with dissociative identity disorder in Split (2016), horror films tend to invoke fear in their audience by exploring fractures in individual personalities and family units. This panel will provide a sustained analysis through the lens of gender, class, and psychology of the variety of ways in which directors have mobilized this process. These papers call into question horror cinema’s methods of inciting fear and reflecting our culture’s definitions of self.
Recommended Citation
Frankenfield, Allison; Jolin, Gabrielle; Reil, Jassmine; and Shupp, Katie, "Self, Family, Gender: Explorations of Identity in Horror Cinema" (2021). Michael D. Wilson Symposium. 18.
https://scholarworks.umf.maine.edu/mdwsymposium/2021/program/18
Keywords:
film, cinema, horror, gender, class
Self, Family, Gender: Explorations of Identity in Horror Cinema
The engine of horror cinema is frequently its negotiation of culturally-explosive categories of identity. From Norman Bates’ violent inhabitation of his mother’s personality in Psycho (1960) to the protagonist’s struggle with dissociative identity disorder in Split (2016), horror films tend to invoke fear in their audience by exploring fractures in individual personalities and family units. This panel will provide a sustained analysis through the lens of gender, class, and psychology of the variety of ways in which directors have mobilized this process. These papers call into question horror cinema’s methods of inciting fear and reflecting our culture’s definitions of self.
