Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #160533 in Books
• Published on: 1993-09-09
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

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.

Customer Reviews

A new look at the horror movie
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.