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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/22575
Description
Title
Terror and everyday life: A history of horror
Author(s)
Crane, Jonathan Lake
Issue Date
1991
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Grossberg, Lawrence
Department of Study
Communication
Discipline
Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Cinema
Language
eng
Abstract
This dissertation aims to locate the power and popularity of contemporary horror films in terms of a response to post-modernity. Present-day horror films only make sense, can only be enjoyed, when read as spectacularly excessive productions overtly concerned with the everyday experience of post-modernity.
The body of research done on the horror film genre has been based on psycho-analytic/transcendental models which are inappropriate starting points, if the slasher film and others of its infamous ilk, are to be read as measures of change in everyday life. Consequently, after a brief overview detailing the nature of contemporary existence, the dissertation begins with a critique of transcendental/psycho-analytic approaches to understanding cinematic horror.
Following the survey of alternatives to post-modern film reviewing, the dissertation offers readings of four classic films in horror history: Nosferatu (1921), Frankenstein (1931), Them! (1954), and Friday the 13th (1980). As everyday life changed and continues to be transformed, these readings demonstrate where and when the meaning and apprehension of horror also mutated. These texts also demonstrate where psycho-analytic/transcendental models of the audience member, fail to explain horror films fascination with events located outside the purview of psychic drives.
The dissertation concludes with the argument that, as post-modernity and post-modernism define how we live and think, horror films offer a clear and bleak avenue to understanding everyday life.
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