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    Horror and the Monstrous Feminine

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    jhg

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    8 views9 pages

    Horror and The Monstrous Feminine

    Uploaded by

    Ric
    jhg

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 9
    ‘HORROR AND THE MONSTROUS- FEMININE: AN IMAGINARY ABJECTION’ Barbara Creed 1 ‘Mother's not herself today. Norman Bats, Psycho Campbell, in his book, Primitive Mythology, ces, And a counterpart, the moi perfectly illustrated in gendered monsters, many of eye’, head of writhing serpents sud linked the sigh ofthe Medusa tothe equally horefying sight of the mother's genitals, forthe concept of the monstrous feminine, a5 conseructed withinby a patriarchal and phallocentric ideology, is Fm Siren 27.1, 1986, pp. 44-70 Bananna CED ‘elated intimately tothe problem of sexual difference and castration. In 1922 he the ‘Medusa’s head takes the place ofa represe ionof the female we accept Freud's interpretation, wecan se thatthe Perseus myths © difference of female sexuality asa difference hhocror~of viewing he horror film ~causes ‘other phrases th orf ~in particular, the monstrous tem, orde (p. 4). ln gen ‘which abjection, a¢ a source of horror, works Honor ano Tie MONSTROUS-FeMNNE lowed by an array of bod and pursifying flesh. I literal and metaphoric sense. Viewing the horror film signifis a desire not only for perverse pleasure (confronting sickening, horvfic images, bing filled with ing taken pleasure in 1m the safety of the 22 Baraana Cre0 is also central to the slash movie, particularly those in which woman is the mark a sgn of her ‘difference’, her impusity (Dressed to Kill, Psycho) “The third way in which the ho rates the work of abjecton refers to individuals experience abjection atthe time ana om te moi, She st the problematic ration cote ymbole eae, violent, clumsy breaking away, with the constant sk of flling back recisely where we encounter the rituals which, based on the feeling of abject I, atempe co symbolize che other th ed by the dual relationship, cheeby risking the loss nor ofa Horton NO THe MONSTROUS-FaHINNE to ward off the subj ‘She argues that the period ofthe ‘mapping of the characterised by the exercise of ‘authority without gui se two worlds exist harmoniously side by side because of the ‘working of deflement rte. Here, Kristeva is refering tothe practice of public Sefecation in India. She quoces 'V. S. Naipaul who says that no one ever Banaana CHD Hotton ano THe MONSTROUS FOUN ‘use ofa “madman” he enacts on her body the one act he most fears for himself, transforming her entire body into a bleeding wound. Kisteva's semiotic posits a pre-vrbal dimension of language which relates to identified as such, as object and as law. (p. 74) Images of blood, vomit, pus, ‘excremental objects, point tothe “boundary” berween the maternal semiotic symbolic, as ‘whole and proper’. Consequent authority and che paternal symbolic lw. procagonist in the text and the 5 Toathing. On the other hané ‘Through language and within highly hierarchical religious instieutions, ‘man hallucinates partial ‘objects ~ witneses toa haic level the representation of bodily reaking the taboo on filth~sometimes described placed not on the (patern ‘very signifying order. (p. 73) Kristeva argues that, hist the symbol symbol scenes wher in which the Other ions ofthe symbolic. inseparable, contaminated, condem inkable: abe. would argue, i also che cent the bleeding body of sformed ino the ‘gaping wou Banana CREO Hotton ano THe MonsTaoUs FeHnne ‘the mother and all that her universe signifies. In Kristeva's terms, this means separating out the maternal authority from paternal law ,..] Vv “The science-fiction horror film Alien is a complex representation of the ‘monstrous-feminine in terms of the maternal figure as perceived within a patriarchal ideology. She is there inthe text's scenarios ofthe pr monster as ftish-object of and forthe mother. But tithe a reproductivelgenerative mother, who haunts the mite-e Possibly the many mythological stores in which humans cop and other creatures (Europa and Zeus, Leda a the symbolic order. The concept o nother dimension tothe mate figure and presents us with a new way of indenting how paisa iklogy works © deny the “ferene!of ‘The seven astronauts emerge: 1 re-irthing scene which primal fantasy in which the human subject is born fully developed ~ even copulation is redundant. ‘The second representation ofthe primal scene takes place when thee ofthe movements echo throughout the caverns. In the ‘explorers find a huge alien life form which appeats to have been dead for a Tongtime. Its bones are bent out trio, Kane, is lowered dow which rows of eggs are hatch it with his gloved hand it Suddenly, the monstrous thing inside Thisrepresentation ofthe pi primal scene fantasy where the subj {o watch her/his parents having sexual intercous and is mediated by the quest incestuous desire. ll re-stagings of the primal scene raise the question of incest, 258 259 Bensana CED ‘asthe beloved parent (usually the mother) is witha rival. The frst birth ‘emerge from their sleep pods, could be viewe: estuous desire par excellence: the fah che monstrous creature is born. But man, not sion of the primal scene. ‘A further version of the primal scene ~ almost a convention’ of the science 3 film ~ occurs when smaller erafs or bodies ae ejected from the mother jected body remains attached 0 chord. This scene i presented in dependent on the merging together of all aspects of the maternal figure ito one ~ the i of woman as archaic mother, phallic woman and castrated asa single figure within te horror film. However, the archaic mother is clearly present in two distinct ways in the horcor film. 260 Hotton aNO THe MONSTROUS- Fen emphasis isnot on castration; levouring womb ofthe archaic mother which generat of reference. This is why we need t0 posit a more 2 smother. For the concept of the archaic mother allows for a notion of the feminine which does not depend for its definition ona concept ofthe masculine. always there in the hor Constant presence of represented in the horror losing one's self or ego becomes black, signifying the obliteration of ‘the film and the spectator in the cinema, This has important consequences for the positioning ofthe spectator inthe cinema. 261 Horton ANO THe MONSTROUS-FEHINNE int the viewing processes. Instead, an unusual phenomenon. horrific image on the rolook. Here, Treferto ostand the of horror unfolding before hivher eyes, is forced to look away, to not-look, 0 Took anywhere but atthe screen, Strategies of identification are temporarily © of horror, the place where the sightfsite can no longer be endured, the pl transformed into pain and the spectator is punished for desires. Pthaps this shoul be refereed ich have been theorsed in elation co the steen-specator relationship.”? ‘Confronted by the sight of the monstrous, he viewing subjects ps boundaries designed wo hep the abet a by thet Here we see the ego, ‘Becoming, tothe v rays looking forward to: ‘againinto the chaos from which he ta Tooking, the spectator sable momentarily 0 wi {mage onthe seen in order to reconstruct the boundary beeween self and sereen land reconstitute the ‘sel? which i theeatened with disintegration. This process ues boundaries over continuity and separateness over sameness Given that death is represented inthe horeor film asa threat tothe sel’ boundaries, symbolised by the the spectator to lo associated with de presence is marked negatively ‘within the project ofthe horcor film, Both signify a monstrous obliteration of the self and both linked tothe demonic. Again, Kristeva presents a negative ‘mage ofthe maternal figure in her relationship co death:

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