![]() ![]() By extension, everything within the limits of acceptable societal convention, morality and the faith of human existence is put into question. 44-54.Ībjection is the defensive reaction of repulsion when the subject is forced to confront to (false) construction of the self. “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection.” Screen 27 (1) January-February (1986), pp. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.Creed, Barbara. Dismemberment does not necessarily come from the physical removal of body parts but can also manifest itself through ventriloquism or disjointed sounds. Dolls, automatons and dismembered limbs that are powered by independent activity raise the uncertainty of whether or not the body is alive or dead. Another common use of the uncanny is through animism. The threat to the self is manifested through the use of doubles and the uncertainty of the identity of the double. It is essentially, the return of the repressed and it is projected onto objects, peoples and places and is a threatens the self by putting the self into question. This cognitive dissonance of two opposing terms has been used by scholars to define horror and it's paradoxical nature to both attract and repulse at the same time. ![]() It is something that is both familiar and unfamiliar, secret and revealed. The uncanny is that which has ought to have been secret but that has come to light. The uncanny (Sigmund Freud)įreud coins the term for the eery, the disturbingly strange. The audience simultaneously empathizes with the victims on screen while occupying the killer's point of view. Laura Mulvey also speaks of the spectatorship of siding with the killer in Peeping Tom (1960). As in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), the director draws the audience into empathizing with the evil character in a race against time to commit murder. In many instances, the audience will merely mirror the emotional pain or anxiety exhibited by the character on screen regardless of the character's role in the plot. As in Tony Perrello's argument, the viewer experiences true horror not by seeing the monster or the gore but by sympathizing with the victim watching the horror. It can be argued that there is a greater fear in the unknown. This anxiety is not necessarily related to seeing the object of horror itself as it is in Guy de Maupassant's work but rather in the anxiety of not seeing. The optical technology that has defined modernity, such as the telescope or the microscope has proven that there are limits to our vision and that realms beyond what we can see exist and affect us. The anxiety of not being able to rely on our eyesight is a reoccurring sensorial theme. The theme of vision and the disruption of the modern reliance on vision has inspired several horror films that deal with the realms beyond our vision, whether it be in outer space or the contagion of disease. However, as the science of vision progresses the technology has disrupted the faithfulness of visual representation, which in turn has led to societal anxiety. Science through examination can give better insight into the world than faith in myth or religion. Modernity leans on the notion that seeing is related to knowing. In early gothic literature, such as in Guy de Maupassant's Le Horla, the author presents vision as proof over all and stresses the importance of seeing as well as the act of showing gore. Vision and the act of looking is a strong theme in many horror films. Ultimately given the vast and experimental nature of the horror film, horror defies Todorov's modes of representation and can emerge anywhere. There are several films that work in an alternate world model where the laws of science don't always apply a novum world model that is based in the supernatural or a fantastic world where the audience remains clouded in uncertainty. Todorov's genre categories, however, are useful to determine patterns in horror films. It is important to note, however that many criticize Todorov's model for genre theory, mainly due to the fact that it leaves little room for films that cross genres or that audiences emotionally identify as horror. According to Todorov, the fantastic lies in the audience's uncertainty where they cannot discern whether the events are natural or supernatural and experience the discomfort of not attaining a resolve. Although Todorov's approach to genre theory does not specifically define horror, his explanation of the fantastic has been used by Noel Carroll and other horror texts to help define the horror genre. ![]()
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