House of Horrors
Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction
9781837720125
Distributed for University of Wales Press
House of Horrors
Familial Intimacies in Contemporary American Horror Fiction
An analysis of intimate relationships in modern American horror fiction.
This is a study of tumultuous transformations of kinship and intimate relationships in American horror fiction over the last three decades. Twelve contemporary novels are grouped into four familiar thematic clusters—haunted houses, monsters, vampires, and hauntings—but it is primarily social scripts and concerns linked to intimacy and family life that structure the volume.
This is a study of tumultuous transformations of kinship and intimate relationships in American horror fiction over the last three decades. Twelve contemporary novels are grouped into four familiar thematic clusters—haunted houses, monsters, vampires, and hauntings—but it is primarily social scripts and concerns linked to intimacy and family life that structure the volume.
256 pages | 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 | © 2023
Literature and Literary Criticism: American and Canadian Literature, General Criticism and Critical Theory
Reviews
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Defining Horror
Horror and the Gothic
Women Writers in Horror Fiction and Horror Studies
Defining Intimacy
Overview of Chapters
Chapter 1. Uncanny in the House of Fear
Introduction
Uncanny Houses
Void Dreams in Dead in the Water
Unhomely Funhole in The Cipher
The Queer (Uncanny) Desire in Drawing Blood
Conclusions
Chapter 2. Grotesque Monsters and Hybrid Subjectivities
Introduction
Grotesque Bodies
Hybrid Lesbian Bodies in The Drowning Girl
Male Grotesque in Sineater
Monstrous Girlhood in The Rust Maidens
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Blood(y) Ties in Vampire Fictions
Introduction
Towards Abjection
Gilda’s Sensual Vampires
Escaping the ‘Little Wife’ in Black Ambrosia
Prodigal Children (Not) Coming Home
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Spectral Kinship and Ghostly Selves
Introduction
The Ghostly Other in Horror Fiction
Dangerous Dis/possessions in Come Closer
The ‘Wandering Subject’ in The Between
Familial Disintegration in Within These Walls
Conclusion
Afterword
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Introduction
Defining Horror
Horror and the Gothic
Women Writers in Horror Fiction and Horror Studies
Defining Intimacy
Overview of Chapters
Chapter 1. Uncanny in the House of Fear
Introduction
Uncanny Houses
Void Dreams in Dead in the Water
Unhomely Funhole in The Cipher
The Queer (Uncanny) Desire in Drawing Blood
Conclusions
Chapter 2. Grotesque Monsters and Hybrid Subjectivities
Introduction
Grotesque Bodies
Hybrid Lesbian Bodies in The Drowning Girl
Male Grotesque in Sineater
Monstrous Girlhood in The Rust Maidens
Conclusion
Chapter 3. Blood(y) Ties in Vampire Fictions
Introduction
Towards Abjection
Gilda’s Sensual Vampires
Escaping the ‘Little Wife’ in Black Ambrosia
Prodigal Children (Not) Coming Home
Conclusion
Chapter 4. Spectral Kinship and Ghostly Selves
Introduction
The Ghostly Other in Horror Fiction
Dangerous Dis/possessions in Come Closer
The ‘Wandering Subject’ in The Between
Familial Disintegration in Within These Walls
Conclusion
Afterword
BIBLIOGRAPHY