Birdy Wei-Ting Hung
director
Feminist Horror Cinema
A series of video-essay lectures on contemporary horror film and Feminist New Wave Cinema.
01
Video essay lecture | 21 mins | 2024
Why do we study horrors films? This introductory lecture reviews key theoretical frameworks on gender, and horror studies: “monstrous feminine” (Barbara Creed), “the Final Girl (Carol J. Clover)”, “refuse to refuse to look” (Brigid Cherry).
02
Video essay lecture | 20 mins | 2024
This lecture revisits Clover’s conception of “the Final Girl(s),” other cinematic tropes in slashers, and how It Follows (2014) updates Clover’s model.
03
In this lecture, we examine Julia Kristeva’s conception of abjection, the abjection tropes in horrors, and how contemporary horror films reclaim female desires.
04
Video essay lecture | 19 mins | 2024
We continuously explore the abjection tropes in contemporary horrors, and how Jennifer’s Body (2009) queers the monstrous-feminine.
05
Video essay lecture | 18 mins | 2024
This lecture examines the representation of “the final boy of color” in Get Out (2017), and the complex representation of the monstrous-feminine, the female victim, and the final girl is Us (2018).
06
Video essay lecture | 22 mins | 2024
Why we study the (hybrid)horror genre? To whom it is horrific? This introductory lecture explores the gendered representations in horrors, as well as contemporary cinematic tropes in Feminist New Wave (Horror) Cinema.
07
Video essay lecture | 19 mins | 2024
This lecture examines Julia Kristeva’s conception of abjection, the monstrous-mother in the maternal horror subgenre, and how The Babadook (2014) presents a monstrous-mother in revolt.
08
Video essay lecture | 23 mins | 2024
This lecture explores the female vampire trope in horrors, Judith Butler’s conception of “gender performativity,” queer desires, and how the cannibal mermaids in The Lure (2015) queer the monstrous-feminine.
09
Video essay lecture | 22 mins | 2024
The witches are long-standing cinematic tropes in traditional horrors. We continuously explore the queer desires in Feminist New Wave Cinema, and the rebellious love in Thelma (2017).
10
Video essay lecture | 24 mins | 2024
Why is female cannibalism horrific? Does it challenge the humanism hierarchy? What is missing in the discussion? This final lecture examines racial representations in Raw (2017).
Reference
Creed, Barbara. The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis. New York: Routledge, 1993.
—. Return of the Monstrous-Feminine: Feminist New Wave Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2022.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton N.J: Princeton University Press, 1992.
Church, David. Post-Horror: Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation. United Kingdom: Edinburgh University Press, 2020.
Paskiewicz, Katarzyna and Stacy Rusnak. “Revisiting the Final Girl Looking Backwards, Looking Forwards.” In Postmodern Culture: Journal of Interdisciplinary Thought on Contemporary Cultures 28, no. 1 (September 2017): no pagination. https://www.pomoculture.org/2020/10/15/revisiting-the-final-girl-looking-backwards-looking-forwards/.
Peirse, Alison. Women Make Horror: Filmmaking, Feminism, Genre. Ed. Alison Peirse. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2020.