Theorizing Twilight: Critical Essays on What’s at Stake in a Post-Vampire World
Edited by Maggie Parke and Natalie Wilson
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6350-3
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8912-1
notes, bibliographies, index
253pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $35.00
About the Book
Since the publication of Twilight in 2005, Stephenie Meyer’s four-book saga about the tortured relationship between human heroine Bella Swan and her vampire love Edward Cullen has become a world-wide sensation--inciting screams of delight, sighs of derision, and fervent pronouncements. Those looking deeper into its pages and on screen can find intriguing subtexts about everything from gender, race, sexuality, and religion.
The 15 essays in this book examine the texts, the films, and the fandom, exploring the series’ cultural reach and offering one of the first thorough analyses of the saga.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments v
Introduction 1
Part I. Twilight as Pop Cultural Artifact: Pilgrimages, Fan Culture, and Film Adaptations
The Vampire Capital of the World: Commerce and Enchantment in Forks, Washington
TANYA ERZEN 11
Fanpires: Utilizing Fan Culture in Event Film Adaptations
MAGGIE PARKE 25
The Hero and the Id: A Psychoanalytic Inquiry into the Popularity of Twilight
HEATHER ANASTASIU 41
Someday My Vampire Will Come? Society’s (and the Media’s) Lovesick Infatuation with Prince- Like Vampires
COLETTE MURPHY 56
Team Bella: Fans Navigating Desire, Security, and Feminism
ANANYA MUKHERJEA 70
Part II. Once Upon a Twilight: Fairy Tales, Byronic (Anti) Heroes, Post- Feminist Romance, and Growing Up in a Twilight World
“How Old Are You?” Representations of Age in the Saga
ASHLEY BENNING 87
Read Only as Directed: Psychology, Intertextuality, and Hyperreality in the Series
ANGELA TENGA 102
Torn Between Two Lovers: Twilight Tames Wuthering Heights
SARAH WAKEFIELD 117
Rewriting the Byronic Hero: How the Twilight Saga Turned “Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know” into a Teen Fiction Phenomenon
JESSICA GROPER 132
A Post- Feminist Romance: Love, Gender and Intertextuality in Stephenie Meyer’s Saga
HILA SHACHAR 147
Part III. Twilight Through an Intersectional Lens: Patriarchy, White Privilege, Heteronormativity, Rape Culture, Religion
Maybe Edward Is the Most Dangerous Thing Out There: The Role of Patriarchy
MELISSA MILLER 165
Denial and Salvation: The Twilight Series and Heteronormative Patriarchy
ASHLEY DONNELLY 178
It’s a Wolf Thing: The Quileute Werewolf /Shape- Shifter Hybrid as Noble Savage
NATALIE WILSON 194
Violence, Agency, and the Women of Twilight
ANNE TORKELSON 209
Un-biting the Apple and Killing the Womb: Genesis, Gender, and Gynocide
LINDSEY ISSOW AVERILL 224
About the Contributors 239
Index 243
About the Author
Maggie Parke is completing her doctorate in film and new media at the National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries at Bangor University, Wales. She has published in theJournal of Gaming and Virtual Worlds and is currently the head of development for Elfin Productions.
Natalie Wilson pens one of the only academic blogs analyzing Twilight and its cultural impact. She teaches at Cal State San Marcos in the Department of Literature and Writing and in the women’s studies program.
Seduced by Twilight: The Allure and Contradictory Messages of the Popular Saga
Natalie Wilson
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6042-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8561-1
notes, bibliography, index
242pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $35.00
About the Book
Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight saga has maintained a tight grip on the contemporary cultural imagination. This timely and critical work examines how the Twilight series offers addictively appealing messages about love, romance, sex, beauty and body image, and how these charged themes interact with cultural issues regarding race, class, gender and sexuality. Through a careful analysis of the texts, the fandom and the current socio-historical climate, this work argues that the success of the Twilight series stems chiefly from Meyer’s negotiation of cultural mores.Table of Contents
Table of Contents:
Preface and Acknowledgments 1
Introduction: A Post-Twilight World 5
1. The Allure of the Vampire, the Danger of the Wolf: Or, Why to Avoid Big, Bad Shape-shifters in Favor of Knights in Sparkling Armor 15
2. Bitten by Romance: Happy Twilight-Ever-After 41
3. Vamping Femininity: Twilight as (Anti?) Feminist Fairy Tale, Or, We Can’t All Be Slayers 61
4. The Dawning of New Men: Hegemonic Masculinity, Sparkly White Male Vampires, and Ab-tastic Wolves of Color 83
5. Sexuality Eclipsed: The Taming of Female Sexuality via Vampire Abstinence 106
6. The Soul of the Vampire: Sparkly Mormons, Female Eves, and Unconverted Wolves 133
7. Got Vampire Privilege? Or, Why You Should Marry an Undead White, Wealthy, Heterosexual Mormon 157
8. Consuming Desires: Can You Buy That Twilight Feeling? 180
Conclusion: You Have a Choice, and It Need Not Be Edward or Jacob 205
Chapter Notes 209
Bibliography 219
Index 229
About the Author
Natalie Wilson pens one of the only academic blogs analyzing Twilight and its cultural impact. She teaches at Cal State San Marcos in the Department of Literature and Writing and in the women’s studies program.
Generation Zombie: Essays on the Living Dead in Modern Culture
Edited by Stephanie Boluk and Wylie Lenz
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6140-0
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8673-1
notes, bibliography, index
268pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2011
Price: $45.00
About the Book
Growing from their early roots in Caribbean voodoo to their popularity today, zombies are epidemic. Their presence is pervasive, whether they are found in video games, street signs, hard drives, or even international politics. These eighteen original essays by an interdisciplinary group of scholars examine how the zombie has evolved over time, its continually evolving manifestations in popular culture, and the unpredictable effects the zombie has had on late modernity. Topics covered include representations of zombies in films, the zombie as environmental critique, its role in mass psychology and how issues of race, class and gender are expressed through zombie narratives. Collectively, the work enhances our understanding of the popularity and purposes of horror in the modern era.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Generation Z, the Age of Apocalypse
(Stephanie Boluk and Wylie Lenz) 1
Zombies as Internal Fear or Threat
(Kim Paffenroth) 18
White Zombie and the Creole: William Seabrook’s The Magic Island and American Imperialism in Haiti
(Gyllian Phillips) 27
The Origin of the Zombie in American Radio and Film: B- Horror, U.S. Empire, and the Politics of Disavowal
(Chris Vials) 41
The Eco-Zombie: Environmental Critique in Zombie Fiction
(Sarah Juliet Lauro) 54
Lost Bodies/Lost Souls: Night of the Living Dead and Deathdream as Vietnam Narrative
(Karen Randell) 67
Shambling Towards Mount Improbable to Be Born: American Evolutionary Anxiety and the Hopeful Monsters of Matheson’s I Am Legendand Romero’s Dead Films
(Sean Moreland) 77
Ztopia: Lessons in Post- Vital Politics in George Romero’s Zombie Films
(Tyson E. Lewis) 90
Soft Murders: Motion Pictures and Living Death in Diary of the Dead
(Randy Laist) 101
Mass Psychology and the Analysis of the Zombie: From Suggestion to Contagion
(Phillip Mahoney) 113
Gray Is the New Black: Race, Class, and Zombies
(Aalya Ahmad) 130
Cyberpunk and the Living Dead
(Andrea Austin) 147
The End Begins: John Wyndham’s Zombie Cozy
(Terry Harpold) 156
Zombies in a “Deep, Dark Ocean of History”: Danny Boyle’s Infected and John Wyndham’s Triffids as Metaphors of Postwar Britain
(Nicole LaRose) 165
Dead and Live Life: Zombies, Queers, and Online Sociality
(Shaka McGlotten) 182
The E- Dead: Zombies in the Digital Age
(Brendan Riley) 194
A Brain Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: Isolation U. and the Campus Zombie
(Brian Greenspan) 206
Rhetoric Goes Boom(er): Agency, Networks, and Zombies at Play
(Scott Reed) 219
The National Strategy for Zombie Containment: Myth Meets Activism in Post–9/11 America
(Christopher Zealand) 231
About the Contributors 249
Index 253
About the Author
Stephanie Boluk is a postdoctoral fellow in the Media Studies program at Vassar College. Wylie Lenz is a Ph.D. candidate in the English Department at the University of Florida.
Race, Oppression and the Zombie: Essays on Cross-Cultural Appropriations of the Caribbean Tradition
Edited by Christopher M. Moreman and Cory James Rushton
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-5911-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8800-1
bibliography, filmography, index
240pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2011
Price: $45.00
About the Book
The figure of the zombie is a familiar one in world culture, acting as a metaphor for "the other," a participant in narratives of life and death, good and evil, and of a fate worse than death--the state of being "undead." This book explores the phenomenon from its roots in Haitian folklore to its evolution on the silver screen and to its radical transformation during the 1960s countercultural revolution. Contributors from a broad range of disciplines here examine the zombie and its relationship to colonialism, orientalism, racism, globalism, capitalism and more--including potential signs that the zombie hordes may have finally achieved oversaturation.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Race, Colonialism, and the Evolution of the “Zombie”
CORY JAMES RUSHTON and CHRISTOPHER M. MOREMAN 1
I—Haitian Origins: Race and the Zombie
1. New South, New Immigrants, New Women, New Zombies: The Historical Development of the Zombie in American Popular Culture
ANN KORDAS 15
2. Hurston in Haiti: Neocolonialism and Zombification
RITA KERESZTESI 31
3. Putting the Undead to Work: Wade Davis, Haitian Vodou, and the Social Uses of the Zombie
DAVID INGLIS 42
4. Guess Who’s Going to Be Dinner: Sidney Poitier, Black Militancy, and the Ambivalence of Race in Romero’s Night of the Living Dead
BARBARA S. BRUCE 60
II—The Capital of the Dead
5. Time for Zombies: Sacrifice and the Structural Phenomenology of Capitalist Futures
RONJON PAUL DATTA and LAURA MACDONALD 77
6. Zombified Capital in the Postcolonial Capital: Circulation (of Blood) in Sony Labou Tansi’s Parentheses of Blood
ELIZABETH A. STINSON 93
III—Culturally Transplanted Zombies
7. Zombie Orientals Ate My Brain! Orientalism in Contemporary Zombie Stories
ERIC HAMAKO 107
8. Post–9/11 Anxieties: Unpredictability and Complacency in the Age of New Terrorism in Dawn of the Dead (2004)
BECKI A. GRAHAM 124
9. The Rise and Fall—and Rise—of the Nazi Zombie in Film
CYNTHIA J. MILLER 139
10. Eating Ireland: Zombies, Snakes and Missionaries in Boy Eats Girl
CORY JAMES RUSHTON 149
11. It’s So Hard to Get Good Help These Days: Zombies as a Culturally Stabilizing Force in Fido (2006)
MICHELE BRAUN 162
IV—The Future of Zombie Understandings
12. Zombie Categories, Religion and the New False Rationalism
EDWARD DUTTON 177
13. Nothing but Meat? Philosophical Zombies and Their Cinematic Counterparts
DAVE BEISECKER 191
Bibliography 207
Filmography 219
About the Contributors 223
Index 225
About the Author
Christopher M. Moreman is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy at California State University-East Bay, where he teaches courses in comparative religion.
Cory James Rushton is an associate English professor at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Horror Noir: Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet
Paul Meehan
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4597-4
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-6219-3
77 photos, filmography, notes, bibliography, index
310pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2011
Price: $39.95
About the Book
This critical survey examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema’s most popular genres: horror and film noir. The influence of 1930s- and 1940s-era horror films on the development of noir is detailed, with analyses of more than 100 motion pictures in which noir criminality and mystery meld with supernatural and psychological horror. Included are the films based on popular horror/mystery radio shows (The Whistler, Inner Sanctum), the works of RKO producer Val Lewton (Cat People, The Seventh Victim), and Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological ghost stories. Also discussed are gothic and costume horror noirs set in the 19th century (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hangover Square); the noir elements of more recent films; and the film noir aspects of the Hannibal Lecter movies and other serial-killer thrillers.Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. Horror and Fantasy Elements in Classic Films Noir 11
2. Horror Noir in the 1930s 30
3. The Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur Noir Legacy 53
4. Horror Noir from Radioland 73
5. Monster Noir 93
6. Gothic and Costume Noir 115
7. Horror Noir in the 1950s 145
8. Hitchcock’s Psychological Ghosts and Doppelgangers 167
9. Modern Horror Noir in the 1960s 186
10. Horror Noirs of the 1970s and 1980s 211
11. The Noir Horrors of Hannibal the Cannibal 237
12. The Mean Streets of Hell 254
Conclusion: Horror and Film Noir—The Dark Genres 277
Filmography 281
Chapter Notes 289
Bibliography 291
Index 293
About the Author
Paul Meehan has also written on UFOs in cinema, and is a contributor to the Noir City Sentinel, the journal of the Film Noir Foundation. He lives in San Francisco.
Deformed and Destructive Beings: The Purpose of Horror Films
George Ochoa
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6307-7
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8654-0
48 photos, notes, bibliography, index
235pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $40.00
About the Book
Why are audiences drawn to horror films? Previous answers to that question have included everything from a need to experience fear to a hunger for psychotherapy. This critical text proposes that the horror film’s primary purpose is to present monsters, best understood as deformed and destructive beings. These monsters satisfy the audience’s desire to know these beings, in particular those beings too fantastic and dangerous to know in real life. The text illuminates many aspects of the horror film genre, including epistemology, ethics, evaluation, history, monster taxonomy, and filmmaking techniques.
Table of Contents
Preface 1
PART I. THE HORROR FILM ANALYZED
1. Purpose 5
2. Knowing 18
3. DDB Profile 28
4. Structure 38
5. Essential Elements 47
6. Ethics 61
7. Meaning and Significance 72
8. Evaluation of a Good Horror Film 83
9. Evaluation of a Bad Horror Film 96
PART II. THE HORROR FILM IN CONTEXT
10. Genres 107
11. History: Beginnings to the 1950s 117
12. History: 1960s to the Present 131
13. Reputation 143
14. Taxonomy 151
15. Techniques 168
16. Directors 181
17. Stars and DDBs 194
18. Other Directions 201
Notes 209
Bibliography 215
Index 219
About the Author
George Ochoa is the author or coauthor of more than thirty nonfiction books. He is currently a medical writer at Applied Clinical Education in New York. Please visit his blog at
deformeddestructive.blogspot.com.
Richard Striner
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-4664-3
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8487-4
22 photos, appendix, notes, bibliography, index
213pp. softcover (6 x 9) 2011
Price: $40.00
About the Book
Themes of love, death and the supernatural are mainstays in cinema, and this is the first scholarly work to address movies that explore all three. Twenty-two films are covered in short chapters, from The Mummy through What Dreams May Come, with plot synopses, critical analyses of the relationship of each to major philosophical and literary themes, and explorations of the critical responses.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vi
Introduction 1
The Mummy (1932) 5
Death Takes a Holiday (1934) 15
Topper (1937) 23
On Borrowed Time (1939) 30
Our Town (1940) 35
Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941) 43
Cabin in the Sky (1943) 49
A Guy Named Joe (1943) 55
Blithe Spirit (1945) 61
A Matter of Life and Death (Stairway to Heaven) (1946) 68
It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) 76
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) 83
Portrait of Jennie (1948) 91
The Red Shoes (1948) 98
Brigadoon (1954) 110
Vertigo (1958) 118
Solaris (Russian version, 1972) 131
Somewhere in Time (1980) 137
Dead Again (1991) 152
Sleepless in Seattle (1993) 161
Sliding Doors (1998) 169
What Dreams May Come (1998) 174
Afterword 181
Appendix: Honorable Mentions 183
Notes 189
Bibliography 199
Index 201
About the Author
Richard Striner is a professor of history at Washington College in Chestertown, Maryland. He has written on political history, economics, architecture, historic preservation and film.
Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century
Charles Derry
Foreword by John Russell Taylor
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-3397-1
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-5695-6
988 photos, notes, appendices, filmography, bibliography, index
447pp. hardcover (7 x 10) 2009
Price: $75.00
About the Book
Greatly expanded and updated from the 1977 original, this new edition explores the evolution of the modern horror film, particularly as it reflects anxieties associated with the atomic bomb, the Cold War, 1960s violence, sexual liberation, the Reagan revolution, 9/11 and the Iraq War. It divides modern horror into three varieties (psychological, demonic and apocalyptic) and demonstrates how horror cinema represents the popular expression of everyday fears while revealing the forces that influence American ideological and political values. Directors given a close reading include Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, David Cronenberg, Guillermo Del Toro, Michael Haneke, Robert Aldrich, Mel Gibson and George A. Romero. Additional material discusses postmodern remakes, horror franchises and Asian millennial horror. This book also contains more than 950 frame grabs and a very extensive filmography.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction to Dark Dreams 2.0 1
PART ONE: DARK DREAMS (1977)
Foreword to the Original Edition, by John Russell Taylor 15
Introduction 19
1—The Horror of Personality 21
2—The Horror of Armageddon 55
3—The Horror of the Demonic 88
PART TWO: MILLENNIAL NIGHTMARES (2009)
4—A Context; and Why What’s Not Happening in American Horror Isn’t 109
5—The Horror of Personality, Revisited 112
6—Sequels and Insincerity 200
7—The Horror of the Demonic, Revisited 203
8—The Horror of Armageddon, Revisited 231
9—Asian Millennial Horror 284
10—Postmodern Remakes, the Averted Gaze, and Some Glimmerings of the New 305
11—Guillermo Del Toro 315
12—David Cronenberg 330
13—9/11 and Beyond 342
Appendix I: A Proposed Canon of Modern Horror 347
Appendix II: Interviews with Horror Directors: Aldrich, Castle, Harrington, Romero, Friedkin (1977) 349
Appendix III: Filmographies (Compiled by Thomas G. Kohn) 365
Notes 409
Bibliography 413
Index 415
About the Author
Charles Derry is professor emeritus of motion picture studies at Wright State University. He has written widely on a variety of popular culture topics, including film, television and ideology.
Thomas M. Sipos
Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6572-9
EBook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8796-7
34 photos, notes, lists, index
318pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2012
Price: $40.00
About the Book
The rise of independent horror filmmaking has spurred a growth of "indie" horror film festivals, promising promotional and distribution opportunities for selected motion pictures. Some filmmakers spend thousands of dollars on festival entry fees, only to be rejected everywhere. What occurs behind the scenes at these events? More than two dozen festival directors discuss how they secure money, sponsors and screening venues, and how they promote and run their events, as well as their criteria for selecting films. This book will help horror filmmakers take fuller advantage of festival opportunities, and assist festival directors in founding and improving events. Included are listings of 200+ film festivals and awards--current, defunct and prospective--and of previous award winners, spanning six continents and several decades.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
1 How to Run a Film Festival on Pennies a Day! 5
2 How to Make an Award- Winning Horror Film! 37
3 Working the Film Festival! 65
Directory of Festivals and Awards 95
List of Award Winners (by Festival) 121
Notes 253
Index 257
About the Author
Thomas M. Sipos is the founder/manager of the Tabloid Witch Awards and a past film judge for the World Horror Convention. He has worked as a script reader, actor or extra on more than 70 productions and has written for Filmfax, Midnight Marquee and other magazines.
