[ecrea] CFP: Women in Gothic and Horror Cinema

/Gothic Feminism presents:/

**

*Women-in-Peril or Final Girls? Representing Women in Gothic and Horror 
Cinema*

25^th – 26^th May 2017

University of Kent

*Keynote speaker: Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes (Manchester Metropolitan 
University)*

**

*_CALL FOR PAPERS_*

The representation of female protagonists has been a central tenant in 
both Gothic and Horror cinema. In the Hollywood Gothic films of the 
1940s, the heroine is the primary focus as she navigates key tropes of 
the genre, including the exploration of the old dark house and the 
investigating of sinister marital secrets. These melodramas and /noir 
/films, as they have also been called, re-work the Bluebeard story and 
establish a ‘woman-in-peril’ character archetype which features in films 
such as /Rebecca /(1940), /Gaslight/ (1944) and /Secret Beyond the Door/ 
(1947) (Waldman, 1983; Doane, 1987; Tartar, 2004). These Gothic 
conventions have been revived and reworked recently in contemporary 
cinema with the release of /Crimson Peak/ (2015).

Horror cinema has also been characterised by the portrayal of its female 
protagonists. The 1930s Universal horror films typically feature the 
endangered woman who is terrorised by the monster or villain. Indeed, as 
Rhona J. Berenstein notes, the image of a woman whose ‘mouth is open as 
if in midscream’ with ‘fear chiselled into her features’ is so familiar 
that one can argue it ‘succinctly signifies the American horror film’ 
(Berenstein, 1996, 1). Later permutations of the genre sustain this 
focus on gender representations, as with the transgressive qualities of 
‘postmodern horror’ (Pinedo, 1997) or, more specifically, the ‘slasher’ 
film which focuses on the brutal murder of several victims at the hands 
of a serial killer, with particular attention paid to the killing and/or 
survival of female character(s). /Black Christmas /(1974), /The Texas 
Chainsaw Massacre / (1974) and /Halloween/ (1978) exemplify these 
conventions and theorists have observed the centrality of the horror 
heroine within this genre: Carol Clover’s seminal work on the topic 
highlights the importance of the ‘female victim-hero’ and the complex 
gender representations inherent in this figure when she becomes the 
film’s sole survivor or ‘Final Girl’ (Clover, 1992).

When comparing these historic representations of female protagonists in 
Gothic and horror cinema, one can identify many similarities between the 
two genres or modes in respect to their portrayal of women. In the 
examples above, Gothic and horror both privilege the depiction of the 
woman’s experience within a narrative arc which exposes her to a danger 
emanating from an initially unknown or misunderstood threat. This risk – 
which is normally made against her life – comes from the villain or 
antagonist conventionally gendered as male. This correlation between 
Gothic and horror could be argued to stem from their shared heritage: it 
has been noted how the horror genre ‘has its roots in the English gothic 
novels of the 18^th and 19^th centuries’ (Penner and Schneider, 2012). 
This lineage is further evident by the way the terms ‘Gothic’ and 
‘horror’ have been applied interchangeably as delineating categories. 
Horror has been labelled as Gothic: both David Pirie and Jonathan Rigby 
write of the ‘English Gothic Cinema’ which includes Hammer’s films, 
whilst Bernice M. Murphy studies US horror from the perspective of 
‘Rural Gothic’ (Pirie, 2008; Murphy, 2013; Rigby, 2015). And Gothic has 
been called horror: Mark Jancovich points out how the 1940s Hollywood 
Gothics were also understood as horror films at their time of release 
(Jancovich, 2013). Both Gothic and horror have also attracted 
considerable attention concerning their depiction of women and whether 
such texts are ‘feminist’ (see, for example, Pinedo, 1997; Freeland, 2000).

Yet there are also significant differences between Gothic and horror. 
The two modes or genres can be distinguished by variations in how the 
central female protagonist is depicted. The Gothics of the 1940s focus 
on the representation of the heroine within the intimidating space of 
the ancestral mansion, but the 1970’s slasher horrors emphasise the 
‘Terrible Place’ (Clover, 1992) where extreme violence is executed. 
Where the Gothic emphasises suspicion, suspense and mystery, the horror 
film showcases blood, torture and gore. Berenstein notes how the 
contrast between Gothic and horror is also present in ‘classic horror’ – 
pre-dating the slasher – where ‘[unlike] the Gothic novel, however, 
heroines are not confronted by the men closest to them … Instead, women 
are attacked or seduced by foreign male (and, sometimes, female) fiends’ 
(Berenstein, 1996, 12). Gothic and horror also differ in their presumed 
target audience. The Gothic – an integral part of melodrama and the 
‘woman’s picture’ – has traditionally been analysed in terms of the 
Female Gothic and its appeal to female audiences (Waldman, 1983; Doane, 
1987; Modleski, 2008). Conversely, the spectatorship for horror has been 
characterised as adolescent and male (Williams, 1984; Clover, 1992; 
Creed, 1993).

This conference seeks to re-engage with these discussions of gender 
within Gothic and horror cinema by directly comparing the two. What 
relationship does Gothic have to horror – or horror to the Gothic – in 
respect to female representation? What makes a Gothic heroine different 
from (or, indeed, similar to) female victims/protagonists in horror 
films? What can we say about the centrality given to female performance 
in both these genres/modes? Where does one draw the line between Gothic 
and horror in film? 2017 will mark 30 years since Mary Ann Doane 
published /The Desire to Desire/ and 25 years since Carol Clover 
published /Men, Women and Chainsaws/. This conference will also reflect 
upon the impact of seminal works on Gothic, horror and gender such as 
these within film theory. What do these works tell us about the 
relationship between Gothic and horror in respect to female 
representation? How do theories of the ‘woman’s film’ and the ‘Final 
Girl’ relate to contemporary film theory and feminist criticism? Are 
these ideas still applicable to recent Gothic and horror films, and 
their heroines?

In addressing these questions this conference will underline the 
importance of female protagonists in Gothic and horror, within film 
history and contemporary cinema, and ask: are these characters 
women-in-peril or Final Girls, or both?

Topics can include but are not limited to:

- Comparisons between the genre conventions and tropes within Gothic and 
horror films and their representation of female protagonists

- Close textual analysis of a single film or series of films which blur 
the lines between Gothic and horror, or an analysis of film/s which 
reinforce the differences between the Gothic and horror traditions 
through the depiction of women characters

- The connection between the Gothic or horror heroine and other 
characters within the narrative, such as the love interest, male 
villain, other victims, etc.

- How the Gothic and horror heroine relate to archetypal roles, such as 
the victim, the mother or the monstrous-feminine

- Representations of space and how this impacts upon the portrayal of 
the Gothic or horror female characters

- Film theory and the distinction between Gothic and horror in cinema

- How Gothic and horror women characters engage with feminist discourse 
and theories of gender representation

- Female spectators of Gothic and horror and fandom

Please submit proposals of 500 words, along with a short biographical 
note (250 words) to (gothicfeminism2016 /at/ gmail.com) by *1^st February 2017*.


Conference organisers: Frances A. Kamm and Tamar Jeffers McDonald

https://gothicfeminism.com/

https://twitter.com/GothicFeminism

/This conference is the second annual event from the Gothic Feminism 
project, within the Melodrama Research Group in the Centre of Film and 
Media Research at the University of Kent. Gothic Feminism explores the 
representation of the Gothic heroine on-screen in her various incarnations./


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