[Commlist] New book: Desire After Dark

Alfred Martin is excited to announce the release of Desire After Dark: 
Contemporary Queer Cultures and Occultly Marvelous Media by his friend 
and colleague Andrew J. Owens.

In Desire After Dark, Owens explores media where figures such as 
vampires and witches make use of their supernatural knowledge in order 
to queer what otherwise appears to be a normative world. Beginning with 
the global sexual revolutions of the '60s and moving decade by decade 
through "Euro-sleaze" cinema and theatrical hardcore pornography, the 
HIV/AIDS crisis, the popularity of New Age religions and witchcraft, and 
finally the increasingly explicit sexualization of American cable 
television, Owens contends that occult media has risen to prominence 
during the past 60 years as a way of exposing and working through 
cultural crises about queerness. Through the use of historiography and 
textual analyses of media from Bewitched to The Hunger, Owens reveals 
that the various players in occult media have always been well aware 
that non-normative sexuality constitutes the heart of horror's enduring 
appeal.

By investigating vampirism, witchcraft, and other manifestations of the 
supernatural in media, Desire After Dark confirms how the queer has been 
integral to the evolution of the horror genre and its persistent 
popularity as both a subcultural and mainstream media form.

"Over the last several decades, the production of queer-themed horror 
has boomed, as has queer horror scholarship. This new study begins in 
the psychedelic (and sometimes Satanic) sixties and ends with an 
examination of queer horror in 21st-century niche TV. Author Andrew J. 
Owens deftly weaves contexts of culture, history, and industry in his 
analyses of texts both canonical (Dark Shadows, The Vampire Lovers) and 
lesser known (The Craft, Dante's Cove, and the films of Jean Rollin). 
Highly recommended."

~Harry M. Benshoff, author of Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and 
the Horror Film

University of Indiana Press is offering a 30% discount until June 30, 
2021 by using the discount code “SCMS21.” 
https://iupress.org/9780253053824/desire-after-dark/



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