engleski

Faces of Fear – Aesthetics of Horror and the Representation of the Monstrous

When discussing the issue of the horror genre, together with the notion of fear, numerous interpretations and constructs become available as tools through which we can access the vivid sub-layers that inevitably accompany this complex genre. Similarly, the issue of the monstrous carries within itself an analogous complexity. It offers the readers/viewers both a fearful as well as an explicit experience, something mediated or metaphoric, while at the same time providing a social or cultural critique. It is precisely this context that the presentation will focus on, presenting and analysing three different cases, from three different cultural and artistic backgrounds. The first case presents the concept of onryou or yuri, the image of the Japanese female ghost, whose identity and gender function as a catalyst for the anxieties of the male dominated Japanese society. This image of a demon seeking revenge (narratives such as Ringu and Ju on) captures the viewers (and readers) through the feminine and subversive nature of the ghost. The second part of the presentations offers an analysis of the idea of the serial killer as a product of the postmodern American society. Drawing 59 from rudimental examples such as Leatherface (from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre series) to more complex (or “blank”) literary constructs such as Patrick Bateman (from Bret Easton Ellis’s novel American Psycho), the notion of the serial killer encompasses the fears and anxieties of a constantly changing and ever more secular society. By largely shedding the “inert” Gothic narrative dynamics of the previous centuries, the serial killer appears as both a real life monster and a fi ctional creation, a product of a contemporary age. The fi nal segment revolves around the analysis of the work of Francesca Woodman – a photographer whose art, although it does not belong to either the literary or movie tradition achieves an uncanny effect by combining everyday objects with portraits of unidentifi ed women placed within specifi c non-descriptive spaces. Although belonging to something that could be defi ned as High(er) Art, Woodman’s work still achieves an elevated sense of uneasiness embodied in the image of the represented women, implying that the idea of fear transcends and defi es genre issues as well as art forms. The aim of the presentation is therefore to identify the representation of the monstrous, and its aesthetic subtext, within seemingly disconnected forms of art.

monstrous; horror genre; fear; movie; photography; uncanny; Francesca Woodman

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