\n At the request of colleagues, please note the extended deadline for abstracts is 14th<\/span><\/sup> February 2017<\/strong> (for a truly bloody Valentine\u2019s\u2026)<\/p>\n Gothic Feminism presents:<\/em> Women-in-Peril or Final Girls? Representing Women in Gothic and Horror Cinema<\/strong><\/p>\n 25th<\/span><\/sup> \u2013 26th<\/span><\/sup> May 2017<\/p>\n University of Kent<\/p>\n Keynote speaker: Dr Xavier Aldana Reyes (Manchester Metropolitan University) CALL FOR PAPERS<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n 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 <\/em>films, as they have also been called, re-work the Bluebeard story and establish a \u2018woman-in-peril\u2019 character archetype which features in films such as Rebecca <\/em>(1940), Gaslight<\/em> (1944) and Secret Beyond the Door<\/em> (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<\/em> (2015).<\/p>\n 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 \u2018mouth is open as if in midscream\u2019 with \u2018fear chiselled into her features\u2019 is so familiar that one can argue it \u2018succinctly signifies the American horror film\u2019 (Berenstein, 1996, 1). Later permutations of the genre sustain this focus on gender representations, as with the transgressive qualities of \u2018postmodern horror\u2019 (Pinedo, 1997) or, more specifically, the \u2018slasher\u2019 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 <\/em>(1974), The Texas Chainsaw Massacre <\/em>(1974) and Halloween<\/em> (1978) exemplify these conventions and theorists have observed the centrality of the horror heroine within this genre: Carol Clover\u2019s seminal work on the topic highlights the importance of the \u2018female victim-hero\u2019 and the complex gender representations inherent in this figure when she becomes the film\u2019s sole survivor or \u2018Final Girl\u2019 (Clover, 1992).<\/p>\n 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\u2019s experience within a narrative arc which exposes her to a danger emanating from an initially unknown or misunderstood threat. This risk \u2013 which is normally made against her life \u2013 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 \u2018has its roots in the English gothic novels of the 18th<\/span><\/sup> and 19th<\/span><\/sup> centuries\u2019 (Penner and Schneider, 2012). This lineage is further evident by the way the terms \u2018Gothic\u2019 and \u2018horror\u2019 have been applied interchangeably as delineating categories. Horror has been labelled as Gothic: both David Pirie and Jonathan Rigby write of the \u2018English Gothic Cinema\u2019 which includes Hammer\u2019s films, whilst Bernice M. Murphy studies US horror from the perspective of \u2018Rural Gothic\u2019 (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 \u2018feminist\u2019 (see, for example, Pinedo, 1997; Freeland, 2000).<\/p>\n 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\u2019s slasher horrors emphasise the \u2018Terrible Place\u2019 (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 \u2018classic horror\u2019 \u2013 pre-dating the slasher \u2013 where \u2018[unlike] the Gothic novel, however, heroines are not confronted by the men closest to them \u2026 Instead, women are attacked or seduced by foreign male (and, sometimes, female) fiends\u2019 (Berenstein, 1996, 12). Gothic and horror also differ in their presumed target audience. The Gothic \u2013 an integral part of melodrama and the \u2018woman\u2019s picture\u2019 \u2013 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).<\/p>\n 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 \u2013 or horror to the Gothic \u2013 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<\/em> and 25 years since Carol Clover published Men, Women and Chainsaws<\/em>. 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 \u2018woman\u2019s film\u2019 and the \u2018Final Girl\u2019 relate to contemporary film theory and feminist criticism? Are these ideas still applicable to recent Gothic and horror films, and their heroines?<\/p>\n 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?<\/p>\n Topics can include but are not limited to:<\/p>\n \u2013 Comparisons between the genre conventions and tropes within Gothic and horror films and their representation of female protagonists<\/p>\n \u2013 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<\/p>\n \u2013 The connection between the Gothic or horror heroine and other characters within the narrative, such as the love interest, male villain, other victims, etc.<\/p>\n \u2013 How the Gothic and horror heroine relate to archetypal roles, such as the victim, the mother or the monstrous-feminine<\/p>\n \u2013 Representations of space and how this impacts upon the portrayal of the Gothic or horror female characters<\/p>\n \u2013 Film theory and the distinction between Gothic and horror in cinema<\/p>\n \u2013 How Gothic and horror women characters engage with feminist discourse and theories of gender representation<\/p>\n \u2013 Female spectators of Gothic and horror and fandom<\/p>\n \n Please submit proposals of 500 words, along with a short biographical note (250 words) to gothicfeminism2016@gmail.com by 14th<\/span><\/sup> February 2017 <\/strong>(please note the extended deadline).<\/p>\n We welcome 20-minute conference papers as well as submissions for creative work or practice-as-research including, but not limited to, short films and video essays.<\/p>\n Conference organisers: Frances A. Kamm and Tamar Jeffers McDonald<\/p>\n https:\/\/gothicfeminism.com\/<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n https:\/\/twitter.com\/GothicFeminism<\/span><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n References <\/strong><\/p>\n Berenstein, Rhona J. (1996). Attack of the Leading Ladies: Gender, Sexuality and Spectatorship in Classic Horror Cinema<\/em>. New York: Columbia University Press.<\/p>\n Clover, Carol J. (1992). Men, Women and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film<\/em>. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n Creed, Barbara. (1993). The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis<\/em>. Oxon: Routledge.<\/p>\n Doane, Mary Ann. (1987). The Desire to Desire: The Woman\u2019s Film of the 1940s<\/em>. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.<\/p>\n Freeland, Cynthia A. (2000). The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror<\/em>. Colorado: Westview Press.<\/p>\n Grant, Barry Keith. (2015). The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film<\/em>. Second edition. Texas: University of Texas Press.<\/p>\n Jancovich, Mark. (2013). \u2018Bluebeard\u2019s Wives: Horror, Quality and the Paranoid Woman\u2019s Film in the 1940s\u2019, The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies <\/em>12: 20-43.<\/p>\n Modleski, Tania. (2008). Loving with a Vengeance: Mass-Produced Fantasies for Women<\/em>. Second edition. Oxon: Routledge.<\/p>\n Murphy, Bernice M. (2013). The Rural Gothic in American Popular Culture: Backwoods Horror and Terror in the Wilderness<\/em>. London: Palgrave Macmillan.<\/p>\n Penner, Jonathan and Steven Jay Schneider. (2012). Horror Cinema<\/em>. Los Angeles and Cologne: Taschen.<\/p>\n Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. (1997). Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing<\/em>. New York: State University of New York Press.<\/p>\n Pirie, David. (2008). A New Heritage of Horror: The English Gothic Cinema<\/em>. London and New York: I. B. Tauris.<\/p>\n Rigby, Jonathan. (2015). English Gothic: Classic Horror Cinema 1897 \u2013 2015<\/em>. Cambridge: Signum Books.<\/p>\n Tartar, Maria. (2004). Secrets Beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives<\/em>. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.<\/p>\n Waldman, Diane. (1983). \u2018\u201dAt last I can tell it to someone!\u201d Feminine point of view and Subjectivity in the Gothic Romance Film of the 1940s\u2019, Cinema Journal <\/em>23: 29-40.<\/p>\n Williams, Linda. (1984). \u2018When the Woman Looks.\u2019 In: Doane, Mary Ann, Patricia Mellencamp and Linda Williams (eds.). Re-vision: Essays in Feminist Film Criticism<\/em>. Los Angeles: American Film Institute.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good news! Melodrama Research Group member Frances has revealed that the Call for Papers deadline for the next Gothic Feminism Conference has been extended to the 14th of February. If you’d like to submit a paper pertaining to ‘Women in … Continue reading ![\"Gothic](\"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/melodramaresearchgroup\/files\/2016\/03\/Gothic-blog-untitled-300x169.png\")
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