The Forbidden Body (eBook)

Sex, Horror, and the Religious Imagination

Douglas E. Cowan (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2022
Nyu Press (Verlag)
978-1-4798-0312-5 (ISBN)

Infos

From creature features to indie horror flicks, find out what happens when sex, horror, and the religious imagination come togetherThroughout history, religion has attempted to control nothing so much as our bodies: what they are and what they mean; what we do with them, with whom, and under what circumstances; how they may be displayed or, more commonly, how they must be hidden. Yet, we remain fascinated, obsessed even, by bodies that have left, or been forced out of, their proper place. The Forbidden Body examines how horror culture treats these bodies, exploring the dark spaces where sex and the sexual body come together with religious belief and tales of terror.Taking a broad approach not limited to horror cinema or popular fiction, but embracing also literary horror, weird fiction, graphic storytelling, visual arts, and participative culture, Douglas E. Cowan explores how fears of bodies that are tainted, impure, or sexually deviant are made visible and reinforced through popular horror tropes. The volume challenges the reader to move beyond preconceived notions of religion in order to decipher the religious imagination at play in the scary stories we tell over and over again. Cowan argues that stories of religious bodies out of place are so compelling because they force us to consider questions that religious belief cannot comfortably answer: Who are we? Where do we come from? Why do we suffer? And above all, do we matter? As illuminating as it is unsettling, The Forbidden Body offers a fascinating look at how and why we imagine bodies in all the wrong places.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 17.5.2022
• Zusatzinfo: 16 b/w illustrations
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Krimi / Thriller / Horror ► Horror
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Schlagworte: Alien Invasion • Ambiguity • Anthropology • Anti-Catholic nativism • Anti-Pagan activism • b movies • Censorship • Clive Barker • Clovis Trouille • cosmic horror • Cosmic indifference • Cthulhu mythos • Devil • Dracula • edward lee • Enigma • Evolutionary Psychology • Exploitation • fear • Graphic Novels • Horror • horror genre • Horror mode • H. P. Lovecraft • human sacrifice • Interpretive drift • King Kong • Legion of Decency • Lustmord • Margaret Brundage • Maria Monk • Marquis de Sade • matthew lewis • Monstering • monstrous body • Morality • Motion Picture Association of America • Motion Picture Production Code • nudity • Numinous • Nun fetish • Nunsploitation • Pulp Fiction • queer horror • realization • Religion • Religious Imagination • religious questions • Riddle • Ritual rarity • Roger Corman • Rudolf Otto • Sadeian horror • Sex • Sexual bodies • Sexualized advertising • Sigmund Freud • skepticism • Spatter horror • Stephen King • Tanya Luhrmann • The Exorcist • the wicker man • The Witch • Thomas Rowlandson • Weird Tales • Witchcraft • Wrath James White
• ISBN-10: 1-4798-0312-X / 147980312X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4798-0312-5 / 9781479803125