This is a timely update of a seminal text which re-interprets key films of the horror genre, including Carrie, The Exorcist, The Brood and Psycho. Although a projection of male fears and fantasies, the monstrous-feminine is a nonetheless a terrifying figure.
Drawing on Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection, Creed challenges the popular view that women in the horror film are almost aways victims by arguing that the prototype of all definitions of the monstrous is the abject female reproductive body. Woman is represented as monstrous because, through the very nature of her sexuality, she undermines the patriarchal symbolic order and must be brought under control. Creed argues that the monstrous-feminine is not only central to horror but that she assumes at least seven faces: the archaic mother, monstrous womb, vampire, witch, possessed body, monstrous mother and castrator. Creed's argument contests Freudian and Lacanian theories of sexual difference as well as existing theories of spectatorship, to provide a provocative rereading of classical and contemporary horror films as well as challenging sexist theories of horror, gender, and desire.
This updated edition includes an entirely new section examining feminist horror films of the new millennium in the context of abjection and nonhuman theory. Creed proposes a new concept of radical abjection in order to reinterpret the monstrous-feminine as a figure who embraces her abjection by reclaiming her body and re-defining her otherness as nonhuman--while questioning anthropocentrism, misogyny, and the meaning of the human. This new section proposes different faces of the monstrous-feminine which move between the familiar and unfamiliar, human and nonhuman: creatrix, woman-wolf, animal, dentata, machine, mermaid, chimera, zombie, troll, and hybrid. Films discussed include Ginger Snaps, Teeth, The Girl with All the Gifts, Atlantics, Little Joe, The Dark, Border and Titane.
Barbara Creed's classic remains as relevant as ever and this updated edition will be of key interest to academics and students of film, feminist theory, nonhuman theory, cultural studies, critical animal studies, race, and queer theory.
Industry Reviews
"Barbara Creed's The Monstrous-Feminine is one of the most influential books to emerge in the early 90s. The Monstrous-Feminine defined how our generation and our discipline viewed the horror genre. In this new edition, Creed does it again, recontextualizing the conception of the monstrous-feminine to track many of the evolutions in the horror genre and this revised edition will continue to shape our understanding of the horror genre in the new millennium."
Aaron Kramer, Professor, and Director of the SFSU School of Cinema, San Francisco State University"Creed's The Monstrous-Feminine radically changed the logic of abjection and how it is linked with women. In her profoundly original analysis of horror films, Creed upended a concept emanating from psychoanalysis, traditionally perceived as scaffolding supporting patriarchy, to demonstrate how women could be seen as the agents of abjection rather than as its passive victims. In this new edition Creed expands and updates the filmography to include horror films created by women to augment the ways in which the monstrous-feminine functions deliciously as patriarchy's retribution."
Sneja Gunew, Professor Emerita (English/Social Justice Institute), University of British Columbia, Canada"In this new and expanded edition of the classic The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis, Barbara Creed adds a crucial monstrous-feminine register: the nonhuman. With the nonhuman, female horror touches the profound source of abjection. Twenty-first Century feminist horror, Creed shows, introduces a series of startling tropes: the metamorphizing adolescent girl, the female zombie, and the creatrix. Together these female monsters question the stability and uniqueness of the human. In an age at which anthropogenic and patriarchal harms threaten the very survival of the planet, embracing the nonhuman becomes a remedial, even liberating gesture."
Anat Pick, Reader in Film, Queen Mary University of London"Thirty years after the publication of Barbara Creed's classic text, which revolutionised approaches to the analysis of women in horror films, the monstrous- feminine looms large. This updated edition, which includes entirely new chapters, interrogates the concept in contemporary contexts through a range of diverse films directed by women, and through the exploration of recent progressive social movements. What emerges are newer "faces", more nuanced forms of horror that speak to a global audience and that revitalise the force of the abject in more expanded ways that continue to revolt against patriarchal order."
Rina Arya, Professor of Visual Culture and Theory, University of Huddersfield
