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The Politics of Horror Edited by Damien K. Picariello The Politics of Horror Damien K. Picariello Editor The Politics of Horror Editor Damien K. Picariello Department of Political Science University of South Carolina Sumter Sumter, SC, USA ISBN 978-3-030-42014-7 ISBN 978-3-030-42015-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42015-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: © MATJAZ SLANIC / E+ / Getty Image This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG. The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland P reface “Begin,” says Stephen King, “by assuming that the tale of horror, no mat- ter how primitive, is allegorical by its very nature; that it is symbolic. Assume that it is talking to us, like a patient on a psychoanalyst’s couch, about one thing while it means another.”1 In other words, horror is always about more than what it’s about. This is so, King suggests, because the things that terrify us also, in some sense, reveal us. Horror shows us who we are—by showing us what we’re scared of—in a powerful, foundational way. In this sense, King suggests that we think of horror as “lifting a trapdoor in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath.”2 If we’re fishing for insights about politics, this subterranean river might be worth exploring. Politics, like horror, is about who we are. It’s about big questions like the nature of justice and how we ought to live together, and it’s also about narrower, more particular questions, like: “How can I get people to vote for me?” Come to think of it, throwing raw meat to hungry alligators sounds a little bit like running for office, doesn’t it? In this collection, The Politics of Horror, you’ll find 20 chapters that explore the connections between horror and politics in a wide variety of ways. In composing these chapters, we’ve tried to write in a way that’s both broadly accessible and intellectually rigorous, and we’ve tried to spark conversations—about horror and about politics—that our readers will find engaging. v vi PREFACE What we want is for you, dear reader, to turn at random to a chapter in this volume, start reading, and say: “Hey, I never thought of that before!” If that happens—when that happens—we’ll know that we’ve done our job. * * * The Politics of Horror is organized into several sections. The chapters grouped together in each section have something in common with each other: sometimes a common theme—witches or the apocalypse or nature—and sometimes a common medium—comics or television or games. This mode of organization is meant to make our volume easier for you, the reader, to navigate. You’re welcome to start at the beginning and go straight through, or to skip to a section that looks particularly interest- ing to you. Don’t worry: the other sections will be waiting for you when you’re ready. Our first section, Petrifying Politics, explores some of the connections between horror and contemporary American political life. In “The American Nightmare: Graveyard Voters, Demon Sheep, Devil Women, and Lizard People,” Christina M. Knopf shows us how horror imagery has come to play a prominent role in both depictions of American politics and American political discourse and campaigning. In “Horror, Crisis, and Control: Tales of Facing Evils,” John S. Nelson brings out the common- alities between horror narratives and “crisis theory,” which theorizes the impending collapse of social and political order. In Meghan Purvis’s “We’re Witches and We’re Hunting You: Matriarchy and Misogyny in Conjure Wife,” we find insights for contemporary politics in mid- twentieth- century depictions of marriage and witchcraft. The two chapters in our next section, Apocalypse and After, examine depictions of societal collapse and rebuilding. In “The Democratic Impulse in Post-Apocalyptic Films,” Christie L. Maloyed and J. Kelton Williams show us how films like Land of the Dead and WALL-E point us toward thinkers like Alexis de Tocqueville; in “Through a Glass Darkly: The Dimensionality and Inadequacy of Political Fear in Stephen King’s The Stand,” Jordon B. Barkalow and Jennifer A. Mogg discuss the uses and abuses of fear within the post-apocalyptic political communities in King’s novel. Our third section features two chapters that deal with what we call Ghoulish Games. In “The Monsters Among Us: Realism and Constructivism PREFACE vii in Vampire: The Masquerade,” James D. Fielder discusses what horror-themed live action roleplaying can teach us about international relations. In “Anxiety in Suburbia: The Politics of Gaming in Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom,” Michelle Salerno brings out the political implications of a play with a disturb- ing video game at its heart. Our next two sections each focus on a particular medium. In Terrifying Television, Lynn Kozak discusses a horror TV series with a contemporary political charge in “The Exorcist and a New Kind of American Television Horror” and Carol Westcamp illuminates the unexpected commonalities between horror and reality television in “Reality TV as Horror: Psychological Terror and Physical Torture.” In Creepy Comics, Lara Saguisag shows us how Philippine horror comics provide a window into the politics of the Philippines in “Zombie Komiks in a Cacique Democracy: Patay Kung Patay’s Undead Revolution” and Zack Kruse explores depic- tions of colonialism in twentieth-century American horror comics in “‘Just as You Will Do to One Another!’: Colonialism That Consumes Itself in Warren Publications’ Creepy.” Daniel V. Goff rounds out this section with “Witches in the South: Past, Present, and in Comics,” in which he dis- cusses the power dynamics at play in depictions of witchcraft in comic books. We’re just past the halfway point of our volume, now, and our section is a long one: Nightmarish Nature features four chapters, each of which focuses, in one way or another, on the terrors of the natural world. In “‘Bring Him the Blood of the Outlanders!’: Children of the Corn as Farm Crisis Horror,” Kathleen P. Hunt connects the 1984 horror film to a crisis in American farming, while Emma Frances Bloomfield mines Darren Aronofsky’s 2017 film mother! for insights in “mother! and the Horror of Environmental Abuse.” The two chapters that conclude this section also focus on movies: In “Let the Bodies (of Water) Hit the Floor: Development and Exploitation in John Boorman’s Deliverance,” Salvatore J. Russo and Chelsea Renee Ratcliff show us how Boorman’s film challenges the tropes of the “eco-horror” genre, and in “The Mayor of Shark City”: Political Power in Jaws, Leslie Stratyner discusses the politics of Amity Island in Spielberg’s film. Our next section, Return of the Repressed, begins by returning to Spielberg. In “Fear of Founding from Plato to Poltergeist,” Damien K. Picariello discusses the terror lurking beneath the surface of the perfect community in the Spielberg-penned 1982 film. In this section’s other chapter, “Post-Racial Lies and Fear of the Historical-Political Boomerang in Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Colson Whitehead’s The Underground viii PREFACE Railroad,” Cammie M. Sublette shows us how Peele’s film and Whitehead’s novel challenge the notion of a “post-racial” United States. Our final section, Cradle to the Grave, begins with Eamon Byers’s discussion of motherhood in Irish horror film in “‘The Mother Who Eats Her Own’: The Politics of Motherhood in Irish Horror.” The last chapter in our volume is “Frankenstein’s Dream and the Politics of Death” by Jeff J.S. Black, in which we examine Shelley’s novel in the context of contem- porary—for Shelley and for us—discussions of human mortality. Sumter, SC, USA Damien K. Picariello Notes 1. Stephen King, Danse Macabre (New York: Berkley Books, 1981), 31. 2. King, 177. Or “One might say,” with Robin Wood, “that the true subject of the horror genre is the struggle for recognition of all that our civilization represses or oppresses, its reemergence dramatized, as in our nightmares, as an object of horror” (“An Introduction to the American Horror Film,” in Barry Keith Grant, Ed., Robin Wood on the American Horror Film: Collected Essays and Reviews [Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2018] 79). a ckNowledgmeNts As editor of this collection, I’m extremely grateful to our contributors, who have put tremendous time and energy into their chapters. I hope you’ll agree that their work is remarkable. The University of South Carolina Sumter and the Institute for Humane Studies both provided funding toward the completion of this volume, and I’m grateful for their generosity. A RISE grant from the University of South Carolina Office of the Vice President for Research was an essential part of this project and was greatly appreciated. This collection marks my second collaboration with Michelle Chen at Palgrave, and I’m glad and grateful to have had the experience; I’d also like to thank Rebecca Roberts at Palgrave for her help in preparing this manuscript. My colleagues at the University of South Carolina Sumter have been generous as always with their time and atten- tion: Kristina Grob, Andy Kunka, Ray McManus, Eric Reisenauer, Bianca Rowlett, and many others. Finally, and always: Jil and Lenny Picariello, Alex Picariello, Pepper Picariello, and—deeply—Erin. I dedicate this vol- ume to Baci; as of this writing, we’re counting the days. ix c oNteNts Section I Petrifying Politics 1 1 The American Nightmare: Graveyard Voters, Demon Sheep, Devil Women, and Lizard People 3 Christina M. Knopf 2 Horror, Crisis, and Control: Tales of Facing Evils 17 John S. Nelson 3 We’re Witches and We’re Hunting You: Matriarchy and Misogyny in Conjure Wife 33 Meghan Purvis Section II Apocalypse and After 45 4 The Democratic Impulse in Post-Apocalyptic Films 47 Christie L. Maloyed and J. Kelton Williams 5 Through a Glass Darkly: The Dimensionality and Inadequacy of Political Fear in Stephen King’s The Stand 59 Jennifer A. Mogg and Jordon B. Barkalow xi

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