Le cinéma d’horreur, plus particulièrement le slasher, sous-genre qui a émergé dans les années 1980, a souvent été le lieu pour l’exploration d’enjeux sexuels. Les héroïnes qui ont marquées cette décennie ont connu une évolution parallèle aux changements socioculturels. Le présent projet vise à montrer la transformation de cette protagoniste au fil des décennies. Je m’intéresserai d’abord et avant tout à la théorie de Judith Butler qui montre le gender comme une construction sociale. Puis, ma démarche s’appuiera sur le rapport spectatoriel tel que développé par l’auteure Laura Mulvey dans son texte « Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema » ainsi que sur la notion de Final Girl théorisée par Carol J. Clover et qui concerne précisément les personnages de survivantes dans le slasher américain. À la lumière de ces études, j’analyserai trois films d’horreur produits au début des années 2000 : All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Teeth (2004) et May (2002). En plus de préciser les rouages liés à la construction du gender (féminin) et de l’identité sexuelle, ces études de cas serviront à présenter une nouvelle forme de personnage conscient de sa féminité et de son pouvoir. / Horror cinema, more specifically the slasher, a sub-genre that obtained its popularity during the 1980s, has often been the place for a discourse about sexual politics. The evolution of the heroines from some of the films of this decade is indissociable from the importance of context and culture. This work concentrates on the transformation of this female protagonist during the years. First, I will take a look at Judith Butler’s notion of gender performativity. My approach will also emphasize the gaze of the spectator with “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’’ by Laura Mulvey and the Carol J. Clover’s theory of the Final Girl, the latter regarding those slasher female leading characters. Then, three movies of the new millennium will be analyzed: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane (2006), Teeth (2004) and May (2002). These analyses will serve to demonstrate the mechanisms at play in the construction of gender and sexual identity. Furthermore, they will reveal a new kind of female character, one who is both aware of her femininity and her/its power.

This thesis is an in-depth analysis of George Romero's 'Living Dead' tetralogy of films, comprising Night of the Living Dead (1968), Dawn ofthe-Bead (1978), Day of the Dead(\985) and Land of the Dead (2005), examined through the lensf of contemporary film genre theory. The project focuses specifically on issues of the representation of race, class, culture and violence in the four films, and how these representations, along with the concomitant social critique evident in Romero's work, change in response to the upheavals and developments which have occurred in the American social, cultural and political climate over the past four decades. It also focuses on how Romero's films respond to changes in the horror genre, and how Romero both structures his films on the binary oppositions which are central to the genre and deconstructs these oppositions, and the implications that this deconstruction (most notably that of the figure of the zombie, which occupies a zone of constantly shifting liminality between the human and the monstrous) has in relation to Romero's socio-cultural and political commentary implicit in the films. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008

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Orientador: Fábio Akcelrud Durão / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-19T00:44:26Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ponte_Charles_D.pdf: 5158221 bytes, checksum: 021381a1dcdf598dfa5687c77fa4f959 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: Ao longo do último século, o modus operandi da indústria cultural foi responsável por um movimento de padronização dos artefatos culturais, constituindo um eixo tensional entre repetição e inovação que abarca em todas as artes, mas especialmente no cinema, tendo este uma maior necessidade de retorno dos investimentos feitos para sua realização. Dessa forma, considerando o cinema feito nos Estados Unidos como o principal representante do entretenimento fílmico, é natural que esta homogeneização lhe seja mais intensa, um aspecto convenientemente negligenciado pelas críticas especializadas, posto que estas costumam enfatizar, acertadamente, aqueles filmes de maior complexidade, terminando por iludir os leitores acerca da real porcentagem de filmes com tal qualidade. Assim, o objetivo desta tese é observar a composição de uma dessas obras costumeiramente não contempladas pela crítica, a trilogia de horror Pânico (1996; 1998; 2000), dirgida por Wes Craven, partindo da leitura cerrada de seus principais componentes estruturais - enredo, personagens, espaço e foco narrativo - e comparando-a a outros de seu subgênero, para verificar a existência de uma tensão dialética de aproximação ou distanciamento da estandardização das formas diegéticas e como esses movimentos estão relacionados com as estratégias de comercialização dos produtos. Para isso, este trabalho lança mão de um corpo de teorias de diversas áreas, desde a literatura e o cinema até o grupo de pensadores abarcado pelo epíteto Teoria, mas sempre permeado pelo conceito de indústria cultural de Adorno e Horkheimer (1985) e pelas elaborações posteriores de Adorno (2001) sobre do tema. No corpus, por um lado, a tensão entre a repetição das formas e seu rearranjo ocorre em todos os componentes selecionados, de modo que a trilogia Pânico continua a pertencer ao subgênero slasher em sua composição, ao menos na superfície, apesar de conter uma grande parcela de hibridização de outros gêneros, notadamente a estruturação das duas personagens principais, heroína e monstro, bem como de parte de sua découpage; por outro lado, há uma parcela de inovações atribuídas à trilogia, em especial a presença de uma variada veia metaficcional, uma raridade em todo o gênero horror, mas também a diminuição das cenas violentamente explícitas. Contudo, pode-se confirmar, através da interpretação dos resultados, que as modificações permitidas nunca ameaçam a quebra da quarta parede, ou mesmo a expectativa da plateia em relação aos filmes, de modo que se devem considerar praticamente todas as alterações como controladas para emular uma novidade falaciosa / Abstract: Throughout last century, the culture industry's modus operandi was responsible for a standardizing movement in cultural artifacts, constituting a tensional axis between repetition and innovation that embraces all arts, but mainly in film, having the latter a greater need for returns in its production investments. That way, regarding the American cinema as the main representative of filmic entertainment, it is natural that its homogenization is more intense, an aspect conveniently overlooked by specialized critiques, since they tend to emphasize, correctly, those films of higher complexity, ultimately deluding readers about the actual percentage of quality works. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to observe the composition of one of these usually non critically contemplated ones, the horror trilogy Scream (1996; 1998; 2000), directed by Wes Craven, starting by the close reading of its main structural components - plot, characters, setting and point of view - and comparing it to others pertaining to the same subgenre, in order to verify the existence of a dialectic tension of approximation or distancing to the standardized diegetic forms and how these movements are related to product selling strategies. For doing so, this work makes use of a body of theories from multiple areas, from literature and film studies to the group of thinkers encapsulated under the alias Theory, but always permeated by Adorno and Horkheimer's concept of culture industry (1985), and by Adorno's further elaborations on the theme (2001). In the corpus, on the one hand the tension between formal repetition and its rearrangement occurs in all selected components, so that the trilogy remains as a member of the slasher subgenre, at least in its surface, despite containing a great amount of hybridization, notably by the structuring of its main characters, heroin and monster, as well as part of its découpage; on the other hand, there is a number of innovations attributed to the trilogy, especially the presence of a varied metafictional vein, rare in all of the horror genre, but also the lessening of violently graphic scenes. However, it can be confirmed, through the interpretation of results, that the allowed modifications never threaten the breaking of the fourth wall, or even the audience expectations for the films, in a way that practically all alterations should be considered as controlled to emulate a fallacious novelty / Doutorado / Literatura e Outras Produções Culturais / Doutor em Teoria e História Literária

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This thesis explores the social criticism expressed in the two films Gremlins (Joe Dante, USA,1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, USA, 1990) and how the films criticizeUS-consumer culture in the Reagan Era, addressing the wide-spread economic problems.To find an answer I have asked the following questions; in what way do the Gremlins filmsexpress social criticism, what are the threats and what functions do they have and has socialcriticism developed between the films and if so how? My hypothesis is that through anallegorical story, Dante attacks the capitalist society, and he does so by letting gremlins,monsters that previously attacked the machines of the allied forces during World War II,destroy the safe society that the Reagan advocated. The home, the finances and even SantaClaus himself, no one is safe from Dante's criticism.The films also reflect the fear of the unknown, such as the Soviet Union, the Asian market andthe African American population. In this thesis I arguethat the films, rather than perpetuatingthis fear, criticize it in the hope that some form of consensus can be created. I have alsodiscovered that the creatures in the movies reflect desire, greed and violence, and I believethat Dante may well want to tell us that the very thing that separates us from becomingGremlins which will lead to our total destruction is our desire to be better than them. If thatwill doesn’t exist inside us, consumption and fear will not disappear, but instead increase. Ihope my analysis of Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch will provide a broaderperspective on the genre. Because if two simple monster movies have been shown to criticizeseveral major societal problems in American society, what more overlooked horror movieshave done the same thing and deserve to be discussed?

恐怖電影一直都是好萊塢主流電影中一項重要並且流行的一種類型。在一九七零年代末期，出現了一種新型的恐怖片，也就是所謂的跟蹤客/砍殺電影。雖然這類電影誇張地凸顯性別差異，不過還是以其展現出極度暴力以及色情的風格，迅速地受到廣大觀眾的歡迎。過去國外對於此類電影的研究多半由批評家蘿拉•莫薇的觀點出發，指出由於跟蹤客/砍殺電影中男性總被描寫為強壯的角色，而女性總是被窺視及性慾化的個體，因此唯有男性觀眾得以由此類電影當中獲得視覺上的快感。然而，很明顯地此一詮釋並不能夠完全解釋為何女性在跟蹤客/砍殺電影的忠實觀眾中佔有相當的份量。因此，有鑑於此，以及國內對於此類電影研究的稀少，本論文將仔細探討之前詮釋的缺失，並尋找一個更適當及周詳的理論來詮釋兩種性別觀眾的觀看議題，特別是在跟蹤客/砍殺電影這種性別刻畫差異極大的類型中。 本論文分為四個章節。第一章介紹跟蹤客/砍殺電影如何誇張地呈現性別差異，以及之前的評論家如何詮釋此類電影中的刻板元素。第二章則探討莫薇如何批評好萊塢主流電影為傳播父權意識型態的機制，以及跟蹤客/砍殺電影如何成為此意識型態的傳聲筒。第三章則指出莫薇如何為了將批判父權體系為重心而在引用佛洛依德的理論時刻意忽略了女性在獲得視覺快感的能動性。更重要地，第四章引用「幻象」的概念，指出視覺快感不應該因觀眾的性別而有所不同；唯有在「幻象」的領域中，不管是男性或是女性都可以主動地獲得視覺快感，那怕是像跟蹤客/砍殺電影這種刻意凸顯性別差異的電影類型。最後，第五章為前述論點作個總結，指出「幻象」為現有的理論中最能詮釋觀眾在觀看跟蹤客/砍殺電影時所獲得的視覺快感。 / Horror films have been an important and popular form of mainstream Hollywood films. In the late seventies, a special type of horror films, stalker/slasher films, characterized by their demonstration of extreme violence and sex, immediately attracted a huge amount of spectators despite that males are always depicted as powerful agents whereas females the powerless and eroticized objects. Previous critics analyze stalker/slasher films by adopting Laura Mulvey’s concepts, indicating that only males can require visual pleasure through the films. However, the interpretation obviously fails to account for the fact that females comprise a significant amount of stalker/slasher films spectators. As a result, the thesis aims to indicate the defects of those critics and, moreover, to search for a theory that provides a better interpretation of spectators’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. The thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter One introduces how stalker/slasher films dramatize gender differences and how the previous critics analyze their conventional elements. Chapter Two discusses how Mulvey criticizes mainstream Hollywood cinema as a mechanism that spreads patriarchal ideology and how stalker/slasher films manifest the patriarchal ideology. Chapter Three, on the other hand, points out how Mulvey selectively adopts Freud’s theory because of her political nature and how her theory fails to account for a spectatorship with which both men and women can acquire visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films. Most importantly, Chapter Four, introduces the concept of fantasy, indicating that spectatorship should not be demarcated along biological gender lines; within the realm of fantasy both men and women are the active agents acquiring visual pleasure through adopting multiple and fluid spectating positions. Finally, Chapter Five concludes that fantasy may be a better perspective that accounts for not only males’ but also females’ visual pleasure in viewing stalker/slasher films.

This study explores the construction of the Gothic female body in three films by the director Tim Burton, specifically Batman Returns (1992), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Dark Shadows (2012). Through a deployment of Julia Kristeva’s theory of abjection, the intention is to indicate the degree to which Burton crafts his leading female characters as abject Others and embodiments of Barbara Creed’s ‘monstrous-feminine’. In this Gothic portrayal, the director consistently draws on the essentialised stereotypes of Woman as either ‘virgin’ or ‘whore’ as he shapes his Gothic heroines and femmes fatales. While a gendered duality is established, this is destabilised to an extent, as Burton permits his female characters varying degrees of agency as they acquire monstrous traits. This construction of Woman as monster, this study will show, is founded on a certain fear of femaleness, so reinstating the ideology of Woman as Other. / English Studies / M.A. (English Studies)