The sinful maternal motherhood in possession films / Lauren Rocha.

Author/creator Rocha, Lauren
Format Electronic
Publication InfoJackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2024]
Description1 online resource
Supplemental ContentFull text available from JSTOR eBooks
Subjects

SeriesHorror & monstrosity studies series
Horror and monstrosity studies series. ^A1473619
Contents Acknowledgments -- Introduction. It comes from inside: horror, home, and possession -- Chapter 1. Possessed by pregnancy: "Rosemary's Baby" -- Chapter 2. Puberty as Hell: "The Exorcist" -- Chapter 3. The house remembers: "The Amityville Horror" -- Chapter 4. Danger all around: "Insidious" and "Insidious: Chapter 2" -- Chapter 5. Mother as exorcist: "The Conjuring" and "The Conjuring 2" -- Chapter 6. Traumatic motherhood: "The Babadook" -- Chapter 7. The Devil's promise: "The Witch" -- Chapter 8. Matrilineal legacy: "Hereditary" -- Conclusion. Motherhood revisited -- Notes -- Works cited -- Index.
Abstract "Pregnancy, birth, and postpartum recovery are challenging experiences that impact women's physical, mental, and emotional health in ways that have been historically minimalized, dismissed, or neglected. A mother's body becomes a public body, physically and politically not her own, instead shared by her spouse, her children, and those around her. Her body, therefore, makes the perfect vessel for an invasive presence-or possession. The Sinful Maternal: Motherhood in Possession Films examines the role of mothers and motherhood in ten possession films, including Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Babadook, and Hereditary. Chapters discuss the work of such directors as James Wan, Jennifer Kent, Robert Eggers, and Ari Aster to address how their cinematic approaches to these films produce rich possession narratives that explore different facets of motherhood and women's agency. Working at the intersections of gender studies, architectural theory, trauma studies, and monster theory, with a particular focus on the treatment of (often unruly) female bodies, author Lauren Rocha investigates the ways in which motherhood is a fertile state for possession and how possession acts to influence, destabilize, and reshape identity and the self. Placing the films in chronological order, she closely analyzes the ways in which sociocultural influences create different roles women and mothers are expected to perform. Ultimately, Rocha demonstrates how possession offers a way to challenge performative motherhood to free the self"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography noteIncludes bibliographical references and index.
Access restrictionAvailable only to authorized users.
Technical detailsMode of access: World Wide Web
Source of descriptionDescription based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher.
Issued in other formPrint version: Rocha, Lauren. Sinful maternal Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, [2024] 9781496851734
Genre/formElectronic books.
LCCN 2023054138
ISBN9781496851789 (pdf)
ISBN(hardback)
ISBN9781496851758 (epub)
ISBN9781496851765 (epub)
ISBN9781496851772 (pdf)
ISBN(trade paperback)

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