The Monstrous Fantastic Conference Paper Abstracts - International ...

Never Sleep Again: Resurrecting the Fantastic Beast in A Nightmare on Elm StreetJoseph L. LewisDelta College“Never Sleep Again” employs Joseph D. Andriano’s explication on the tropological revision of the monster to analyze the representationalboundaries of Freddy Krueger in New Line Cinema’s A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise. Andriano makes a distinction between metaphor andmetonymy to analyze the monster. As a metaphor, the monster is a representation of a human characteristic in which the human obtainsbestial characteristics; inasmuch, this bestial human experiences a transformation from the human to the monster and in some cases, from themonster to a human. As a metonym, the monster is represented in juxtaposition to the human. In this case, the monster ironically becomes acultural signifier for the culture in which he terrorizes partially due to the fact his transformation is a result of a secret from an unspeakablepast. As a metaphor, Krueger is demarcated as the Other prior to and post his violent and horrific transformation from human to beast. In thiscase, his transformation into the beast is both actual and symbolic. As a metonym, he is represented in juxtaposition to the human. Here,Krueger’s image signifies the dark id of the human collective consciousness.Embracing the Tribes of the Moon and the Order of the Gash: The Possibility of (Meta)cultural Identities in Clive Barker's Hellraiser andNightbreedTony M. VinciSouthern Illinois University, CarbondaleThe cultural trajectory of the horror film in the 1980s shares an unfortunate history with the European fairy tale. Through its intensely graphicand visceral depictions of murder, dismemberment, and supernatural violence, 1980s horror cinema embodies a host of working-class anxietiesregarding the effects of living in a post-industrial, postmodern milieu engulfed in the nebulous and dehumanizing workings of late capitalism.Yet, because of these graphic aesthetics, middle and upper class critics and scholars coded them as immature, violent, and artistically crude. AsZipes says of the Fairy Tale, “the bourgeois establishment had to make it seem that the fairy tales were immoral, trivial, useless and harmful ifan affirmative culture of commodity values supportive of elite interests were to take root in the public sphere” (17). Thus, the horror film’scultural capital was reduced and their artistic import nullified by their position as mindless, violent entertainment of the ignorant masses.However, through persistently radical depictions of post-human bodies, revolutionary action, “deviant” sexual expressions, alternativepsychological and metaphysical possibilities, much horror film of the 1980s works to create sites of critical engagement wherein both culturalcritique and a constitution of what I term (meta)cultural identity is explored and asserted. By (meta)cultural identity, I refer to a mode ofsubjective identity formulated in hopes of recognizing the legitimacy of acculturated identity while simultaneously transcending acculturation.It is not either/or; it is both/and: cultural identity and metacultural identity, which creates a third, liminal space for one to live within andwithout culture. (Hence my use of brackets around “meta” in [meta]cultural.) This (meta)cultural reconfiguration is perhaps expressed mostforcefully in the cinematic production of Clive Barker: Hellraiser (1987) and Nightbreed (1990).59. (VPA) Monstrous Nature MagnoliaChair: Jen SchillerMontclair State UniversityMagnificent Monster GardensCris HassoldNew College of FloridaThis paper considers three gardens – the Sacred Grove or Monster Garden at Bomarzo created by the Count Pier Francesco Orsini in 1552, inmemory of his wife Guilia Farnese, the Tarot Garden created by Niki de Saint-Phalle, again in Italy but produced in the twentieth century, andone by Leslie Fry and her father, John, for the Boca Ciega Park in Seminole, Florida – to consider the monstrosity of their hybrid forms.The Profane Amongst the Holy: The Strange Imagery of the Green Man, the Wodewose and the Sheela-na-Gig in Medieval Churches of theBritish IslesRobert FaleerCentral Michigan UniversityThis proposed paper will explore the purpose and meaning of the wodewose and the sheela-na-gig to show how they ultimately served thereligious agenda of the medieval Church. The paper will focus on carvings found inside and occasionally outside medieval parish, collegiate,monastic and cathedral churches throughout the British Isles.What Is That Thing?: The Grotesque Beasts of H.G. Wells and Patricia PiccininiNancy HightowerUniversity of Colorado, BoulderThis paper considers the ways that Australian artist Patricia Piccinini continues and deepens the discourse Wells started by creating uncannymonsters which elicit the full range of emotional juxtapositions the grotesque promises: fear, pity, wonder, laughter, terror, and even love.