I’ve been spending a lot of my time recently trying to understand parts of the LGBTQ community which I am less familiar with, for example the Transgender community.
I want to make sure that while writing about the transgender community in my essay that I am doing it in such a way that if a trans person was to read it, they could feel I’ve understood the difficulties they face in every day life as well as in fiction (at least as best I can, being cisgender myself).
I’ve bought a few fiction books from the non-horror genre (because I’ve struggled to find trans characters in horror fiction specifically) and have started reading those as well as watching documentaries, like the one posted below, to try and gain a better understanding of the community.
Look, you can't talk about the second Freddy Krueger film without talking about it's homoerotic subtext, so I'm not going to fight it. How queer is Elm Stree...
A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge (1985)
This film will probably be one I’ll be looking into a lot and this video (along with many others which I will post as I watch them) explains why the film is so important to ‘Queer horror’.
Some notes:
-The main character, Jesse, is the only male protagonist of the series (A role almost exclusively filled by female characters in the slasher genre)
-Jesse tries to be masculine but in moments of privacy or vulnerability he displays more timid and feminine traits
-Gym teacher is killed in suggestive way
-Jesse is far more comfortable talking to Brady than Lisa, and when he and Lisa try to get intimate, Freddy appears
-Lisa professes her love for Jesse and it appears that this defeats Freddy, however the movies ends with Freddy not actually being defeated. Jesse and Lisa think they can banish Freddy by being in a straight relationship, but Jesse is still gay, so Freddy still has power over him. Jesse’s uncertainty allows Freddy to manipulate him.
-Themes, characters have gay subtext, actors is gay (type cast or coincidence?)
Not perfect queer representation but possibly the most deliberate and thoroughly integrated queer subtext in horror genre so far.
Question:
Was the films message that accepting your sexuality will defeat the demons, or was is simply made to make straight audiences feel uncomfortable?
From now on this blog will be mostly posts based on the research I’m doing for my dissertation.
My topic title is:
‘An exploration of LGBT themes in modern and archaic horror fiction.’
I’m hoping to look at how LGBT characters were demonised in archaic horror fiction and compare it to how modern horror fiction now deals with LGBT themes with sensitivity. I’d also like to touch on how LGBT characters are used as plot devices in horror.
We should be continually researching as part of our design process.
two types of research;
1. Secondary-
Other peoples research (books, internet). Collation, sourcing and reviewing of existing published or digital material relating to your subject.
2. Primary-
Surveys/interviews, Research you conduct for yourself. Procedures carried out by you in the field other in the studio. Practice led/formal analysis/observation/surveys and interviews/case studies
Have to do secondary research to understand what you’re researching and to get a better understanding of what has already been discussed/found out about your chosen topic.
(Second research lecture notes were written up on word online along with my initial ideas for my dissertation butI’m currently un able to open the file. They will be uploaded as soon as I can access them)
Notes from Week 7: Global Perspectives. Definitely struggled to engage with this week, maybe just not something I find interesting, maybe because I hadn’t had my coffee...
However I do plan on looking further into ‘Culture Jamming’ and have a few other suggested reads/watches for the summer which include re-reading Kes and watching Blue Planet.
One of the books i chose to read for this week was My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf.
I think this is a great example of excellent storytelling alongside amazing artwork, the telling of a well known serial killer from the view of a high school classmate make this such an interesting graphic novel to read.
Today we looked at this famous painting by René Magritte, and were asked to consider the connotation and denotation of the text and image and to consider anchorage and frame of reference.
Text- The text is handwritten making it personal, the signature in the corner represents status and authenticity. ‘This is not a Pipe’ Magritte is making a statement.
Image- Gentleman’s pipe as oppose to any other type of pipe. Oil painting with photographic realism. Possibly a symbol of male sexuality or status and authority?
Anchorage- Intersecting, the image and the text are working together to create the final message. The text denies the image the illusion of reality, it emphasises that its is a drawing of a pipe.
Frame of reference- the meaning of the image changes depending on how/when/where it is presented. In a lecture room 2018 on a screen. In a museum. In the artists studio. The pipe would’ve meant different things at each of these places because of different cultural references.
germansingergirl
2087
tangentwithtanner
turnnoffyourmind
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart