Additional information
by Rikke Schubart (Author)
Mastering Fear analyzes horror as play and examines what functions horror has and why it is adaptive and beneficial for audiences. It takes a biocultural approach, and focusing on emotions, gender, and play, it argues we play with fiction horror. In horror we engage not only with the negative emotions of fear and disgust, but with a wide range of emotions, both positive and negative. The book lays out a new theory of horror and analyzes female protagonists in contemporary horror from child to teen, adult, middle age, and old age.
Since the turn of the millennium, we have seen a new generation of female protagonists in horror. There are feisty teens in The Vampire Diaries (2009-2017), troubled mothers in The Babadook (2014), and struggling women in the New French extremity with Martyrs (2008) and Inside (2007). At the fuzzy edges of the genre are dramas like Pan's Labyrinth (2006) and Black Swan (2010), and middle-age women are now protagonists with Carol in The Walking Dead (2010-) and Jessica Lange's characters in American Horror Story (2011-). Horror is not just for men, but also for women, and not just for the young, but for audiences of all ages.Author Biography
Rikke Schubart is Associate Professor in Media Studies at the Institute for the Study of Culture, University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark. Her research focuses on gender, genre, and emotions in cinema and media. Schubart's publications include Bloomsbury's recent Women of Ice and Fire: Gender, Game of Thrones and Multiple Media Engagements (2016, co-edited with Anne Gjelsvik), Eastwood's Iwo Jima: A Critical Engagement with Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (2013, co-edited with Anne Gjelsvik), and Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006 (2007).
