Our Old Monsters : Witches, Werewolves and Vampires from Medieval Theology to Horror Cinema

Walter, Brenda S. Gardenour

McFarland & Co Inc（2015/07発売）

• 製本 Paperback:紙装版/ペーパーバック版／ページ数 252 p.
• 言語 ENG
• 商品コード 9780786476800
• DDC分類 398.45

Full Description

The witch, the vampire and the werewolf endure as popular characters in modern horror. These "old monsters" have their origins in the writings of Aristotle as studied in the universities of medieval Europe, where 13th-century scholars reconciled works of natural philosophy and medicine with theological precepts.

They codified divine perfection as warm, light, male and associated with the ethereal world beyond the moon, while evil imperfection was cold, dark, female and bound to the corrupt world below the moon. All who did not conform to divine goodness--including un-holy women and Jews--were considered evil and ascribed a melancholic, blood hungry and demonic physiology.

This construct was the basis for anti-woman and anti-Jewish discourse through the early modern period and would persist through modern Western culture. Nowhere is this more evident than in horror films, where the transgressive bodies of the witch, the vampire and the werewolf represent our fear of the inverted other.

Contents

Table of Contents

Preface  1

Introduction  3

Part I: Medieval Foundations  15

1. Upside-Down and ­Inside-Out: The Medieval Construction of Earthbound Evil  16

2. Satanic Cinema: His Legacy Is Legion  42

3. Wanton Flesh and Poisoned Breath: Crafting the Satanic Witch  68

4. Wicked Women: Female Flesh, the Satanic Witch and the Horror Film  98

Part II: Modern Permutations  135

5. The Transgressive Monster: From the Melancholic Jew to the ­Blood-Sucking Vampire  136

6. A Cursed Embodiment: Modernity, Medievalism and the Melancholic Werewolf  166

Epilogue  195

Chapter Notes  197

Bibliography  223

Filmography  234

Index  237