Mastering Fear

A fascinating look at female viewership of horror, challenging the stereotype of horror as a male genre ... This is a landmark study. * CHOICE * Rikke Schubart has written a lively and well-informed account of horror films and their emotional appeals, with particular reference to women viewers and issues of gender as presented in the films. Schubart injects humor into her writing, an attractive blend of academic rigor and serious analysis with playful, drily ironic observations, often of a very personal nature. This is an interesting, original and provocative study. * Stephen Prince, Professor of Cinema Studies, Virginia Tech, USA * Mastering Fear will be a game-changer! Rikke Schubart has produced an exciting and innovative book that is breathtaking in scope. While centred on horror case studies, it offers new perspectives for emotion, gender, feminist, cultural and horror studies. Conceiving of horror media as a mode of play fighting, Schubart develops a biocultural approach that she intertwines with her concept of evofeminism. The reader goes on a rich and nuanced theoretical journey that challenges gender stereotypes and both understands and arms the female protagonist and spectator with powerful tools that master fear and positively shape identity. A must read! * Angela Ndalianis, Professor of Media and Entertainment, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia *

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).

Introduction: Approaching the Problem PART ONE: THE DARK STAGE 1. Emotions 2. Gender 3. Play PART TWO: THE HORROR HEROINE CHILD 4. Mud, Blood, and Magic: Death and Gender in Pans Labyrinth 5. Be Me For a Little While: The Bio-Logic of Vengeance in Let the Right One In TEEN & EMERGING ADULT 6. Werewolf Affordances 7. Lust, Trust, and Educational Torture ADULT 8. Sense and Self: Disgust and Self-Injury 9. The Maternal Myth: Birth, Breastfeeding, Mothering MIDDLE AGE 10. Home and Road: Carols Change in The Walking Dead 11. Age Anxiety and Gender Play: Jessica Lange and American Horror Story OLD 12. Old Witch and New Woman: Re-Authoring the Old Age Stereotype Notes Bibliography Filmography Index