Author: orangejuice

In pages 135-141 of “Gender Trouble” by Judith Butler, she discusses how societal law is ingrained in society so deeply that individuals believe that these laws of society are inherently a part of them. She connects this to gender identity, exploring how the idea of gender is one of these societal laws. In this, she highlights that gender is something that is performed, rather than being something that people are, using drag as an example of how gender is a performance. However, in her text, Butler leaves gaps and silences that show the “unconscious” ideas that are left unsaid.

What Butler is not explicitly stating is the role of the Patriarchy. Butler explains how gender performance is a “strategy of survival” in society (139). When gender performance does not follow the roles that society has assigned to it, then the individuals are punished. Butler states, “Discrete genders are part of what ‘humanizes’ individuals within contemporary culture, indeed, we regularly punish those who fail to do their gender right” (139-140). By not following the societal laws of gender performance with masculinity and femininity, individuals are deemed less “human”. This then affects how they are treated, their rights, and just their quality of life in general.

In the text’s silence about patriarchy, it does not address the power imbalance between masculinity and femininity. In a patriarchal society, femininity is given less value, and in a sense, “dehumanized” anyway. It values men, and anyone else is inherently “the other”. By reading into these silences, we are pointed to the root causes that keep these gender roles in place.

What these silences also point to are the inescapable limitations on anyone who is not a man. Non-men benefit from performing gender according to societal laws (femininity) because it helps them avoid societal punishment. However, even if they conform to these laws, they are still devalued simply because they are not men.

However, men are also harmed by patriarchy. A patriarchal society requires men to fit hegemonic masculinity to be fully valued, which already harms any man who does not fit hegemonic standards– Men of color, queer men, disabled men etc. Even when men meet the standard of hegemonic masculinity, these standards can be isolating and damaging for the mental health of men. This is significant because it shows how gender performance, while not benefitting anyone, is still followed by everyone, so why is this the case?

The silences in Butler’s text that withhold discussing patriarchy and power dynamics between feminine and masculine point to how deeply ingrained these norms are. It suggests that gender performance is something we’re trapped in because it is something that society has drilled into us so deeply that it’s hard to imagine existing outside of it. It shows how there is a lack of free will because of “societal laws.” We are still motivated to act in ways society values, even if these ways hurt us.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson was first published in 1959 as a novel. This novel was a staple for its time, discussing concepts of grief, trauma, and even queerness– all things that already had a limited amount of publicly accepted works in the 50’s– through the lens of horror. In the novel, there is a very distinct ambiguity in whether the supernatural aspects are real or just a product of an unstable mental state. However, throughout the decades, the story re-tellers of this piece have manipulated this ambiguity to fit the period in which the story is being told. This is reflected in the public reviews of these adaptations. 

In a 1959 review of this novel, Edmund Fuller praises the mind of Shirley Jackson, detailing the intricate ways that Jackson writes with ambiguity. At one point, Fuller questions whether the main character, Eleanor is even at Hill House or not. He states, “If this perplexes you, it is by intent. The story must not be told here” (Fuller 4). With the context of the rest of the review, it is clear the perception that Fuller frames about this novel aims to tell readers that it is an ongoing ghost story. It is not limited to what is written in the novel. This review foreshadows the future adaptations of The Haunting of Hill House. This story’s themes are ever-changing because society’s perception of these themes is ever-changing. 

This is proven in 1963, when The Haunting of Hill House was adapted into a film called The Haunting directed by Robert Wise. This film followed the same storyline as the novel, undergoing minor changes in the plot. However, these changes are significant because they were made to accommodate a visual audience and also a more experimental audience. These changes were applied to different themes of the original book. This adaptation chose to expand its theme of queerness rather than expanding the themes of grief and trauma. 

This adaptation was critiqued by the New York Times’ Bosley Crowther as focusing more on scaring an audience than it did on the plot and original themes of grief and trauma (Crowther 4). This review was limited by the period it was released in. In the 60’s, there was much less public knowledge and even open-mindedness about symptoms of grief and trauma, which takes away from the symbolism that was implanted into the horror scenes.

What is different about the 2018 adaptation is that the storyline completely changed. The series followed a family – with the same names and themes as the original characters, but a different story nonetheless. Flanagan’s choice of using a family to tell the story notes the period’s current issues that reflect familial grief and trauma. The New York Times review of this series by Jason Zinoman praises it’s ability to show the house as alive with the same ambiguity as before, yet a clearer focus on the family’s trauma individually and collectively, while still allowing ambiguity for the supernatural (Zinoman). This review reflects how the stigma around grief and trauma has shifted extensively since the 1959 release of the original story. The ambiguity of supernatural vs psyche is reflective of this shift, allowing the public perception to navigate this ambiguity better with more knowledge on grief and trauma. 

I think that a big part of it is that the ambiguity of whether the horror is real or just a reflection of the character’s psyche is a universal question that is present in real life. In a way, it also kind of reflects spirituality and the concept of belief systems of things you cannot physically see or feel, yet you can feel the presence with you. The question of whether the lingering presence is a ghost or a religious being or the darkness of your depression looming over, preparing for an episode, like Nellie Crain (2018). 

 

Zinoman, Jason. “‘The Haunting of Hill House,’ on Netflix, Is a Family Drama With Scares.” The New York Times, 11 Oct. 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/11/arts/television/netflix-the-haunting-of-hill-house-review.html 

 

Crowther, Bosley. “The Screen: An Old-Fashioned Chiller: Julie Harris and Claire Bloom in ‘Haunting’.” The New York Times, 19 Sept. 1963. https://www.nytimes.com/1959/10/18/archives/terror-lived-there-too-the-haunting-of-hill-house-by-shirley.html 

 

Fuller, Edmund. “Terror Lived There, Too.” The New York Times, 18 Oct. 1959, p. 153. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/10/18/91425298.html?pageNumber=153 

 

Primary Sources:

“Pilot” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 1, Showtime, 14 Nov. 2021. Netflix

 

“F Sharp” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 2, Showtime, 21 Nov. 2021. Netflix

 

“Blood Hive” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 5, Showtime, 12 Dec. 2021. Netflix

 

“Saints” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 6, Showtime, 19 Dec. 2021. Netflix

 

“No Compass” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 7, Showtime, 26  Dec. 2021. Netflix

 

“Flight of the Bumblebee” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 8, Showtime, 2  Jan. 2022. Netflix

 

“Doomcoming” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 8, Showtime, 9  Jan. 2022. Netflix

 

“Sic Transit Gloria Mundi” Yellowjackets, season 1, episode 10, Showtime, 16  Jan. 2022. Netflix

 

“Edible Complex” Yellowjackets, season 2 episode 2, Showtime, 2 April. 2023. Showtime 

 

“Old Wounds” Yellowjackets, season 2 episode 4, Showtime, 16 April. 2023. Showtime 

 

“It Chooses” Yellowjackets, season 2 episode 8, Showtime, 21 May. 2023. Showtime 

 

Secondary Sources: 

(I’m not able to strikethrough my deleted texts, so I just italicized them and added “deleted” before it) 

Caruth, Cathy. Unclaimed Experience: Trauma, Narrative, and History. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

( Deleted) Goodwin, John. “The Horror of Stigma: Psychosis and Mental Health Care Environments in Twenty-First-Century Horror Film (Part I).” Perspectives in Psychiatric Care, 2013, https://doi.org/10.1111/ppc.12045 

 

Gordon, Avery. Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. University of Minnesota Press, 1997

 

(Deleted) Handley, Sasha. Visions of an Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost Stories in Eighteenth-Century England. Routledge, 2007

 

( Deleted) Hallsworth, Djuna. “Making Visible the Incomprehensible: Ambiguity, Metaphor, and Mental Illness in “The Haunting of Hill House.” Streaming Mental Health and Illness: Essays on Representation in New Media, June 2024, ResearchGate, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/381769179 

Herman, Judith. Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence—from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. Basic Books, 1992.

(Deleted) Hurley, Kelly. The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin de Siècle. Cambridge University Press, 1996.

 

(Deleted) Hutcheon, Linda. A Theory of Adaptation. Routledge, 2013

 

Mancine, Ryley. “Horror Movies and Mental Health Conditions Through the Ages.” American Journal of Psychiatry Residents’ Journal, vol. 16, no. 1, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp-rj.2020.160110 

Van der Kolk, Bessel. The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking, 2014.

 

Added texts: 

 

Blake, Linnie. The Wounds of Nations: Horror Cinema, Historical Trauma and National Identity. Manchester University Press, 2008. JSTOR https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155j8f0 

 

Phillips, Kendall R. Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture. 1st ed., Praeger, 2005.

 

Pinedo, Isabel Cristina. Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing. SUNY Press, 1997. 

 

Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1987.

 

Sobchack, Vivian. Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. 1st ed., University of California Press, 2004.

Spooner, Catherine. Contemporary Gothic. Reaktion Books, 2006.

Wheatley, Helen. Gothic Television. Manchester University Press, 2006. 

 

Academic Journal:

• Horror Studies 

https://www.intellectbooks.com/horror-studies 

 

Keywords:

• • Horror
  • Supernatural
  • Trauma
  • Mental Illness

• Gender 

• Gothic

 

Update: 

While talking to Professor Kersh, we discussed how I should try to find something in my texts that I want to focus more specifically on. In doing this, I was inspired to shift gears a little bit and decided to focus more on how the mental state of women is portrayed in horror. I will still be discussing the ambiguity between trauma and the supernatural, but I thought that these concepts all overlap in the Showtime series, Yellowjackets. This shift has made me remove and add several texts from my reading list. I have also added two more keywords: “Gender” and “Gotchic” 

 

For one, I’ve removed some of the texts that focus on the broader topics of horror and replaced them with texts that focus more on Women in horror specifically. Below will be my new description. I pulled a few words from my previous description, as this is just a revised version now: 

 

I want to focus my senior thesis on the Showtime series, Yellowjackets created by Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson. This series displays an ambiguity between trauma or horror that shifts an entire narrative perspective based on which we are seeing. This show follows a girls soccer team that gets stranded in the wilderness after a plane crash. It follows them during their time in the wilderness in their teen years, and also follows their adult lives 25 years later. In this show, the mental state of the characters is unreachable. There are several scenes where the viewer does not know what is supernatural or what is “just in their head”. Horror often portrays characters who are dismissed as “crazy” for their supernatural experiences, usually being put in institutions by an ignorant society, despite their experiences being real. What stands out in Yellowjackets is the ambiguity between supernatural events and the characters’ psychological states. It’s often unclear whether what we’re seeing is a true supernatural phenomenon or the result of a character’s mental deterioration. Sometimes it really is supernatural and sometimes it is not and sometimes its both things at once. Regardless, this overlap is exactly what I want to analyze for this thesis. I want to ask “Why does the author/director want us to question what we are seeing? Why is it significant whether we are seeing either or even both at once? How would this be portrayed if it were in film/written literature? Why are these differences important?”

 

While talking to Professor Kersh, I realized that I could go even deeper into this analysis. On top of understanding the ambiguity between horror and trauma, I wanted to focus specifically on how this ambiguity is depicted in showing the mental state of women. Yellowjackets specifically follow a girl’s soccer team. While one of the characters already has diagnosed mental illness before the plane crash, the way that all of the characters’ mental states is depicted shapes the entire narrative of the film. It asks questions like “What is the significance of this show following women specifically? What are Lyle and Nickerson trying to tell us about the complexities in the mind of a woman? 

 

I will still be looking into texts by experts in psychology, as suggested by Professor McDermott, because it will be relevant for analyzing this series. I will also be looking at texts that focus more on how the mental state of women is portrayed in horror. This comes in several forms, from topics such as Women’s pleasure being depicted in horror to topics about the societal pressures that are brought metaphorically into horror and manifest in concepts of the supernatural. 

 

Overall, I have a basis of questions for my thesis and a plan to find the different aspects of answers to these questions. My keywords have both “Horror” and “Supernatural” because these two things often don’t mean the same things, and I want to explore that as well. While my other keywords, “Trauma” and “Mental Illness” often coincide with one another, the depictions of both of these in written literature and film are often portrayed very differently, so I want to also focus on the differences between those and the way that they are in partnership with Horror and the Supernatural in my primary texts. I also added “Gender” and “Gothic”, which were two words that are in several of the titles of my sources. Both of these new key terms help capture the entire essence of my goals for this paper. Gender hones in on the specifics, while “Gothic” allows me to look at broader themes and recognize patterns within these broader themes. 

 

Toni Morrison crafts a narrative in Beloved that uses the motif of a tree to explore concepts of trauma and healing that looks at the deeper roots of generational trauma and Sethe’s response to it. Sethe’s perspective on her “chokecherry tree” scar go back and forth, similar to her emotions about remembering her past and living her own life in the present. This is especially apparent when looking at Sethe’s first conversations with Paul D. She subtly brings up her scar, stating that she only calls it a chokecherry tree because a white girl (who we later learn is amy) said it looked like one. Sethe then says, “But that was eighteen years ago. Could have cherries too now for all I know” (18). In this, we see how Sethe doesn’t like to consciously think about her past. Her biggest and most traumatic scar is something she can’t see, and because she can’t see it, is easier to try to forget. The fact that it “could have cherries now for all I know” implies that much more has happened to Sethe, but she also pushes it down so much that she doesn’t really “know”. The words “for all I know” are often used casually, for things that don’t matter or things we don’t feel have significance to talk about. In reality, she does know. Her body knows, at least, but she brushes it off in her mind like she does in her words, because talking about it would dig deeper into it and open it up again. This is similar to Amy’s phrase, “Anything dead coming back to life hurts” (42), which also captures what Sethe’s healing process looks like. It emphasizes the painful process of confronting historical trauma and acknowledging that its essential for healing, but it also reopens wounds that are never truly closed and maybe never will be because it’s so deeply scarred.

This same inner conflict is discussed on page 43, when Sethe explains her understanding of time and rememory. “Places, places are still there. If a house burns down, it’s gone, but the place– the picture of it– stays, and not just in my rememory, but out there, in the world.” In this, Morrison establishes that trauma leaves a permanent mark on both memory and the world itself. Morrison compares it to physical things, stating that even after something is physically destroyed or no longer present, its impact and the memory of it shape how we understand our present– like trauma and the past do. It becomes something that is not responded to in a set way, but is approached subjectively to how the carriers of this trauma are feeling in their present.

This is exemplified when Sethe’s description of her scar changes when she first lays with Paul D. Instead of her “Chokecherry tree” she calls it a, “clump of scars” (25). At this point, Sethe had just experienced a very intimate opening of her scars, lying with Paul D. The act of intimacy likely brought out her sexual trauma, and she and Paul D were described as “resenting” each other after the act (24). She calls her chokecherry tree a “clump of scars” because she assumes that Paul D thinks that. She is put in a position where she is forced to be seen as vulnerable and as a harbor of trauma, so she digs into her insecurities, and instead of brushing off her deeper issues like she did before, she insults them as a defensive response. She does this in a way that opens up ideas of self-loathing that she was likely trying to avoid previously by pushing down her trauma. In fact, the aging of her trauma shows in this statement of self-loathing.

This “aging” of trauma is interesting to think about when compared to the physical form of a tree. With age, trees become more hollow on the inside. The recurring symbol of a tree being used might be used to explore how although “time heals”, time can also worsen the issues developed by trauma in a person, making them more “hollow” or emptier because a part of them feels missing. This can also be applied to an entire generation of people, especially if they are traumatized as a collective, like previous slaves. In this context, Morrison’s use of trees reveals how ingrained trauma– especially the trauma of previous slaves, affects more than the individual, but instead entire communities and even future generations. Although Sethe is continually healing in her own ways, or at least with time, the past is something that isn’t easily erased, especially when the past is a shared experience. Morrison shows how healing is ongoing with collective generational trauma, and doesn’t necessarily have an “answer” that fits all. 

The word “culture” is used in Jonathan Culler’s third chapter in “Literary Theory A Very Short Introduction” in several different contexts. As this chapter is about cultural studies, the word “culture” itself is used both within and apart from the context of cultural studies. Culler’s use of the word “culture” differs with every sentence he uses it in. Often, the word “culture” is used to describe both a body of people and the social ecosystem that they exist in. It’s a term that looks at a greater shared understanding of how things work, like on page 45 when Culler describes the slight differences in violent sports. He compares wrestling and boxing and explains how the audiences and reactions of the performers in both of these fields are very different, despite having many similarities in their activities. He then states, “Investigating cultural practices from high literature to fashion and food, Barthes example encouraged the reading of the connotations of cultural images and analysis of the social functioning of the strange constructions of culture.” In this, he is understanding something that drives the sport, something that makes the sport what it is– its “construction”. Culler examines how even minor cultural differences, such as mannerisms or audience reactions, shape the experience of similar activities, like wrestling and boxing. These differences are so significant that they make them culturally distinct despite their shared nature of being violence-based sports.
Separately, Culler describes culture as something similar to a system, rather than just being the characteristics of a group of people. He states, “Barthes is especially interested in demystifying what in culture comes to seem natural by showing that it is based on contingent, historical constructions. In analysing cultural practices, he identifies the underlying conventions and their social implications.” Specifically, the word “in” before culture labels it as something that can be entered or participated in, but is not necessarily something you can exit. Culler’s word choices also enforced this by explaining “culture” as a system. He states, “But what is the relation between literary studies and cultural studies? In its broadest conception, the project of cultural studies to understand the functioning of culture, particularly in the moden fury.” Culler talks about how culture is something that needs to ”function” on its own because it is so intricate that it needs to feed itself to expand itself. He suggests that culture functions like a self-sustaining system. It continuously expands through participation and social interaction. Since culture is present in all aspects of life, one cant necessarily “exit” it either. It is an ongoing experience that evolves with time.
However, what is also important to note is Culler’s reuse of the word “construction.” Although “culture” is being looked at in a different light in this passage, there are still notes of previous perceptions of it previously. I think that this emphasizes how every way that “culture” can be looked at comes back to the same fundamental properties of being a build-up of what makes a group of people. So, Culler’s keyword, “culture” has various meanings that point to similar ideas. The way he describes culture expands on how even the idea of culture is always growing and changing, similar to how his perception and definition of it kept evolving and changing throughout the text.

This film brings to light the line between privacy and awareness, and how these two things work in partnership with one another while also being opposites. These two things are represented through the technique of lighting. For one, the film often shows characters that are suddenly “enlightened” – whether it be to ideas or information– by depicting them in key light. Oftentimes, their surrounding environment is dark to emphasize this enlightenment. On the other hand, it shows characters who are “In the dark”– or in a state of unknown and mystery– depicted in darkness. An example of this is in 48:56-50:00. In the beginning of this scene, Lisa doesn’t believe Jeff’s theories about Thorwald committing a crime. She’s depicted in low lighting while Jeff has overhead lighting directly on him. Then, as she sees Thorwald putting something in a suspicious box, she stands up and becomes enlightened to Jeff’s theories. While she is standing up, she is stepping into the overhead light that is above Jeff. There is visual evidence that she goes from being “In the dark” to becoming “enlightened”.  This encourages readers to question what is means to be “enlightened”. At this point in the film, the viewer is still unaware of whether Thorwald committed the murder or not, but the change in visual lighting represents Lisa’s perspective opening up for more possibilities. This shows that for Lisa’s character, light represents awareness, and in turn can be translated to light representing safety and comfort. On the other hand, darkness – for Lisa’s character– represented the unknown. 

This contrasts with how light represents different things for Jeff’s character. After being conditioned to being a watcher, Jeff feels safer in the dark. In 39:28-40:00, Jeff steps out of the light to prevent himself from being seen by suspecting neighbors. At this point, darkness does not represent the unknown for his character but rather represents feeling secure. He hides in the dark because darkness provides privacy. This idea contrasts with the characters of the neighborhood residents. When the other characters are in their homes at night, their windows are dark. This leaves them unaware of anything happening right outside of their homes. They don’t know anything about their neighbors and therefore are always “in the dark” about them. This idea is even emphasized when the neighborhood dog dies, and the owner blames it on the neighborhood’s lack of care for one another. 

As a result, the viewer is made to question what it means to be aware. If darkness for one character is the unknown, but to another character is privacy, then what factors contribute to these differences in perspective? Through lighting, Hitchcock allows the viewer to feel either unsafe or safe depending on which characters are in certain lighting. He proves that the line between privacy and awareness is subjective. He shows the viewer the flaws of the two extremes: being unethically over aware and being completely unaware. He shows the extremes of this spectrum within Jeff’s character and the neighbors’ characters. Both sets of characters face their own internal issues that are only heightened by their opposing perspective of being aware.