{"id":1239,"date":"2024-09-17T09:42:31","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T13:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/?p=1239"},"modified":"2024-09-17T09:42:31","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T13:42:31","slug":"nostalgia-to-deconstruction-the-evolution-of-horror-films-and-the-final-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/2024\/09\/17\/nostalgia-to-deconstruction-the-evolution-of-horror-films-and-the-final-girl\/","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia to Deconstruction: The Evolution of Horror Films and the Final Girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carol J. Clover first introduced her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film back in 1992, followed by a second edition in 2015. During the 23 years that have passed between these publications, the landscape of horror films have undergone significant changes which complicated and thoroughly reworked her famous concept of the \u201cfinal girl\u201d. As new horror films emerge and older ones are revived through sequels, prequels, and remakes, the meaning of this trope continues to evolve and reflects both cultural shifts and the commercial reworking of the genre. And so, I decided to make my keyword \u201cdeconstruct\u201d which was found and discussed in Rob Pope\u2019s work Creativity: Theory, History, Practice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically enough, the deconstruction of Clover\u2019s arguments reflect the approach I am taking in my own thesis. Iconic horror films from the late 1970s, such as Alien (1979) and Halloween (1978), have seen a resurgence in popularity, particularly through their modern reboots and continuations. These recent adaptations reveal how filmmakers are “deconstructing” the narratives of the past as well as reflecting changes in gender dynamics, audience expectations, and genre conventions. Even more, classic films like Beetlejuice (1988), which originally sat outside the traditional horror category, have also been transformed. They have gained renewed attention, not just through film but through other mediums such as the Beetlejuice musical, which has gained popularity through social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

The trajectory of horror (trajectory is one of the words I was thinking of using), from its fear-inducing roots to its current re-workings and revivals suggests an ongoing negotiation between nostalgia and innovation. This shift illuminates how cultural plasticity, an idea found in Pope’s Creativity: Theory, History, Practice-is at play, particularly within capitalist consumerism, where familiar narratives are rehashed and adapted for new audiences. “Here, by \u2018deconstruction\u2019 Bordo means that not only can we remove, replace or add on parts (as in a machine), we can also transform and develop the material itself (as in an organism). This new materiality she calls \u2018cultural plasticity\u2019; and the capacity \u2013 or claim \u2013 to mould it she attributes to \u2018an ideology fuelled by fantasies of rearranging, transforming, and correcting, an ideology of limitless improvement and change, defying the historicity, the mortality, and indeed the very materiality of the body\u2019 (p. 142). This ideology, as the rest of the essay makes explicit, is based on an economics of capitalist consumerism and is articulated through a notionally democratic politics of individual freedom.” (Pope, 48). Through their cyclical remakes and revisions, horror films offer a clear lens to explore how older ideologies are reworked to fit modern sensibilities, especially when it comes to the “final girl” and her symbolic resonance across generations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Works Cited<\/span><\/p>\n

Pope, Rob. Creativity: Theory, History, Practice. Routledge, 2005.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carol J. Clover first introduced her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film back in 1992, followed by a second edition in 2015. During the 23 years that have passed between these publications, the landscape of horror films have undergone significant changes which complicated and thoroughly reworked her famous concept of … Continue reading Nostalgia to Deconstruction: The Evolution of Horror Films and the Final Girl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4806,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[145914],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2024-blog-posts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4806"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/403lit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}