“Spaces of Contemporary Horror: Poverty and Social Exclusion as 21st Century Spectres”

Abstract

This research explores the connections between the recent economic crisis and the contemporary horror film. To this end, I begin with a theoretical examination of the symbolic function of two key motifs (the ghost and the house), and the possibilities of their use to reinforce or subvert the mechanisms of the neoliberal cultural framework. Taking the horror genre as a privileged space for reading the unacknowledged tensions of our society, I consider the filmic use of domestic spaces, the suburbs, and the urban wastelands that the crisis has left in its wake. Against a context that cultivates fear based on the idea of social exclusion—poverty as the ultimate mechanism of horror—I put forward the possibility that the horror genre adopts explicitly ethical stances through a vindication of the meeting point between Deleuze’s and Lévinas’ respective theories of the cinematic face.

Keywords:

• Horror Cinema
• social exclusion
• financial crisis
• suburbs
• poverty
• film analyse
• cultural studies

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

FUNDING

This research was supported by the University Jaume I inside the Project “Análisis de identidades discursivas en la era de la posverdad. Generación de contenidos audiovisuales para una Educomunicación crítica (AIDEP)” (18I390.01/1), directed by Mr. Javier Marzal Felici.

ORCID

Aarón Rodríguez Serrano http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3858-1045

Notes

1. This idea is complex and I owe it essentially to José Luis Pardo’s La regla del juego (Pardo 2004), in which the philosopher focuses our understanding of the meaning of stories exclusively on their ending—i.e., on the gaze that enables us to frame the correct correlation of actions and emotions located within it. While Pardo suggests that it is impossible to transfer this same idea to the personal and vast—but not infinite—narrative of one’s own life, I would dare to posit that the very idea of an ending, as unexpected and violent as it may be, offers us, as I suggested above, the subjective impression of the very possibility of a meaning. The horror genre, with its constant obsession with preventing humans from resting in peace, erodes this impression, and in so doing suggests a profound panic beyond the need (to keep from going insane) for perpetual peace.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the University Jaume I inside the Project “Análisis de identidades discursivas en la era de la posverdad. Generación de contenidos audiovisuales para una Educomunicación crítica (AIDEP)” (18I390.01/1), directed by Mr. Javier Marzal Felici.

Notes on contributors

Aarón Rodríguez Serrano

AARÓN RODRÍGUEZ SERRANO RECEIVED HIS PHD IN AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION FROM UNIVERSIDAD EUROPEA DE MADRID IN 2009 WITH THE THESIS “SHIPWRECKED OF MODERNITY: TEXTUAL ANALYSE OF THE MALE FIGURES ON THE INGMAR BERGMAN ́S CINEMA”. HE IS PROFESSOR IN THE AUDIOVISUAL COMMUNICATION AND ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT OF THE UNIVERSITAT JAUME I (SPAIN). HIS RESEARCH FOCUSES ON TWO MAIN TOPICS: THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND CINEMA, AND THE AUDIOVISUAL CONTENTS RELATED WITH THE HOLOCAUST. HE HAS PUBLISHED SEVERAL BOOKS AS “APOCALIPSIS POP!” (NOTORIOUS, 2012), “MIRRORS IN AUSCHWITZ: NOTES ON CINEMA AND HOLOCAUST” (SHANGRILA, 2015) OR “NANNI MORETTI” (CATEDRA, 2018). HE HAD DEVELOPED SEVERAL VIDEO-ESSAYS, AS “CINEMA/LIGHT/TRUTH: NOTES ABOUT HEIDEGGER” AND “TIME IS LOST: CALL ME BY YOUR NAME”. HE CARRIED SEVERAL STAYS IN TURKEY (ISTANBUL BILGY UNIVERSITY), ISRAEL (YAD VASHEM) AND LISBON (IFILNOVA – UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA). [email protected]