DO COLONIAL AO CORPORAL: CONFIGURAÇÕES DO GÊNERO HORROR EM O ENIGMA DO OUTRO MUNDO
This essay aims at analysing John W. Campbell Jr.’s novellete “Who Goes There?” (1938), and its movie adaptation The Thing (1982), directed by John Carpenter and screenplay by Bill Lancaster, through the lens of Colonial Gothic and Body Horror. As it will be demonstrated, the 1938 narrative and its...
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2023 |
| Country: | Brasil |
| Institution: | Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPEL) |
| Repository: | Caderno de Letras (Pelotas. Online) |
| Language: | Portuguese |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:ojs.ufpel:article/24964 |
| Online Access: | https://periodicos.ufpel.edu.br/index.php/cadernodeletras/article/view/24964 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Who goes there?; the thing; colonial horror; body horror. O enigma do outro mundo; horror colonial; horror corporal. |
| Summary: | This essay aims at analysing John W. Campbell Jr.’s novellete “Who Goes There?” (1938), and its movie adaptation The Thing (1982), directed by John Carpenter and screenplay by Bill Lancaster, through the lens of Colonial Gothic and Body Horror. As it will be demonstrated, the 1938 narrative and its Cinema version in 1982 share as common points their alignments to the anxieties of the 1930s and 1980s related to the human body and the possible threats to its integrity. In our reading, horror is a phobic cultural expression, in the sense it aims at providing a specific reation – fear and loathing – based on fears and anxieties from specific historical moments, that are expressed through metaphoric disguises. In fact, the study of both works indicates that Campbell’s novelette, in which fear of contamination is dominant, is linked to a widespread discourse in America during interwar years, marked by xenophobic and racist attitudes and politics. In the same way, the 1980s movie captures the debates promoted by counter-culture and civil right movements related to the discussion on social normative constructions regarding the body. |
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