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MOTHER FEELS BEST: MOBILIZING NEGATIVE MATERNAL AFFECT AS POSTFEMINIST CRITIQUE in CONTEMPORARY HORROR CINEMA by Amanda Greer Ho

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MOTHER FEELS BEST: MOBILIZING NEGATIVE MATERNAL AFFECT AS POSTFEMINIST CRITIQUE in CONTEMPORARY HORROR CINEMA by Amanda Greer Ho MOTHER FEELS BEST: MOBILIZING NEGATIVE MATERNAL AFFECT AS POSTFEMINIST CRITIQUE IN CONTEMPORARY HORROR CINEMA by Amanda Greer Hon. B.A., Trinity College at the University of Toronto (St. George), 2015 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Film Studies) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2017 © Amanda Greer, 2017 ii Abstract A small child is getting ready for school. His mother dresses him, pulling his jacket over his shoulders. He tries to hug her, emitting a satisfied sigh; she pushes him away. “Don’t do that!” she cries. This sequence occurs at the beginning of Jennifer Kent’s horror film, The Babadook (2014), a film that perfectly embodies contemporary horror’s capacity to critique postfeminist mothering through its use of affect and the Final Mom figure. Although the horror genre’s conventional representations of motherhood portray the institution as monstrous and abject, as in Carrie (1976) and The Brood (1979), a recent spate of horror films has demonstrated a more nuanced approach to mothering. Drawing from Carol Clover’s seminal Final Girl figure, this thesis locates a powerful and critically productive figure in these films: the Final Mom. This figure, though dissatisfied with mothering and domestic life, must defend her family against a threatening force, often with no help from others. These figures exist in a postfeminist world where New Momist parenting is expected and celebrated. This form of parenting demands that all mothers fulfill a contradiction: give yourself over completely to mothering (sacrificing one’s individual identity), while remaining sexually attractive and achieving success at work. This thesis explores how the horror genre’s new Final Mom figure critiques postfeminist mothering’s impossible expectations through mobilizing negative maternal affects. Employing a tripartite model of affect theory, in which affect is seen to travel between narratives, character bodies, and film form itself, this thesis argues that Final Mom horror films use negative maternal affects to critique and denaturalize postfeminist mothering structures. Irritation occupies a critical role in The Babadook, while envy will be discussed in relation to We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). iii These under-discussed, unpleasant affects will provide in-depth cultural critiques of contemporary mothering’s unfulfillable expectations, proving their politically productive potentials. What’s more, unpleasant affects like irritation and envy are emphasized as natural components of mothering, rather than shameful. This thesis exposes the Final Mom’s potential to celebrate mothering’s “bad” feelings, to accept these affects as natural to all mothering experiences. iv Lay Summary While maternal figures in classic horror films are usually represented as monstrous and abject, contemporary horror cinema has demonstrated a move towards more nuanced representations of motherhood. These representations all feature a figure defined here as the Final Mom. This figure must work through her dissatisfactions towards motherhood while defending her family (particularly her children) from some threatening force (a monster, demon, etc.). In defending her children, the Final Mom must struggle with negative affective experiences surrounding her identity as mother. This thesis will examine these negative affects (namely irritation and envy) as they function in Final Mom films like The Babadook (2014) and We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) to argue for the Final Mom’s ability to critique postfeminist mothering’s demand that women should accept mothering unquestioningly. Through the course of this thesis, negative affects will be celebrated as a natural and critically productive element of contemporary mothering. v Preface This thesis is original, unpublished, independent work by the author, Amanda Greer. vi Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv Preface .............................................................................................................................................v Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... viii Dedication .......................................................................................................................................x Introduction: All Grown Up: Final Girls and Final Moms .......................................................1 Chapter 1: From Abjection to Affect: Re-Theorizing the Horror Film's Maternal Figures 14 2.1 Abjecting the Monstrous Maternal ............................................................................... 14 2.2 Affected Mothering ....................................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2: Irritating Mothers Irritating Motherhood: Irritation as Postfeminist Critique in The Babadook (2014) ....................................................................................................................34 3.1 The Irritation of Grief ................................................................................................... 34 3.2 Postfeminism, Final Moms, and New Momism .......................................................... 37 3.3 Irritation and the Power of Impropriety ........................................................................ 43 3.4 Iterations of Irritation .................................................................................................... 49 3.5 The Babadook's Irritation of Film Form ...................................................................... 55 3.6 "You Can't Get Rid of the Babadook" ......................................................................... 62 Chapter 3: Cinema's Evil Eye: Envy, the Gaze, and Motherhood in We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) ..................................................................................................................................64 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 64 vii 4.2 A History of Envy ........................................................................................................ 68 4.1.1 Clinical Psychoanalysis and Penis Envy ............................................................... 68 4.1.2 Something Other Than the Penis: Feminist Psychoanalysis ................................. 74 4.3 The Horror and Envy of Kevin ...................................................................................... 78 4.4 Towards a Utopian Past: The Inward Gaze of Self-Envy ............................................. 81 4.5 The Camera's Self-Envious Look ................................................................................. 84 4.6 The Gaze of an Envious Child ...................................................................................... 87 4.7 Envy's Positive Potential .............................................................................................. 90 Conclusion: Towards Ambivalent Mothering ...........................................................................92 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................................100 viii Acknowledgements Throughout my Master’s degree, I’ve been lucky enough to have a strong, caring support system around me, without which this thesis would not have been possible. I’d first like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Lisa Coulthard, who guided me in this process and allowed me to pursue a topic I feel genuinely passionate about. You’ve shown me what rigorous, exciting academic work looks like, and for that I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank my committee members, Drs. Christine Evans and Brian McIlroy. Thank you, Dr. Evans, for supporting this thesis from the proposal stage to the final draft; this thesis would not be what it is today without your insightful comments and constructive feedback. Thanks, too, for being so hilarious and making this process seem less soul-crushing. Thank you to Dr. McIlroy for your guidance and careful reading, along with your kind words. Thank you to Morgan Harper, Hilary Ball, Becky Gold, Mathieu Aubin, Xine Yao, Lauren Gillies, Kiran Sunar, and Kristi Carey for helping me work through ideas, and (more importantly) for listening to me complain/vent/cry/stress semi-regularly. Thanks, too, to the entire Green College community for creating a space of learning and knowledge-sharing. To my awesome cohort: Matthew Gartner, Zoe Laks, and Morgan Harper. You three are all brilliant. Thank you for sharing your graduate experiences with me, and for creating such a supportive and nurturing environment. ix Thank you, too, to Chelsea Birks, who provided indispensable feedback on my proposal and helped tone down my overambitious undergrad tendencies so this thesis didn’t end up being 400 pages long. This goes for Dr. Christine Evans as well. You are both incredibly supportive scholars
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