Demonic Possession and Fractured Patriarchies in Contemporary Fundamentalist Horror
Demonic Possession and Fractured Patriarchies in Contemporary Fundamentalist Horror A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Humanities By LINDSEY SLANKER B.A., Wright State University, 2013 2017 Wright State University WRIGHT STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL April 18, 2017 I HEREBY RECOMMEND THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY Lindsey Slanker ENTITLED Demonic Possession and Fractured Patriarchies in Contemporary Fundamentalist Horror BE ACCEPTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF HUMANITIES. Hope Jennings, Ph.D. Thesis Director Valerie Stoker, Ph.D. Committee on Final Examination: Director, Master of Humanities Program Hope Jennings, Ph.D. Christine Junker, Ph.D. Andrea Harris, M.A. Robert E. W. Fyffe, Ph.D. Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School ABSTRACT Slanker, Lindsey. M.Hum., Department of Religion, Philosophy, and Classics, Wright State University, 2017. Demonic Possession and Fractured Patriarchies in Contemporary Fundamentalist Horror. This thesis is a survey of contemporary horror films from the perspective of fundamentalist American audiences. Using Judith Butler’s work on gender performativity and religious studies scholarship as framework, I investigate how five visual texts perpetuate patriarchal family structures. The five texts I explore are The Last Exorcism (2010), The Conjuring (2013) and The Conjuring 2 (2016), The Witch: A New England Folk Tale (2015), and The Exorcist television series (2016). In each chapter, I analyze a key family member per patriarchal norms, and how violations of these norms contribute to the family’s supernatural crisis. The figures I analyze for each text is The Weak Father, The Bad Mother, and The Unstable Daughter.
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