Horror Begins at Home: Family Trauma In
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Oregon Scholars' Bank HORROR BEGINS AT HOME: FAMILY TRAUMA IN PARANORMAL REALITY TV by ANDREW J. BEARD A DISSERTATION Presented to the Department of English and the Graduate School of the University of Oregon in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2012 DISSERTATION APPROVAL PAGE Student: Andrew J. Beard Title: Horror Begins at Home: Family Trauma in Paranormal Reality TV This dissertation has been accepted and approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in the Department of English by: Dr. Carol Stabile Chairperson Dr. Anne Laskaya Member Dr. Priscilla Ovalle Member Dr. Lynn Fujiwara Outside Member and Kimberly Andrews Espy Vice President for Research & Innovation/Dean of the Graduate School Original approval signatures are on file with the University of Oregon Graduate School. Degree awarded June 2012 ii © 2012 Andrew J. Beard iii DISSERTATION ABSTRACT Andrew J. Beard Doctor of Philosophy Department of English June 2012 Title: Horror Begins at Home: Family Trauma in Paranormal Reality TV This dissertation argues that paranormal reality television is a form of what some have referred to as “trauma television,” a site of struggle between meanings of family and the violence often found in the hegemonic nuclear family ideal. Programs such as A Haunting and Paranormal State articulate family violence and trauma through a paranormal presence in the heteronormative family home, working to make strange and unfamiliar the domestic and familial milieus in which their episodes take place. Although ghosts, demons, and other entities stand in for violence and trauma taking place in the family, the subgenre’s narratives continue to suggest an oppressive situation and leave the hegemonic family ideal open to critique. Paranormal reality television draws on narrative conventions associated with the paranormal family horror film of the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly The Amityville Horror , The Shining , and Poltergeist , which also articulated family trauma following increased attention to family violence during those decades. Presenting forms of difference (race, sexuality, class, etc.) as threatening, recuperative, or absent in relation to the heteronormative family and privileging the “ghost hunter,” paranormal reality marks a powerful convergence of genres and modes, marking it as a site for articulating violence and trauma in the family. iv CURRICULUM VITAE NAME OF AUTHOR: Andrew J. Beard GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOLS ATTENDED: University of Oregon, Eugene Washington State University, Vancouver, WA Clark College, Vancouver, WA DEGREES AWARDED: Doctor of Philosophy, English, 2012, University of Oregon Bachelor of Arts, English, 2006, Washington State University Associate in Arts, 2006, Clark College AREAS OF SPECIAL INTEREST: Horror and Family; Feminist Theory; Television Studies; Popular Culture; Trauma Studies; Gender Studies; Queer Theory PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oregon, June 2010; June 2011-present Graduate Teaching Fellow, Department of English, University of Oregon, September 2007-June 2011 PUBLICATIONS: Beard, Andrew J. “Strange Bedfellows: The Chaucerian Dream Vision and the Neoconservative Nightmare .” The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 8 (2010) Web. 21 Jun. 2010. http://irishgothichorrorjournal.homestead.com/DreamVisionandNightmare.html Beard, Andrew J. “Going Both Ways: Being Queer and Academic in Film and Media Studies.” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 15.4 (2009): 624-25. Print. v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful for the insight provided by my committee: Carol Stabile for sagely and patiently guiding me through a process that was, at times, pretty scary in and of itself, along with Anne Laskaya, Priscilla Ovalle, and Lynn Fujiwara for agreeing to get involved with this project. My regards to the departments of English and Women’s Gender Studies at the University of Oregon for providing me with financial support during the writing of this dissertation, and to my students from my WGS 410 courses in summer 2010 and 2011, who helped me give further thought to family and horror in film and television. Thank you to my many friends and family who contributed to Horror Begins at Home throughout its development over the past three years, and perhaps for decades before. My grandmother, Billie Jo Westby, taught me a love of history and stories of our family, even the ones not altogether fit for the history books, while my mother, Susan Hatcher, let me check out all those books on ghosts and hauntings, even if she was too afraid to read them herself. Corbett Upton encouraged me to follow my research instincts, while Renee Woodruff gave me the title and also acted as copy editor. Arpana D. Prasad has been encouraging me and contributing her keen observations on horror for more than a decade now. Finally, a very wise man once told me, “take care of your house, and it will take care of you.” Perhaps my biggest thanks of all go to my apartment for not being haunted and for being such a pleasant space for writing this dissertation. As the clairvoyant Tangina intones near the end of Poltergeist : “This house is clean.” vi To the ghosts—for being there. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. AT HOME WITH THE DEAD: AN INTRODUCTION ......................................... 1 Fear, Family, and Paranormal Reality ............................................................. 4 Too Close for Comfort: Trauma and TV ......................................................... 8 Living in a Box: Reality TV ............................................................................ 13 Granted an Audience with the Dead: A Rationale ........................................... 15 II. “FOR GOD’S SAKE, GET OUT!”: PARANORMAL FAMILY HORROR IN THE 1970S AND 1980S ............................................................................................. 19 The Paranormal Family Horror Film ............................................................... 22 The Amityville Horror (1979) .......................................................................... 29 The Shining (1980) ........................................................................................... 39 Poltergeist (1982) ........................................................................................... 47 Ghostbusters and Ghost Dads: Post-1980s Paranormal Family Horror .......... 55 III. GHOST STORY CONFESSIONALS: ARTICULATING FAMILY TRAUMA IN PARANORMAL REALITY TV ............................................................................ 58 Paranormal Reality as Subgenre ...................................................................... 60 A Haunting: Narrative Trajectories of Paranormal Reality ............................. 66 Generic Convergence and “Making Strange” .................................................. 72 Paranormal Reality as Trauma Narrative ......................................................... 79 viii Chapter Page Paranormal Reality and Articulating Family Trauma ...................................... 83 IV. HOW TO HAUNT A HOUSE: PARANORMAL REALITY NARRATIVES .... 85 Too Good To Be True: Progressive Entrapment in the Dream House ............ 87 Family, Trauma, and the Dread of Difference ................................................. 90 Cleaning up after Patriarchy: The Heroic Mother ........................................... 95 By Patriarchy Possessed ................................................................................. 99 Invisible Guests: Ghosts and Other Entities ................................................... 101 Excavation and Going Public........................................................................... 102 V. REVERSING THE DREAD OF DIFFERENCE: THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS OF PARANORMAL REALITY TV ........................................... 107 Integration vs. Exorcism .................................................................................. 110 Getting to Know the Ghost Hunter ................................................................. 112 Queer Engagement with the Heteronormative Family .................................... 114 “Coffey Talk”: Queerness and Family in Paranormal State ........................... 116 Running Scared: Masculine Overcompensation and the Real Ghostbusters ... 122 The Further Adventures of the “Magical Negro” ............................................ 124 Closing the Case ............................................................................................. 126 VI. DEAD TIME: A CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 127 REFERENCES CITED ................................................................................................ 131 ix CHAPTER I AT HOME WITH THE DEAD: AN INTRODUCTION It runs in the family. --Tagline for Paranormal Activity 3 (dirs. Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman, US, 2011) In an early episode of the Discovery Channel series A Haunting (2005-07), Arnold and Ginger Hinshaw purchase Summerwind, a dilapidated mansion in Wisconsin. Shortly after moving in, Arnold exhibits strange behavior and becomes prone to explosive rages, especially towards Ginger’s children, whom he blames for missing items and open windows. According to Ginger’s daughter April, Arnold killed the children’s pet raccoon as a punishment