Scream: the sound of the monstrous

Dixon, D.P. (2011) Scream: the sound of the monstrous. Cultural Geographies, 18(4), pp. 435-455. (doi: 10.1177/1474474011401991)

Abstract

What does the monstrous sound like? Using the case of Living TV’s Most Haunted, a paranormal investigative show that brings together a team of believers, sceptics and undecided, I want to articulate an answer to this question by drawing upon literatures from feminist psychoanalysis, performance and media studies that address the nature of screaming. Specifically, I emphasize how the scream has functioned as a focal point for both the ‘monstrous-feminine’, a body of work that dwells on the morbidly maternal and male anxieties thereof, and a ‘post’human reading of subjectivities as ‘becoming’ abject or grotesque. The horror of Most Haunted, I suggest, ensued from the explicit suturing of these two monstrous forms, manifest within the performances of its investigative team. I conclude by asking: What is the import of this suturing, and subsequent sundering, for a feminist teratology?

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Dixon, Professor Deborah
• Authors: Dixon, D.P.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Geographical and Earth Sciences
• Journal Name: Cultural Geographies
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
• ISSN: 1474-4740
• ISSN (Online): 1477-0881