Prelims

Half Title Page

CHILDBIRTH AND PARENTING IN HORROR TEXTS

The Marginalized and the Monstrous

Series Page

ALTERNATIVITY AND MARGINALIZATION

Series Editors: Samantha Holland and Karl Spracklen

Title Page

CHILDBIRTH AND PARENTING IN HORROR TEXTS

The Marginalized and the Monstrous

BY

AMANDA DIGIOIA

UCL, London, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2017

Copyright © 2017 Emerald Publishing Limited

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters’ suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78714-882-6 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-78714-881-9 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-78743-275-8 (Epub)

About the Author

Amanda DiGioia is currently a doctoral student at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK. Amanda’s thesis examines women in the Finnish heavy metal music scene. Her research interests include horror texts, feminist theory, and Finnish culture and society and her work has been featured in Metal Music Studies, Horror Studies, and Fan Phenomena: Game of Thrones.

About the Editors

Samantha Holland is Senior Research Fellow at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her work is interdisciplinary: her educational background includes English Literature, Sociology, and Cultural Studies. Her first monograph Alternative Femininities. Body, Age & Identity (2004) was at the forefront of the current interest in ageing and subcultures. Since then she has published two other books: Remote Relationships in a Small World (Peter Lang, 2008, edited) and Pole Dancing, Empowerment & Embodiment (2010). Her research interests are gender, leisure, non-mainstream subcultures and ageing, utilizing feminist, ethnographic qualitative methods. She is currently the Acting Editor of Journal of Gender Studies, and book review editor for Loisir/Leisure.

Karl Spracklen is Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Beckett University, UK. His research encompasses sociology of leisure, leisure studies, leisure theory, cultural studies, and popular music studies. He is a world-class academic in metal music studies and the editor of the journal Metal Music Studies. He has published over eighty books, edited collections, papers, book chapters, and other outputs. Karl works across disciplines and subject fields, using history and philosophy to make sense of sociology and cultural studies.

Dedications

With love to my Uncle Barry

For Dana Sonnenschein for allowing me to become part of her pack

To my parents, for allowing their daughter to embrace darkness without judgment

Acknowledgments

Monsters occasionally have many victims, and every now and then many midwives are necessary for something to be born. I would like to thank everyone who has been a part of the gestation and birth of this book, the child of my brain and the child of my heart. Dana Sonnenschein, to quote a character in one of the texts in this work: you are indispensable to me. Dana, I do not know what I would have done without you. Continue to spread your sunshine to everyone around you. To Karl Spracklen, for allowing me to talk to him about The Wicker Man for an hour in Helsinki, and to Sam Holland, for giving me this opportunity. Uncle Barry, thank you for making me a horror junkie. I am in deep gratitude to my parents for supporting me (the child they affectionately call ‘Nosferatu’) every step of the way. Titus Hjelm: thank you for supervising my PhD thesis! To ‘Titus’ Babies’: never put us in a corner. “To my SCSU Women’s Studies cohort Class of 2016 (and in particular Lauren, Kate, Betsy, Dayeshell, and Dixie): from slashing metaphorical tires to writing books!” To my friends in The Garden Halls: from unfinished kitchens to lifelong friends. Jennifer Altavilla, I am so happy that I can call you my soul sister and best friend: thank you for all of your support throughout the years. For Sam Shaughnessy: ‘I know, I saw’. For Jules Bakes, Fabian Schäuble, Brooke Mealey, and Imani Williams: the roommates of my heart forever. Heather Louise Creel and Charlotte Naylor Davis: thank you for all of the times you listened to me at Leon. To Jasmine Hazel Shadrack, for being black metal Ripley. For all of my friends in New Haven: sláinte. To Bill McGrath and Ballymore. To Jon Levitt, McSorley’s, and New York City. To Lyndsay Helfrich, the Precious, and nasty women everywhere. To M Selim Yavuz for answering many a panicked message reassuringly. To all of my Metal Music Studies colleagues, I am proud to stand by you all and raise the horns. To every friend who believed in me before I believed in myself: you are worth your weight in gold.