Theses by Emily-Rose Carr
THE FEMININE SUBLIME IN VIOLENT CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN FICTION, 2017
Barbara Freeman’s feminine sublime theory was radical upon its publication in The Feminine Sublim... more Barbara Freeman’s feminine sublime theory was radical upon its publication in The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction (1995). Challenging centuries of male-dominated and male-focussed sublime theory, her crafting of the feminine sublime established a unique sublime experience that was based upon female perspective and participation. Contrasting from the dominating, male-authored masculine sublime, which prescribes that the male subject of the sublime neutralises the excessive other that they encounter as part of the experience, Freeman’s feminine sublime eradicates the presence
of domination altogether, arguing instead that in the feminine sublime, the subject moves toward the obscure other and wants to participate in it, even at risk of annihilation. This significant shift in sublime theory was published in 1995, but curiously has received little application to, or exploration in, nonfemale authored works in the time since then, despite Freeman making clear that the subject of the feminine sublime does not need to be a particular gender. In selected works of violent American fiction from the 1990s, a narrative resemblance to the feminine sublime reveals itself. The characters of The Virgin Suicides (1993), Mysterious Skin (1995), American Psycho (1991), Fight Club (1996), and White Oleander (1999) all contain instances where there is a willing and consensual movement toward instances of obscurity or terror. This movement, consistent across all novels but differing in its manifestations, is the focus of this dissertation. The argument being made here is evident from the title of this thesis; I argue that these five novels, which span a decade at the close of the twentieth century, and which may not otherwise be considered particularly feminine in nature, all embody Freeman’s feminine sublime experience.
This research looks closely at the different manifestations of feminine
sublime experiences in the novels listed above. If the feminine sublime is
categorised as a movement toward an obscure or terrifying ‘other’ rather than domination over it, there is a variety of ways in which this movement can occur. This thesis will analyse these movements thematically, focusing specifically on the movement toward obscurity, and the movement toward terror, with obscurity and terror both being ruling principles of the traditional and feminine sublime experiences. In addition to this initial investigation, this dissertation will also explore new theoretical territory in the feminine sublime experience as it examines how the feminine sublime can exist without the subject’s need to relinquish the self at the hand of the more powerful ‘other’ that they encounter. By undertaking this research and using contemporary American novels that are (with the exception of White Oleander) significantly male in nature, this thesis also achieves what has not been undertaken before: the exploration of feminine sublime experiences in novels written by, and heavily featuring, men.
Works containing the trickster character have been part of oral and written literature for millen... more Works containing the trickster character have been part of oral and written literature for millennia, with the trickster archetype often employed in stories of mythology and folklore to explore common power struggles and communicate meaning to the recipient of the text. A character of paradox and contradiction, the trickster figure has developed in recent years from a signifier of moral ambiguity to an evil presence within contemporary fiction for young adults. Developing from traditional trickster fiction, contemporary young adult literature featuring the archetype also keenly focuses on using the trickster to explore power relationships, specifically the relationships of power between young adult protagonists of the novels and the evil, adult trickster character.
The focus of this research will be to analyse appearances of the malevolent trickster in contemporary adolescent fiction, exploring the affiliation between portrayals of the evil trickster and the common themes of power throughout the chosen texts: Lemony Snicket’s 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' novels, Margaret Mahy’s 'The Changeover' and John Connolly’s 'The Book of Lost Things'.
Conference Presentations by Emily-Rose Carr
Terror and the sublime have been linked in theoretical material by countless academics, including... more Terror and the sublime have been linked in theoretical material by countless academics, including notable sublime theorists Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Barbara Freeman. In the traditional sublime theories of Burke and Kant, terror is experienced at a distance, and it is precisely this distance which facilitates the sublime emotion. However, instances of contemporary American fiction indicate a rejection of this separating distance – they portray characters who desire to be participants in, and facilitators of, terror: instead aligning closely with the feminine sublime theory that Freeman champions. This research will explore, specifically, how the protagonists of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) reveal a manifestations of Freeman’s feminine sublime through their dual role of violator and victim of the terror they perpetuate in the novels.
Associate Professor Paul Hurh argues that literary terror occurs when ‘the world itself becomes out of place’ (16). With an emphasis on destabilisation, terror, for Hurh, ‘threatens to expose… the radical contingency of our deeply held assumptions about the world and our place in it’ (16). While a notable amount of violent, frightening, or Gothic literature portrays a world in which a monstrous anomaly disrupts an otherwise normal society, American Psycho and Fight Club refute this tradition with examples of inherently unstable, frightening, and terrible environments of which they are willing participants. Considering this, this paper will argue that American Psycho and Fight Club not only indicate a sublime experience with the application of terror in the novels, but that it is through this application that the specific feminine sublime manifests itself – the protagonists of each novel demonstrate the desire to be victims of the very terror they are perpetuating, suggesting a rejection of the distance that defines a traditional sublime formula.
Chronicled in Jeffrey Eugenides’s 1993 novel, The Virgin Suicides, are the systematic suicides of... more Chronicled in Jeffrey Eugenides’s 1993 novel, The Virgin Suicides, are the systematic suicides of its enigmatic protagonists – the five teenage Lisbon sisters. Despite the dark and affecting content – ‘Cecilia, the youngest, only thirteen, had gone first, slitting her wrists like a Stoic while taking a bath…’ (Eugenides 3) – and the efforts to ban the book for its violence, sexual content, and heretic language, the novel maintains a wide readership, consistent publication, and continued critical acclaim. The simultaneous repulsion against, yet willing participation in, the novel’s violent content indicates an intuitive conflict inherent in the book: the novel is simultaneously terrible and pleasurable. Springing from a desire to explore the aesthetic correlation between subjecting oneself to literary scenes of violence, and experiencing pleasure from this subjection, this paper will argue that the text manifests a unique sublime pleasure, in which the presence of terror (specifically, a terrifying ‘other’) is necessary for the evocation of pleasure in the text. In her 1995 work The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction, Barbara Freeman challenges the idea of male-centric sublime theories, providing a ‘feminine’ theoretical foundation that emphasises embracing the terrifying ‘other’ rather than attempting to dominate or domesticate it. By applying Freeman’s feminine sublime theory to the text, this paper will analyse the representation of the ‘other’ in the novel, specifically discussing the way in which it reinforces a feminine sublime reading by embracing obscurity as opposed to holding the terrifying at bay.
Papers by Emily-Rose Carr
On Fear, Horror, and Terror: Giving Utterance to the Unutterable, 2019
This volume brings together essays that examine a vast gamut of di ferent contemporary cultural m... more This volume brings together essays that examine a vast gamut of di ferent contemporary cultural manifestations of fear, anxiety, horror, and terror. Topics range from the feminine sublime in American novels to the monstrous double in horror ction, (in)security at music festivals, the uncanny in graphic novels, epic heroes' Being-towards-death and authenticity, atrocity and history in Central European art, the theme of old age in absurdist literature, and iterations of the "home invasion" subgenre in post-9/11 popular culture. This diversity of insights and methodologies ensures a kaleidoscopic look at a cluster of phenomena and experiences that often manage to both be immediately and universally recognizable and defy straightforward categorization or even description. Contributors are Emily-Rose Carr, Ghada
On Fear, Horror, and Terror: Giving Utterance to the Unutterable, 2019
On Fear, Horror, and Terror: Giving Utterance to the Unutterable, 2019
Terror and the sublime have been linked in theoretical material by numerous academics, including ... more Terror and the sublime have been linked in theoretical material by numerous academics, including notable sublime theorists Edmund Burke, Immanuel Kant, and Barbara Freeman. In the traditional sublime theories of Burke and Kant, terror is experienced at a distance, and it is precisely this distance which facilitates the sublime emotion. However, instances of contemporary American fiction indicate a rejection of this separating distance – they portray characters who desire to be participants in, and facilitators of, terror: instead aligning closely with the feminine sublime theory that Freeman champions. This research will explore, specifically, how the protagonists of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club (1996) and Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho (1991) reveal a manifestations of Freeman’s feminine sublime through their dual role of violator and victim of the terror they perpetuate in the novels. Associate Professor Paul Hurh argues that literary terror occurs when ‘the world itself becomes out of place’. With an emphasis on destabilisation, terror, for Hurh, ‘threatens to expose… the radical contingency of our deeply held assumptions about the world and our place in it’. While a notable amount of violent, frightening, or Gothic literature portrays a world in which a monstrous anomaly disrupts an otherwise normal society, American Psycho and Fight Club refute this tradition with examples of inherently unstable, frightening, and terrible environments of which they are willing participants. Considering this, this paper will argue that American Psycho and Fight Club not only indicate a sublime experience with the application of terror in the novels, but that it is through this application that the specific feminine sublime manifests itself – the protagonists of each novel demonstrate the desire to be victims of the very terror they are perpetuating, suggesting a rejection of the distance that defines a traditional sublime formula.
Edited volumes by Emily-Rose Carr
On Fear, Horror, and Terror: Giving Utterance to the Unutterable , 2019
This volume brings together essays that examine a vast gamut of di ferent contemporary cultural m... more This volume brings together essays that examine a vast gamut of di ferent contemporary cultural manifestations of fear, anxiety, horror, and terror. Topics range from the feminine sublime in American novels to the monstrous double in horror ction, (in)security at music festivals, the uncanny in graphic novels, epic heroes' Being-towards-death and authenticity, atrocity and history in Central European art, the theme of old age in absurdist literature, and iterations of the "home invasion" subgenre in post-9/11 popular culture. This diversity of insights and methodologies ensures a kaleidoscopic look at a cluster of phenomena and experiences that often manage to both be immediately and universally recognizable and defy straightforward categorization or even description. Contributors are Emily-Rose Carr, Ghada
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Theses by Emily-Rose Carr
of domination altogether, arguing instead that in the feminine sublime, the subject moves toward the obscure other and wants to participate in it, even at risk of annihilation. This significant shift in sublime theory was published in 1995, but curiously has received little application to, or exploration in, nonfemale authored works in the time since then, despite Freeman making clear that the subject of the feminine sublime does not need to be a particular gender. In selected works of violent American fiction from the 1990s, a narrative resemblance to the feminine sublime reveals itself. The characters of The Virgin Suicides (1993), Mysterious Skin (1995), American Psycho (1991), Fight Club (1996), and White Oleander (1999) all contain instances where there is a willing and consensual movement toward instances of obscurity or terror. This movement, consistent across all novels but differing in its manifestations, is the focus of this dissertation. The argument being made here is evident from the title of this thesis; I argue that these five novels, which span a decade at the close of the twentieth century, and which may not otherwise be considered particularly feminine in nature, all embody Freeman’s feminine sublime experience.
This research looks closely at the different manifestations of feminine
sublime experiences in the novels listed above. If the feminine sublime is
categorised as a movement toward an obscure or terrifying ‘other’ rather than domination over it, there is a variety of ways in which this movement can occur. This thesis will analyse these movements thematically, focusing specifically on the movement toward obscurity, and the movement toward terror, with obscurity and terror both being ruling principles of the traditional and feminine sublime experiences. In addition to this initial investigation, this dissertation will also explore new theoretical territory in the feminine sublime experience as it examines how the feminine sublime can exist without the subject’s need to relinquish the self at the hand of the more powerful ‘other’ that they encounter. By undertaking this research and using contemporary American novels that are (with the exception of White Oleander) significantly male in nature, this thesis also achieves what has not been undertaken before: the exploration of feminine sublime experiences in novels written by, and heavily featuring, men.
The focus of this research will be to analyse appearances of the malevolent trickster in contemporary adolescent fiction, exploring the affiliation between portrayals of the evil trickster and the common themes of power throughout the chosen texts: Lemony Snicket’s 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' novels, Margaret Mahy’s 'The Changeover' and John Connolly’s 'The Book of Lost Things'.
Conference Presentations by Emily-Rose Carr
Associate Professor Paul Hurh argues that literary terror occurs when ‘the world itself becomes out of place’ (16). With an emphasis on destabilisation, terror, for Hurh, ‘threatens to expose… the radical contingency of our deeply held assumptions about the world and our place in it’ (16). While a notable amount of violent, frightening, or Gothic literature portrays a world in which a monstrous anomaly disrupts an otherwise normal society, American Psycho and Fight Club refute this tradition with examples of inherently unstable, frightening, and terrible environments of which they are willing participants. Considering this, this paper will argue that American Psycho and Fight Club not only indicate a sublime experience with the application of terror in the novels, but that it is through this application that the specific feminine sublime manifests itself – the protagonists of each novel demonstrate the desire to be victims of the very terror they are perpetuating, suggesting a rejection of the distance that defines a traditional sublime formula.
Papers by Emily-Rose Carr
Edited volumes by Emily-Rose Carr
of domination altogether, arguing instead that in the feminine sublime, the subject moves toward the obscure other and wants to participate in it, even at risk of annihilation. This significant shift in sublime theory was published in 1995, but curiously has received little application to, or exploration in, nonfemale authored works in the time since then, despite Freeman making clear that the subject of the feminine sublime does not need to be a particular gender. In selected works of violent American fiction from the 1990s, a narrative resemblance to the feminine sublime reveals itself. The characters of The Virgin Suicides (1993), Mysterious Skin (1995), American Psycho (1991), Fight Club (1996), and White Oleander (1999) all contain instances where there is a willing and consensual movement toward instances of obscurity or terror. This movement, consistent across all novels but differing in its manifestations, is the focus of this dissertation. The argument being made here is evident from the title of this thesis; I argue that these five novels, which span a decade at the close of the twentieth century, and which may not otherwise be considered particularly feminine in nature, all embody Freeman’s feminine sublime experience.
This research looks closely at the different manifestations of feminine
sublime experiences in the novels listed above. If the feminine sublime is
categorised as a movement toward an obscure or terrifying ‘other’ rather than domination over it, there is a variety of ways in which this movement can occur. This thesis will analyse these movements thematically, focusing specifically on the movement toward obscurity, and the movement toward terror, with obscurity and terror both being ruling principles of the traditional and feminine sublime experiences. In addition to this initial investigation, this dissertation will also explore new theoretical territory in the feminine sublime experience as it examines how the feminine sublime can exist without the subject’s need to relinquish the self at the hand of the more powerful ‘other’ that they encounter. By undertaking this research and using contemporary American novels that are (with the exception of White Oleander) significantly male in nature, this thesis also achieves what has not been undertaken before: the exploration of feminine sublime experiences in novels written by, and heavily featuring, men.
The focus of this research will be to analyse appearances of the malevolent trickster in contemporary adolescent fiction, exploring the affiliation between portrayals of the evil trickster and the common themes of power throughout the chosen texts: Lemony Snicket’s 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' novels, Margaret Mahy’s 'The Changeover' and John Connolly’s 'The Book of Lost Things'.
Associate Professor Paul Hurh argues that literary terror occurs when ‘the world itself becomes out of place’ (16). With an emphasis on destabilisation, terror, for Hurh, ‘threatens to expose… the radical contingency of our deeply held assumptions about the world and our place in it’ (16). While a notable amount of violent, frightening, or Gothic literature portrays a world in which a monstrous anomaly disrupts an otherwise normal society, American Psycho and Fight Club refute this tradition with examples of inherently unstable, frightening, and terrible environments of which they are willing participants. Considering this, this paper will argue that American Psycho and Fight Club not only indicate a sublime experience with the application of terror in the novels, but that it is through this application that the specific feminine sublime manifests itself – the protagonists of each novel demonstrate the desire to be victims of the very terror they are perpetuating, suggesting a rejection of the distance that defines a traditional sublime formula.