Publication details
The North-American Division of Settlement, Frontier, and Wilderness, as depicted in Horror Film
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
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| Description | The presentation proposes the distinction of American Settlement, Frontier, and Wilderness as an essential cultural phenomenon influencing the Horror genre. The presentation explains the historical and cultural background of early era of American settlement, specifically the importance of Puritan perception of the new continent as the Promised land and New Jerusalem, and the overarching Puritan mission of their “errand to the wilderness”. The presentation then introduces Frederic Turner’s Frontier theory and poses its interpretation as a cultural border as essential for the goal of the article. The presentation then establishes two case studies of horror films The VVitch: A New-England Folk Tale and The Village, upon which it demonstrates the direct influence of the, primarily Puritan, perception of the forces opposing the Puritan mission. The presentation proposes that such perception has survived through to the current times and still influences the American Horror genre to this day. The key to such depiction is the suggestion of Frontier as liminal space between the safety of the settlement and the danger of the wilderness, the difference between the cultured and the wild. In the very end, the presentation proposes further applications of the theory on other, vastly different horror films, suggesting a considerable overarching aspect of the theory over the North-American horror film. |
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