Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Gothic Heroines on Screen |
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Subtitle of host publication | Representation, Interpretation, and Feminist Inquiry |
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Editors | Tamar Jeffers McDonald, Frances Kamm |
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Place of Publication | London |
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Publisher | Taylor and Francis Inc. |
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Chapter | 12 |
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Pages | 171-183 |
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Number of pages | 13 |
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ISBN (Electronic) | 9781315200545 |
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ISBN (Print) | 9781138710993 |
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Publication status | Published - 29 Apr 2019 |
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Abstract
This chapter examines the Austrian film Goodnight Mommy in the context of the Gothic genre, and will, in doing so, interrogate this ‘peculiarly visual’ element as a necessary condition for a Gothic film, since the film does not, at first sight, appear to carry these specific visual markers frequently associated with the genre. It argues that this film – originally titled Ich Seh, Ich Seh, or I See, I See – is Gothic less because of any visual markers, and more because of what remains visually ambiguous, and indeed invisible, throughout the film. Goodnight Mommy focuses on a mother and her 10-year-old twin sons Elias and Lukas, who inhabit a large, modern house in the Austrian countryside. The relationship between the senses and Mommy’s status as a trapped Gothic heroine – both figuratively and literally – also connects with one of the central features of the genre: the female protagonist’s search for the solution of a central mystery.
Notes
© 2019 Taylor and Francis. This is an accepted manuscript of a chapter published by Taylor & Francis in Gothic Heroines on Screen: Representation, Interpretation, and Feminist Inquiry on 29th April 2019, available online: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315200545.
ID: 19044506