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- Creators: Mack, Robert
- Creators: Computer Science and Engineering Program
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
This creative project is a short story in the Gothic genre followed by an explanation of certain literary elements and decisions. The Gothic genre often explores supernatural and uncomfortable topics that can challenge the reader’s perception and understanding of the world. Through this means of storytelling, authors are given the opportunity to connect the supernatural with complex and sensitive topics that may be difficult or even taboo to speak about in certain locations and time periods. In this thesis, I embrace the traditions of the Gothic-genre with a story that focuses on the issues prevalent today. The years 2020 and 2021 have been unprecedented times for humanity. Technology continues to grow at an alarming rate, suicide rates of young people have been on the rise for years, and a global pandemic has people adapting to all new ways of living. During these ever changing times, it is the Gothic that may provide guidance through these uncertainties by shedding light on the problems that will plague humanity both today and tomorrow. The story follows an outcast from society who aids in the creation of a divine monster, and the consequences that follow.
Interestingly, three recent horror films have achieved both critical acclaim and popularity among all audiences, horror and non-horror fans alike. Get Out, A Quiet Place, and It Follows are all noticeably lacking in the three features that commonly make a horror film “successful”, and yet it would be difficult to argue that they aren't successful horror films given that they have received critical acclaim, impressive box office returns, and have a strong crossover appeal. Therefore, they must use alternative methods to achieve the bodily response of fear that is necessary to be successful in the genre. I argue that these films put the audience member in a position that mirrors what Forced Lacanian Hysteric Neurosis and that this positioning produces the bodily response that is necessary for a horror movie to be successful. This manifestation has the additional benefit of allowing those spectators who do not like the fundamental aspects of horror (jump scares, gore, and suspenseful shots) to find the pleasure of horror without experiencing on-screen events that might cause them notable distress.
An analysis of the relationship between haunted house films and economic anxieties of different cultures and time periods.
This story ---Under Still Faces--- is a horror fiction story. It is influenced primarily by classic, gothic literature with themes from the horror and true crime genres. The story includes critical/theoretical concepts, literary devices, and techniques from gothic literature primarily including Freud’s Uncanny, uneven framing, and an unreliable narrator. It employs themes from Edgar Allan Poe’s novels as well as his thesis regarding plot in The Philosophy of Composition. Particular descriptive themes in conjunction with the use of gothic elements surprise the reader about the story’s true ending similar to Poe’s The Oval Portrait. Included is an analysis of the literary decisions made in the piece to evoke specific reactions and feelings from the reader.