Week 7: The Monsterous-Feminine

Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine An Imaginary Abjection

By: Barbara Creed





In Creed's writings she starts off by talking about the mythology of gendered monsters and how Medusa's head of writhing serpents somehow look the horrifying sight of the mother's genitals. It was said that when men looked at Medusa they got terrified and turn stiff, Freud pointed out that turning stiff could also mean having an erection. This would then mean that Medusa actually turned on men instead of repulsing them. Creed points out that all horrific figures are "bodies without souls" (the vampire), "the living corpse" (the zombie), and the corpse-eater (the ghoul). Creed explains that to the extent that abjection works on the socio-cultural arena, the horror film would appear to be, in at least three ways, an illustration of the work of abjection. The first one is the corpse which is mutilated followed by an array of bodily fluids. The second one is the function of the monstrous which she is suppose to bring about an encounter between the symbolic order that which threatens its stability. The third one refers to the construction of the maternal figure as abject. In this she explains that the child is wanting freedom away from the mother and the mother is reluctant to let go of her child. Creed then goes on to give her perspective on the film Alien, here she interprets the space craft as a womb and the alien as the toothed vagina. Creed explains the roles of the mother and father and how children view birth.

Alien
By:Ridley Scott

The spaceship Nostromo receives a call from another planet and goes to investigate. When three of the members get off their spaceship and wander on the windy dark planet they discover another spaceship which seems to be deserted. When one of the three members Kane goes inside to further investigate he finds giant eggs with pulsating figures inside. One of the eggs opens up and a creature jumps out and clings to Kan's face. The other two members take him back and let him in Nostromo even though Ripley is against it for safety purposes. Once inside the other crew members inspect Kane with the alien suctioned to his face and head, awhile later the alien releases itself and they think that the alien is dead, little do they know that the alien actually impregnated Kane and later at dinner the alien baby fights it's way out of Kane's chest killing him. A plan is called into action and all the crew members go on a quest to find and kill the monstrous alien. The caption Dallas is the next one to die and shorty after that everyone is dead except Parker, Lambert, Ripley and her cat. They are planning to destroy the ship and leave on a smaller space craft connected to the underbelly of the Nostromo. Ripley goes on an attempt to find her cat and when she comes back to get Lambert and Parker they have been ripped apart by an alien. Ripley flips a couple of switches and activates the spaceship to self destruct. Ripley runs for the smaller space craft and launches off with barley any time left destroying the aliens and saving only herself and her cat.


Terms:

• semiotic chora- the maternal body becomes the site of conflicting desires.
• Oedipus complex- According to the theory, the complex appears between the ages of three and five. The child feels sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and desires the death of the parent of the same sex.
• unheimlich- the uncanny:concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.
• archaic mother- fantasy mother of the first few months of the infant's life.
• parthenogenic-is an asexual form of reproduction found in females where growth and development of embryos or seeds occurs without fertilization by a male.

Questions

1. Why do people risk their own lives for their pets?
2. Do you think that Ripley's cat had any significant meaning in the movie?
3. Why are vaginas always looked upon as horrifying and monstrous? The penis isn't anything that pretty and great to look at either.
4. Why didn't the crew self destruct the ship earlier in the movie?

Comments

1. In Alien the crew didn't seem to be really worried about Kane and the alien on his head, they seemed relitevly calm for the situation they were in.
2. Ripley played a heroic women in this movie, the other women (Lambert) in the movie probably was in it to make Ripley look even more powerful since Lambet was freaking out and crying helplessly the whole time.