Female Identity in Contemporary Fictional Purgatorial Worlds [Paperback]

Examining fictional purgatorial worlds in contemporary literature, film and video games, this book examines the way in which the female characters trapped within them construct identity positions of resistance and change. With the rise of populism, the Alt. Right, and isolationism in world politics in the second decade of the 21st Century, parallel, purgatorial worlds seem to currently proliferate within popular culture across all media, including television shows and films such asThe Handmaids Tale,Us,Watchmen, and Margaret Atwood'sThe Testamentsamong many others. These texts depict alternate worlds that express the darkness and violence of our own, arguably none more so than for women.

Featuring essays from a broad range of international contributors on topics as wide-ranging as mental health in theSilent Hillfranchise and liminal spaces in the work of David Mitchell, this book is an original, timely and hope-filled analysis about overcoming the confines of a patriarchal, fundamentalist world where the female imaginative might just be the last, best hope.

Simon Baconis an independent scholar working in Poland. He has previously edited works such asGothic: A Reader,Horror: A Companionand Monsters: A Companion. Previous monographs includeBecoming Vampire,Dracula as Absolute Other,Eco-Vampires,Vampires From Another World, andUnhallowed Ground.This collection examines fictional horrors very like those that women face every day in the real world to illuminate how we got to where we are and, more importantly, where we may end up, offering up hope through engagement with models of survival, resistance, and victory. Leah Richards, Professor of English, City University of New York, USA

List of Illustrations

Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements

Prologue,Simon Bacon
Introduction,Simon Bacon

Part One: Purgatol#—