Reading American Horror Story: Essays on the Television Franchise

Synopsis

Looming Onto The Television Landscape In 2011, American Horror Story Gave Viewers A Weekly Dose Of Psychological Unease And Gruesome Violence. Embracing The Familiar Horror Conventions Of Spooky Settings, Unnerving Manifestations And Terrifying Monsters, Series Co-creators Ryan Murphy And Brad Falchuk Combine Shocking Visual Effects With An Engaging Anthology Format To Provide A Modern Take On The Horror Genre. This Collection Of New Essays Examines The Series' Contribution To Television Horror, Focusing On How The Show Speaks To Social Concerns, Its Use Of Classic Horror Tropes And Its Reinvention Of The Tale Of Terror For The 21st Century. Acknowledgments; Introduction; Works Cited; Part One; Industry And Culture; American Horror Stories, Repertory Horror And Intertextuality Of Casting; Ahs And Anthology Series; Repertory Horror; Older Women; Upping The Game; Notes; Works Cited; Haunted History; American Horror Story As Gothic Tourism; Ghost Tours And Gothic Tourism; American Horror Story: Murder House As Ghost Tour; American Horror Story: Touring Asylums And Covens; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Seasons, Family And Nation In American Horror Story; What Is American About American Horror Story?; What Is American Horror? Broadcasting Seasons, Calendar Seasonshalloween; Christmas; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Part Two; Issues Of Representation; Static Femininity; Gender And Familial Representation In Murder House; The Mechanism: Murder House And The Supernatural; Generalized Genders; Men: Sex And Power; Women: Moral Rot And Emotional Ugliness; Production And Reproduction; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; The Minotaur, The Shears And The Melon Baller; Queerness And Self-mortification In Coven; Defining Queerness; Monstrosity; Queerness And Violence; Madison And Zoe; Queenie: The Exploding Witch Cordelia: The Mother Witchmyrtle: The Failed Witch; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Wir Sind Alle Freaks; Elevating White Gay Male Oppression Through Representations Of Disability; Freak Discourse On American Horror Story; Incorporating A Social Model Of Disability; Exploitation Of The Disabled Cast; Erasing How Ableism Operates Intersectionally; Emphasizing The Oppression Of White Gay Men; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Part Three; Genre Tropes And The Horror Of History; There's A Power In It. A Power We Can Use; Perpetuating The Past In Murder House; The Haunted House Motif; Tv Horror Inside The Murder Housetate; Moira, Hayden And Elizabeth; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; They Were Monsters; The Alien Abduction Plotline And Race, Sexuality And Social Unrest In Asylum; A Brief Cultural History Of The Alien Abduction Narrative; The Alien Abduction Storyline In Asylum; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Piecing It Together; Genre Frameworks In American Horror Story; Seriality And Stories: Positioning Genre Television; Melodrama, Sensationalism And Repetition: Structure In American Horror Story; Tainted Love: Excess, Desire And Characterization Bad Places And Bloody Faces: Location, Gore And Excessgrotesque, Excess And Genre Fluidity: Piecing American Horror Story Together; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Nightmares Made In America; Coven And The Real American Horror Story; Gothic; The Americanness Of The Story; History, Race And Power In Coven; Conclusion; Notes; Works Cited; Epilogue; Past Nightmares And Anticipated Horrors; Works Cited; Glossary; About The Contributors; List Of Names And Terms Edited By Rebecca Janicker. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.