Refereed Articles by Amanda Howell
Abstract: This paper uses the perspectives and formative obsessions of familiar figures from nine... more Abstract: This paper uses the perspectives and formative obsessions of familiar figures from nineteenth century pop culture and literature—the flâneur, the explorer, the alienist and the spiritualist medium—as lenses through which to view and the means to map the interlocking narrative worlds of Penny Dreadful. Aimed at understanding how its world is shaped by remediation, by borrowing from and refashioning media of the past, it argues that the notion of the demimonde, described by Vanessa Ives as a ‘half world’ between this one and another, supernatural one, is the master metaphor of the series. Using these historical, literary, stock characters as guide and prompt, the paper surveys the series’ pervasive concern with liminality, its operational aesthetic for building an imaginary nineteenth century world in the interstices between or the collisions of the pop cultural and pop fictional texts it brings together.
Mapping the Demimonde: space, place, and the narrational role of the flâneur, explorer, spiritualist medium and alienist in Penny Dreadful
This paper uses the perspectives and formative obsessions of familiar figures from nineteenth cen... more This paper uses the perspectives and formative obsessions of familiar figures from nineteenth century pop culture and literature—the flâneur, the explorer, the alienist and the spiritualist medium—as lenses through which to view and the means to map the interlocking narrative worlds of Penny Dreadful. Aimed at understanding how its world is shaped by remediation, by borrowing from and refashioning media of the past, it argues that the notion of the demimonde, described by Vanessa Ives as a ‘half world’ between this one and another, supernatural one, is the master metaphor of the series. Using these historical, literary, stock characters as guide and prompt, the paper surveys the series’ pervasive concern with liminality, its operational aesthetic for building an imaginary nineteenth century world in the interstices between or the collisions of the pop cultural and pop fictional texts it brings together.
Swedish film Låt Den Rätte Komma In/Let the Right One In turns away from the representations of s... more Swedish film Låt Den Rätte Komma In/Let the Right One In turns away from the representations of sexual threat and desire that have long typified – and currently dominate – vampire fiction and film, a significant generic, narrative, and aesthetic shift. Yet, while the film deliberately cuts sex from its story of love between a boy and a vampire, seduction is still key to its representation of vam-pirism, as the film plays, as is typical of gothic fiction more generally, upon our cultural investments in innocence.
Analysis of 1970 rock documentary _Gimme Shelter_, focusing on gendered performances, especially ... more Analysis of 1970 rock documentary _Gimme Shelter_, focusing on gendered performances, especially those by Mick Jagger, in the context of late 1960s youth and music cultures.
Screening the Past, Jan 1, 2005
Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, Jan 1, 2004
Media International Australia, Incorporating …, Jan 1, 2000
This paper surveys fhe represenlation a/The X-Files Inlcmet/andom in order 10 show how file siruc... more This paper surveys fhe represenlation a/The X-Files Inlcmet/andom in order 10 show how file siruc/liral positioning o/ie/evisionfillls is ultered by Internet technology alld cu/lure. Additionally, Ihe representation of jans in promO/jonal materials and the series itself. when considered ill lighl of the conflicts be/weel' jans alld Fox. highlights the difficulties Fox has had ill Iralls/ming ils promolional strategies /0 the Internet.
‘‘Nam Gothic: Telling the Truth in the 1980s’, in Genre 30 (1997): 215-242
Lost Boys and Angry Ghouls: Vietnam's Undead
Genders, Jan 1, 1996
Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media …, Jan 1, 1995
Having inexplicably chosen the half-French, half-Chinese Lucky Legs as the sole representative of... more Having inexplicably chosen the half-French, half-Chinese Lucky Legs as the sole representative of the Vietnamese people.... Fuller then proceeded to make her neutral toward the war until she saw cooperation with the French as a ticket to Amer-ica for her son.... To assure the little ...
Book Chapters by Amanda Howell
Howell A. (2017) Haunted Art House: The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror. In Ryan M., Goldsmith B. (eds). Australian Screen in the 2000s. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
This chapter discusses Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook as an example of contemporary art-h... more This chapter discusses Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook as an example of contemporary art-horror. It considers the film in relation to the historically complex and contested cultural space accorded to art cinema, focusing on how its designation in the global marketplace as both art and horror helped to shape its distribution and reception history, as well as its critical and box office success. This chapter also examines how The Babadook’s narrative, thematic and aesthetic characteristics can be understood in relation to contemporary international art-horror trends, whilst achieving Kent’s objective of using the horror genre to explore dark aspects of parenthood. The Babadook’s success as art-horror is an example of the ‘international turn’ in Australian film production during the twenty-first century.
‘Haunted Art House: The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror,’ in Australian Screen in th... more ‘Haunted Art House: The Babadook and International Art Cinema Horror,’ in Australian Screen in the 2000s, ed. Mark Ryan and Ben Goldsmith (forthcoming,Palgrave-Macmillan 2017).
This paper discusses Jennifer Kent's 2014 film The Babadook as an example of contemporary art horror. It considers its relation to the historically complex and contested cultural space accorded to art cinema, focusing on how its designation in the global marketplace as both art and horror have helped to shape its distribution and reception history, its critical and box office success. It also looks more closely at how The Babadook fits the current international trend toward art horror in its narrative, thematic, and aesthetic character, while achieving Kent’s objective to use the horror genre to represent the darker aspects of parenting. In its success as art horror, The Babadook is an example of the “international turn” in Australian film production during the twenty-first century.
‘The Terrible Terrace: Australian Gothic Reimagined and the (Inner) Suburban Horror of The Babado... more ‘The Terrible Terrace: Australian Gothic Reimagined and the (Inner) Suburban Horror of The Babadook’ in The View from Here: Journeys Between Australian and American Cinema, ed. Adrian Danks, Stephen Gaunson and Peter Kunze (forthcoming Palgrave-Macmillan 2017).
This discussion focuses on how Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook assimilates and adapts tropes of New Hollywood-era suburban horror, the typically feminised domestic spaces of which provide the basis of an alternative Australian gothic, different from that which equates Australianness with masculinity. Focusing on how The Babadook –with its Adelaide locations and interiors inspired by nineteenth century Sydney architecture--combines its distinctly Australian setting with generic elements of New Hollywood horror, this chapter assesses how The Babadook both references and departs from those aspirational narratives of American suburban horror which idealise the domestic realm under attack. Instead, The Babadook, like the Australian social realist film with its focus on working-class urban and inner suburban spaces, emphasises the influence of social environment on character.
‘Coming of Age With Vampires’ in Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Lettin... more ‘Coming of Age With Vampires’ in Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture: Letting the Wrong One In eds. David Baker, Stephanie Green, and Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska (forthcoming, Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017).
This chapter looks at how common tropes of the vampire tale have been used to figure the challenges and changes associated with coming of age, puberty and adolescence, focusing on influential screen fictions, Lost Boys (dir. Joel Schumacher, 1987), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (exec. prod. Joss Whedon, 1997-2003) and Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008). In them, adolescent protagonists, removed from the attachments and securities of childhood, struggle to cope with both untested freedoms and unaccustomed responsibility for the self, responsibility which entails the challenge of consent. Of particular interest to this discussion is the focus on children of divorce and how these texts echo and amplify anxieties directed toward the latchkey or self-caring offspring of single mothers, giving social concerns a monstrous form.
This essay assembles a history of the Dirty Dancing franchise--its soundtracks and music single... more This essay assembles a history of the Dirty Dancing franchise--its soundtracks and music singles, ancillary products and collectibles, spin-offs, sequels, reissues and stage performances--to consider what its pattern of profit and loss, success and failure reveals about the appeal of a film that has become a cult object of pop film, music and dance cultures.
Buffy, Ballads, and Bad Guys Who Sing: Music in the …, Jan 1, 2010
US television, popular music and teen culture. . . what post-World War II prosperity brought toge... more US television, popular music and teen culture. . . what post-World War II prosperity brought together has yet to be torn asunder. Youth-oriented popular music is thoroughly worked into the fabric of contemporary television-bathing even the most unlikely subject matter in a wash of allusion, connecting the viewer to an array of cultural and historical associations, connotations of youthful rebellion and fun. 1 In television series that make systematic use of rock and pop on the soundtrack to address its youth and teen audience (a standard feature of youth and teen film since the 1950s, but only becoming a part of youth-oriented television drama in the 1990s), 2 this work of extra-musical allusion can be a complex affair. In no series is it more complex than in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a television text loaded with cinematic, televisual, and other pop-cultural allusions addressed to the media-savvy viewer. While this essay will, for the sake of simplicity, refer to -rock‖ as a catch-all for youth-oriented popular music of the post-World War II and contemporary period, Buffy's soundtrack featured everything from classic/album rock, to punk, to dance music, to the live music of indie bands, to the series' original metal-inspired score played by California -nerd-core‖ punk band, Nerf Herder. Likewise, the series incorporated, as part of its project of reflecting upon and revising screen representations of teen and youth culture, many elements of rock history as part of the shared culture of its characters and audience.
Other Publications by Amanda Howell
Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde [Book Review]
Media International Australia, Incorporating …, Jan 1, 2001
To cite this article: Howell, Amanda. Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde [Book R... more To cite this article: Howell, Amanda. Arthur Penn's Bonnie and Clyde [Book Review][online]. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, No. 98, Feb 2001: 195-196. Availability:< http://search. informit. com. au/documentSummary; dn= 092128077704695; ...
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Refereed Articles by Amanda Howell
Book Chapters by Amanda Howell
This paper discusses Jennifer Kent's 2014 film The Babadook as an example of contemporary art horror. It considers its relation to the historically complex and contested cultural space accorded to art cinema, focusing on how its designation in the global marketplace as both art and horror have helped to shape its distribution and reception history, its critical and box office success. It also looks more closely at how The Babadook fits the current international trend toward art horror in its narrative, thematic, and aesthetic character, while achieving Kent’s objective to use the horror genre to represent the darker aspects of parenting. In its success as art horror, The Babadook is an example of the “international turn” in Australian film production during the twenty-first century.
This discussion focuses on how Jennifer Kent’s 2014 film The Babadook assimilates and adapts tropes of New Hollywood-era suburban horror, the typically feminised domestic spaces of which provide the basis of an alternative Australian gothic, different from that which equates Australianness with masculinity. Focusing on how The Babadook –with its Adelaide locations and interiors inspired by nineteenth century Sydney architecture--combines its distinctly Australian setting with generic elements of New Hollywood horror, this chapter assesses how The Babadook both references and departs from those aspirational narratives of American suburban horror which idealise the domestic realm under attack. Instead, The Babadook, like the Australian social realist film with its focus on working-class urban and inner suburban spaces, emphasises the influence of social environment on character.
This chapter looks at how common tropes of the vampire tale have been used to figure the challenges and changes associated with coming of age, puberty and adolescence, focusing on influential screen fictions, Lost Boys (dir. Joel Schumacher, 1987), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (exec. prod. Joss Whedon, 1997-2003) and Let the Right One In (dir. Tomas Alfredson, 2008). In them, adolescent protagonists, removed from the attachments and securities of childhood, struggle to cope with both untested freedoms and unaccustomed responsibility for the self, responsibility which entails the challenge of consent. Of particular interest to this discussion is the focus on children of divorce and how these texts echo and amplify anxieties directed toward the latchkey or self-caring offspring of single mothers, giving social concerns a monstrous form.
Other Publications by Amanda Howell