The cannibal has long been a character archetype depicted in the horror genre, represented as early as the Greek epics and the literary Gothic, and was, arguably, innately typified through the mondo-extreme cannibal films coming from Italian filmmakers in the 1970s. William Arens theorised that, through these films, “cannibalism functions as a mythical device to separate civilized Western man from his barbaric foreign cousins. [It] insights innate disgust and is a potent means to designate the accused a subhuman”. However, it can be argued that the concept of ‘separation’ can be extended even further and be applied to the space of anyone that we deem as ‘Other’, to quote Robin Wood’s theories on the monstrous Other in the horror genre, thereby meaning that we can depict cannibalism being enacted by anyone and for whatever reason, including the eminently romantic.
Melvin writes that “the cannibal exists in two extremes. One for the depravity of it and one for the sacredness of the mouth.” It can therefore be argued that because they can occupy the space of two different extremes, of both horror and violence, the depravity, and sacred romanticism, the sacredness of the mouth, the figure of the cannibal can exist as a uniquely queered Gothic figure within the horror genre, a true representative of literary liminality and, indeed, ‘separation’ from the norm, between horror and romance, rich and poor, living and dead, eater and eaten.
This class will examine the romantic cannibal as it is specifically depicted in horror narratives such as Der Fan (Schmidt, 1982), Bones and All (Guadagnino, 2022) Preacher’s Daughter (Anhedönia, 2022) and others, and how the figure of the cannibal purveys as an intimately queered figure of Gothic Americana, while also seeking to define how the cannibal and the act of cannibalism can be read as eminently romantic. It will additionally use theory presented by scholars such as Shirley Lindenbaum and Helene Cixious, as a means of establishing a connection to other academics in the field and rooting a little-examined corpus with broader theory of literary criticism, as well as establishing a basis through which to examine the subject of cannibalism and subvert it within a romantic context.
Thea/Rae Bamber is a PhD student at Roehampton University, currently working on their PhD thesis on the representation of goth and goth subcultures in contemporary horror. Their main research interests include reinterpreting the horror genre through the means of Gothic romanticism, the use of homoerotic imagery in slasher and splatter horror cinema, and the ways in which marginalised audiences interact with horror fandom. Outside of academia, they self-publish their work through the means of online video essays which they produce independently, as a means of making their level of academia accessible and entertaining, and they are fully aware of how shameless this promotion is.
