Contributors to this volume examine the womb and the mother as separate sources of supernatural reproduction in horror media, arguing that the alchemy of pregnancy and birth offers myriad critical possibilities in horror, particularly in the context of the monstrous feminine and gynae horror. From television shows like WandaVision and films like The Witch (2015) to novels like Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, contributors examine a range of horror media texts to offer a dedicated examination of supernatural motherhood in diverse contexts. Supernatural Mothers and Wombs of Discontent is divided into three sections to guide the reader through various themes and narratives of the genre. Part One examines the challenges both to and of power represented by the figure of the witch through analyses of themes of magical motherhood, the “anti-mother”, and exploitation. Part Two, focusing more fully on the Othering of the mother in the face of supernatural reproduction, examines themes of abject othering, vulnerability, and paradoxical reproduction. Part Three then brings these narratives together to interrogate motherhood as an expression of systemic power relations, with the supernatural functioning as a foil against which the social construction of birth, birthing, and motherhood may be reconsidered and, perhaps, redefined.
Ruth Barratt-Peacock is a musicologist and literary studies scholar based in the UK.
Introduction: The Magic in the Horror: Spellinga Different Perspective on Reproduction in HorrorRuth Barratt-Peacock (Independent Scholar, UK)Part I: Witches1. WandaVision: When Horror (Re)frames Magical MotherhoodRuth Barratt-Peacock (Independent Scholar, UK)2. The Witch as Anti-Mother in Eggers's The WitchMark Henderson (Tuskegee University, USA)3. Irish Witches, Familiars, and Mother Earth: Exploitation of Women, Animals, and the Environment in Irish History and Modern MediaEvelyn Suttle (Advocate, Ireland)Part II: M/Others4. M/othering and the Abject in Molly Cochran's The Third MagicRadhia Flah Gaich (University of Sousse, Tunisia)5. Magical Vulnerability and Vulnerable Magic: The Witch (M)Other in Salman Rushdie's Victory CitySreelakshmy M (National Institute of Technology, India)6. Fangs and Phalluses: The Barren, Pregnant VampireEvie Kendal (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia)Part III: Wombs and Their Progeny7. Wombs of Discontent: Unveiling Gender Abjection through Dolls in Lucky McKee's MayAmylou Ahava (Independent Scholar, USA)8. Chapter 8: Gynae Horror in Select Hindi Cinema: The Womb as The Element of HorrorShrenya Soni (Independent Scholar, India)9. A Haunting Healing in Toni Morrison's BelovedJeff Ambrose (Delaware County Community College, USA)10. Chapter 10: Miscarriage in Contemporary Film: Visualizing the Unseen Through the Horror SceneKatherine Cottle (Goucher College, USA)About the ContributorsIndex
