The destruction of the male body in classic horror film

My doctoral research explores how certain ideas from psychoanalysis can shed light on the aesthetic experience offered by classic horror films. By making specific reference to five 1930s horror films, including Vampyr (1932) and Island of Lost Souls (1933), the thesis re-evaluates the psychoanalytic concepts of abjection, the uncanny and le corps morcele. This is a study of spectatorship and identification in cinema, aiming to shed light on filmic horror's textual processes and the nature and mechanics of its address to viewers. It is also a study of terrified, deformed and monstrous male screen bodies and an analysis of the rarely explored on-screen incarnations of male fear in classic horror films. In particular, the objects of study are low budget and B-movie productions in which the male body is the focus of transgression, mutilation and death, often to the point of completely excluding female characters from the narrative.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo