Overview

Since the 1960s, the occult in film and television has responded to and reflected society's crises surrounding gender and sexuality. In Desire After Dark, Andrew J. Owens explores media where figures such as vampires and witches make use of their supernatural knowledge in order to queer what otherwise appears to be a normative world. Beginning with the global sexual revolutions of the '60s and moving decade by decade through Euro-sleaze cinema and theatrical hardcore pornography, the HIV/AIDS crisis, the popularity of New Age religions and witchcraft, and finally the increasingly explicit sexualization of American cable television, Owens contends that occult media has risen to prominence during the past 60 years as a way of exposing and working through cultural crises about queerness. Through the use of historiography and textual analyses of media from Bewitched to The Hunger, Owens reveals that the various players in occult media have always been well aware that non-normative sexuality constitutes the heart of horror's enduring appeal. By investigating vampirism, witchcraft, and other manifestations of the supernatural in media, Desire After Dark confirms how the queer has been integral to the evolution of the horror genre and its persistent popularity as both a subcultural and mainstream media form.

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9780253053824

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Reviews

Owens's Desire after Dark makes clear and important contributions to existing literature on queer theory, media studies, and the horror genre. His insightful, focused study will interest both fans of the TV programs and films examined and scholars in various disciplines who will appreciate how adeptly Owens incorporates well-balanced discussions of culture, industry, genre, reception, and representation in compelling reads of the media re-viewed. -- Richard Wolff * The Journal of Religion, Film, and Media *

Author Information

Andrew J. Owens is Lecturer in the Department of Cinematic Arts at the University of Iowa.

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