Cautionary Tales and Consolatory Fables - Fairytales and the Horror Film

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This doctorate project proposes to investigate the meaningful parallels between folk/fairy tales and the horror film, both ofwhich provide accessible narrative frameworks through which a culture mediates its norms, values, and popularanxieties. This secondary research will take full advantage of the wonderful Cambridge Centre for Film and Screen aswell as the valuable folklore resources at the Haddon library, and will fall loosely into two categories: * First, it willaddress the common formal attributes between fairytales and horror films, including flat/archetypal characterisations,meta-fictionality, and the symbolism of magical objects. It will also highlight the common receptive contexts for eachgenre, such as how Anderson's theory of self-correcting folklore can be applied to horror franchises. * Secondly, it willinvestigate the important social and cultural contexts of both horror cinema and folk/fairytales. These involve a commoninvolvement in rites of initiation, the communication of moral taboos, and the expression of popular phobias. This projectbuilds on the recent popularity of folk-horror theory, but expands it in vital and necessary ways; and investigates theimportant theoretical claim that the folk narrative is not lost alongside pre-literature cultures, but rather survives inmodern media filmic reincarnations that maintain the vital social function and instrumentality of folklore and fairytales.