Status : Verified
| Personal Name | Dionisio, Ysabel M. |
|---|---|
| Resource Title | Girl as monster : a critical discourse analysis of girlhood and monstrosity in select Filipino horror films |
| Date Issued | 09 January 2025 |
| Abstract | Horror abounds in monstrous girls. Whatever form they may take, these figures are united in that their “scariness,” as the existing literature suggests, is rooted in the patriarchal fear of the unstructured, ungovernable, and “incomplete” feminine body. There is a need, then, to critically evaluate how re/presentations of monstrous girlhood in Filipino horror films re/produce discourses surrounding gender, girlhood, and patriarchal power relations. Using Fairclough’s (1989) critical discourse analysis model, the study integrates Turner’s (1981, 1991) concept of liminality, Butler’s (1988, 1999) theory of gender performativity, and Morison and Macleod’s (2013) performative-performance framework to analyze the narrative performances of five characters: Anghela (Seklusyon), Wena (The Debutantes), Erika (Eerie), Manuela (Kuwaresma), and Nerisa (Sunod). The description stage uncovered a recurring pattern: the monstrous girls’ transformations were triggered by encounters with patriarchal subjugation. It also revealed that the girls’ monstrousness invariably ended in defeat. The interpretation stage revealed that the narrative performances of monstrous girlhood in the selected Filipino horror films drew heavily from genre conventions and existing discourses on femininity, adolescence, and monstrosity, reflecting anxieties about the volatile nature of feminine adolescence through themes of adolescent turmoil, punitive violence, deceit, and a general sense of strangeness. Finally, the explanation stage exposed the films’ complicity in upholding patriarchal-capitalist norms by equating aberrant girlhood with monstrosity and reinforcing women’s domestic and reproductive functions. Despite this, these narrative performances also hinted at their troubling potential to disrupt societal expectations and re/constitute girlhood and gender relations. |
| Degree Course | Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication : Rhetoric and Performance |
| Language | English |
| Keyword | Performance Studies; Liminality; Horror; Girlhood; Gender Performativity; Monstrosity; Discourse analysis; Sex role in motion pictures; Horror films--Philippines |
| Material Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
Preliminary Pages
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Category : P - Author wishes to publish the work personally.
Access Permission : Limited Access