Spirit hunter: the haunting of American culture by myths of violence: speculations on Jeremy Blake's Winchester trilogy (original) (raw)
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Angels and Demons: Religion, Story, and Modern Mythmaking in "Supernatural"
In this paper, I examine the many and complex ways in which the popular television show "Supernatural" engages religion and its own nature as a story about origin stories. I begin with a brief overview of the show and main characters, examining the ways in which the internal logic of the story itself is structured around familiar allegorical lines. I conclude that both positively and negatively, Supernatural is in fact an important postmodern religious hypertext and commentary cunningly disguised as a secular fantasy-horror television program, and boldly reinscribes its theological and social space in oftentimes radically subversive ways.
Journal of Religion & Film, 2022
This is a book review essay on three books: Brandon R. Grafius, Reading the Bible with Horror (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); Brandon R. Grafius and John Morehead, eds., Theology and Horror: Explorations of the Dark Religious Imagination (Fortress Academic/Lexington, 2021); and Steve A. Wiggins, Nightmares with the Bible: The Good Book and Cinematic Demons (Fortress Academic/Lexington, 2020).
"The Monster at the End of This Book": Authorship and Monstrosity in Supernatural
In Monsters and Monstrosity in 21st-Century Film and Television, ed. by Cristina Artenie and Ashley Szanter, 2017
The long-running US horror series Supernatural engages repeatedly, and in complex, sometimes inconsistent ways with questions of authorship and authority. Language—particularly written language—has long been used as a means of distinguishing the ‘human’. Joanna Bourke points to the ways in which thinkers from Aristotle to Darwin employed language as a boundary between ‘human’ and animal, ranking peoples according to “a hierarchy of language”. The monster, as a figure that defies categorisation, straddles the boundary between the ‘human’ and its others, often implicating language, or its absence. H. P. Lovecraft’s protagonists express their horror at the written language employed by his alien monsters; the silent Gentlemen of Buffy the Vampire Slayer induce horror by removing their victims’ recourse to speech. Supernatural plays frequently with the apparent humanity of its monsters, sometimes reinforcing a safe boundary between ‘human’ and monster, and sometimes refusing to do so. This chapter will argue that its treatment of writing and authority works in a similar way. Supernatural has sometimes reinforced the notion of the Godlike author, but has also challenged it, with an acute consciousness of itself as a multi-authored text, and one that lends itself to a variety of audience interpretations. Authorship is hybrid, not monolithic: perhaps monstrous. Through an examination of the episodes, “The Monster at the End of This Book” (4.18), “The Real Ghostbusters” (5.09), “Meta Fiction” (9.18), “Fan Fiction” (10.05) and “Don’t Call Me Shurley” (11.20), this chapter seeks to examine whether Supernatural’s authors are truly gods—and whether it might not be better to be a monster.
Wrestling with Violent Depictions of God: A Response to Eric Seibert's "Disturbing Divine Behavior"
Direction, 2011
Initially presented at the "Mennonites and Friends" forum held at the Society of Biblical Literature meetings in November, 2010,this appreciative response questions Seibert's central thesis re: the need to distinguish between the "textual God" and the "actual God," and then to prioritize the latter. Through a brief case study of Jonah in the book of the twelve/Minor Prophets I argue that such an approach does not adequately recognize the significance and function of the diversity of perspectives on God within Scripture. I suggest that Seibert also gives too much weight to historical reference and point to the nature of Scripture as a theological witness as an improved alternative. In doing so I also provide a more pragmatic, contextual and pedagogical critique of the implications of his approach for studying the Bible with lay people and briefly point to an alternative approach.
2012
My thesis presents a literary and historical examination of the genre of songs known as "Murdered Girl ballads" in the canon of 19 th century Southern Appalachian folk music. The Murdered Girl ballad, which tells the story of a young woman murdered by her male lover, became an archetypal narrative in Appalachian folklore in the 1800's. In my research I examine some of the many Appalachian Murdered Girl ballads and the mountain society they sprang from, drawing connections between the lyrics of the ballads and three specific aspects of Appalachian mountain life: violence, gender roles, and religion. I argue that at the core of the ballads is the tension between male culture and evangelical Protestantism, both of which played extremely important roles in governing social behavior at the time. Male culture, which was heavily influenced by what many historians have called a "culture of violence," held up gendered ideals of honor, freedom, reckless individualism, and aggression. This set of attitudes and behaviors was hotly opposed by evangelical Protestantism and revival culture, which dominated Appalachian religious attitudes and condemned the rough behavior around which male culture revolved. These "upright" religious values found psychological embodiment in the woman, who was seen as pure, demure and eternally selfsacrificing and who was traditionally associated with religion, home and family. I argue that the traditional Appalachian Murdered Girl ballad embodies the conflict between the dominant culture of male violence and evangelical Protestantism in the 19 th century Appalachian South, an interplay that is reflected in the lyrics through the archetypal murder of the Woman, who represents home, family and piety, by the Man, who represents the culture of violence and Southern masculinity.
The Other is the Same: Cainite Violence and Mythmaking in Three Short Stories by Paul Bowles
Dialogoi, 2022
This article explores three short stories by Paul Bowles which introduce brothers and sisters – You Are Not I (1948), The Successor (1951) and The Fqih (1974) – under the lens of the myth of Cain and Abel. This article contextualizes the use of myth and mythmaking within Bowles’ narrative production. It examines how the US writer adopts and transforms the myth of Cain and Abel and analyzes how these Cainite brothers and sisters are othered through violence. It shows how Bowles addresses sibling rivalry and violent confrontation in terms of similarities, a theme that mirrors the same dichotomic fears – Same versus Other – in his the rest of his fiction.
Preacher, Shepherd, Judge: The Role of the Outlaw Prophet in American Film
Journal of Religion and Film, 2008
U.S. understandings of violence and non-violence are often expressed in stereotypically simplistic terms by Americans and their critics. The maverick cowboy anti-hero who answers to his own code of honor, enforced by redemptive violence, is a quintessential symbol of this American ethos. An exploration of this theme in Pale Rider, Pulp Fiction and The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean, which center on the tension between violence and non-violence through an outlaw protagonist and his use of Judeo-Christian scriptures, suggests that the true complexity of the American popular moral theology of violence and non-violence is being addressed in film.
The Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, 2023
This article studies evangelical horror fiction, such as the Left Behind series, Chick tracts, and the Hell House, which have been relatively popular in American evangelical communities. Despite being labeled as fiction, these horror stories have traditionally been consumed as reality and/or prophecy. Many have relied on Christian nationalist ideas, such as anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric, in their stories. While the relationship between evangelical horror and the Christian Right has impacted its evangelical consumers both theologically and politically, its transcendence into non-evangelical popular culture is less researched. This paper looks at how evangelical horror tropes, most of which are inspired by Christian nationalist ideology, have been appropriated by non-evangelical fiction. Analysis of The Conjuring and its sequel will reveal the adoption of many tropes often found in evangelical horror and the Christian Right.