Scream with Me - by Eleanor Johnson (Hardcover)

About the Book

"In May of 2022, Columbia University's Dr. Eleanor Johnson watched along with her students as the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. At the same time, her class was studying the 1968 horror film Rosemary's Baby and Johnson had a sudden epiphany: horror cinema engages directly with the combustive politics of women's rights and offer a light through the darkness and an outlet to scream. With a voice as persuasive as it is insightful, Johnson reveals how classics like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Shining expose and critique issues of reproductive control, domestic violence, and patriarchal oppression. Scream with Me weaves these iconic films into the fabric of American feminism, revealing that true horror often lies not in the supernatural, but in the familiar confines of the home, exposing the deep-seated fears and realities of women's lives. While on the one hand a joyful celebration of seminal and beloved horror films, Scream with Me is also an unflinching and timely recognition of the power of this genre to shape and reflect cultural dialogues about gender and power"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
"An indispensable work of feminist criticism." --Elle
"Convincing and illuminating." --The Atlantic

A compelling, intelligent, and timely exploration of the horror genre from one of Columbia University's most popular professors, shedding light on how classic horror films demonstrate larger cultural attitudes about women's rights, bodily autonomy, and more.

When the Supreme Court decided to reverse Roe v. Wade in the spring of 2022, Dr. Eleanor Johnson and her class were in the middle of studying the 1968 horror classic Rosemary's Baby, a film that understands reproductive coercion as the soul of horror. Teaching this film to her distraught students led Johnson to an epiphany: horror cinema engages directly with the combustive politics of women's rights and the despotic atmosphere in America, both in the 1970s and today.

In ten "riveting, enlightening, and occasionally scream-inducing" (Shelf Awareness) essays, Johnson reveals with intellect and empathy how classics like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Shining expose and critique issues of reproductive control, domestic violence, and patriarchal oppression. By weaving these iconic films into the fabric of American feminism, Johnson reveals that true horror often lies not in the supernatural but in the familiar (and all too often, lethal) confines of the home. "With wit and relish" (BookPage), Scream with Me is an accessible and "thought-provoking" (Library Journal) recognition of the power of the horror genre to shape and reflect cultural dialogues about gender and power.

Review Quotes

"In 10 propulsive essays, Eleanor Johnson illuminates how horror classics such as Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, and The Shining are driven by themes central to the second wave feminist movement, including reproductive control, domestic violence, and the legal and cultural 'possession' of women's bodies. . . . An indispensable work of feminist criticism." --ELLE

"Johnson adeptly analyzes how six classic horror movies--Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, The Stepford Wives, The Omen, Alien, and The Shining--map onto real-world topics like domestic violence, bodily autonomy, and the oppression of women, forcing the viewer to be horrified by what they see." --Vogue

"Convincing and illuminating. . . . Scream with Me makes the case that horror has long been aligned with American feminism on some of its most pressing questions, and that it continues even now to refract women's experiences through a lens that can make them seem wholly monstrous." --The Atlantic

"Potent . . . [Scream With Me] argues convincingly for Alien, The Shining and Rosemary's Baby as byproducts of abortion politics and domestic abuse." --The Chicago Tribune

"With wit and relish, Eleanor Johnson's urgent Scream With Me tracks six classic horror films alongside the rise of second-wave feminism. . . . With women's political, physical, medical and legal equality again under threat, there is new reason to witness the violence enacted on women--and to scream." --BookPage

"Riveting, enlightening, and occasionally scream-inducing. . . . This deep excavation of art imitating life is more than positive affirmation for horror fans; it is a call--or scream--to action." --Shelf Awareness

"Accessible and thought-provoking . . . Johnson examines the struggles of the women's-rights movement by looking at six films in the subgenre of domestic horror that, while couched in the supernatural and extraterrestrial, reflected the lived realities of countless women." --Library Journal

"[With] sharp historical observations and astute readings, [Johnson pulls] dark political realities from movies that on the surface are about extraterrestrial or supernatural realms. This astute survey will fire up readers to fight back against the patriarchy." --Publishers Weekly

"I'm not a fan of horror movies, but as a woman (and mother) living in 21st-century America, I'm recommending Scream With Me to everyone I know. With force and insight, Johnson reexamines classics like Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, Alien, and The Shining through a feminist lens, showing how, by forcing their audiences to viscerally feel their protagonists' fear, these films helped advance conversations around coercive control, sexual assault, and other forms of domestic abuse--and (in the case of Rosemary's Baby) likely even contributed to the fight for abortion rights. Today, in a moment when many of women's hard-won rights are being stripped away, Johnson makes a fierce, convincing case that what's happening in real life should be making us scream, and that horror isn't just entertainment--it can be a catalyst for change." --Catherine Price, author of The Power of Fun

"The contention that domestic and reproductive violence is dramatized in iconic horror films made during the height of feminism's second wave is the startling, provocative, and ultimately persuasive thesis of this brilliant, riveting volume of cinematic feminist analysis. That chauvinistic male directors--at least one a perpetrator himself--can bring searing social and political inquiry to the fore of our culture's consciousness is not only fascinating but arguably a beacon of hope for change." --Dorchen Leidholdt, Esq., Director of the Center for Battered Women's Legal Services, Columbia Law School

"For every woman who knew, deep down, her best bet was to be a final girl... Johnson's witty, sharp analyses of horror will get you to the other side. With government-sanctioned misogyny on the rise, there couldn't be a better time." --Cat Bohannon, New York Times bestselling author of Eve

"These movies are some of the most important works of horror in the modern era. You will never look at them the same way again after reading this remarkable book. Johnson offers the key--the skeleton key, one might say--to the real-life horrors that lay, not too deeply buried for those who care to look, underneath the frightful surface of domestic life for American women in the 1970s, and that lies there again in the 2020s. Johnson cares--brilliantly, passionately--and makes us care, too." --Jeremy Dauber, author of American Scary: A History of Horror, from Salem to Stephen King and Beyond

About the Author

Eleanor Johnson is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. She is the author of four books: Scream with Me, Practicing Literary Theory in the Middle Ages, Staging Contemplation, and the award-winning Waste and the Wasters, as well as two collections of poetry, The Dwell and Her Many Feathered Bones.