Reading American Horror Story

Rebecca Janicker is a senior lecturer in film and media studies at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom.

Looming onto the television landscape in 2011, American Horror Story gave viewers a weekly dose of psychological unease and gruesome violence. Embracing the familiar horror conventions of spooky settings, unnerving manifestations and terrifying monsters, series co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk combine shocking visual effects with an engaging anthology format to provide a modern take on the horror genre. This collection of new essays examines the series' contribution to television horror, focusing on how the show speaks to social concerns, its use of classic horror tropes and its reinvention of the tale of terror for the 21st century.

Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart One: Industry and CultureAmerican Horror Stories, Repertory Horror and Intertextuality of Casting (Lorna Jowett)Haunted History: American Horror Story as Gothic Tourism (Stacey Abbott)Seasons, Family and Nation in American Horror Story (Derek Johnston)Part Two: Issues of RepresentationStatic Femininity: Gender and Familial RepresentationdeleteMurder House (Nikki Cox)The Minotaur, the Shears and the Melon Baller: Queerness and ­Self-Mortification in Coven (Kyle Ethridge)"Wir sind alle freaks": Elevating White Gay Male Oppression Through Representations of Disability (Carl Schottmiller)Part Three: Genre Tropes and the Horror of History"There's a power in it. A power we can use": Perpetuating the Past in Murder House (Rebecca Janicker)"They were monsters": The Alien Abduction Plotline and Race, Sexuality and Social Unrest in Asylum (Philip L. Simpson)Piecing It Together: Genre Frameworks in American HorrordeleteStory (Emma Austin)Nightmares Made in America: Coven and the Real American Horror Story (Conny Lippert)Epilogue: Past Nightmares and Anticipated Horrors (Rebecca Janicker)GlossaryAbout the ContributorsIndex