Tosha R. Taylor
Independent Scholar, Film Studies, Department Member
- Loughborough University, English & Drama, Graduate StudentRadford University, English, Graduate Studentadd
- Horror Film, Fandom, American Literature, Gothic Literature, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, and 30 moreFlannery O'Connor, Southern Gothic Literature, Gothic Fiction and the horror film, Comics and Graphic Novels, Comics Studies, Contemporary Literature, Queer Theory, Julia Kristeva, Turtles, Popular Culture, Women's Literature, Early Modern Captivity Narratives, Literature, Indian Captivity Narratives, Horror Cinema, Torture Porn, Extreme Cinema, Tartan Asia Extreme, Embodiment, Aesthetics, Contemporary Female Captivity Narratives, Short Films, LGBT Studies, Fan Theory and Culture, Film Studies, Michael Haneke, David Lynch, Body Horror, Fashion Theory, and Missing Personsedit
This personal essay reflects on an online fan archive for DC Comics character Talia al Ghul that was abandoned, after which time dramatic shifts in the fandom occurred, thereby situating the archive as an artifact of the recent historical... more
This personal essay reflects on an online fan archive for DC Comics character Talia al Ghul that was abandoned, after which time dramatic shifts in the fandom occurred, thereby situating the archive as an artifact of the recent historical past and as a record of the character's history as well as the fandom's history.
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The Killers’ music crosses genres and seems to alternate between upholding or challenging the conventions of rock music. This is particularly evident in their depiction of romantic desire. Through their recording career, their work has... more
The Killers’ music crosses genres and seems to alternate between upholding or challenging the conventions of rock music. This is particularly evident in their depiction of romantic desire. Through their recording career, their work has undergone a dramatic shift in its engagement with love. Early songs often dealt with spurned male lovers who react violently to rejection, culminating in what is known as the band’s Murder Trilogy. However, their more recent work has departed from rock’s critically cited fixation with freedom and sexualized love to concern the struggles of prolonged relationships in which partners face the pressures of romantic disillusionment. Their evolution has conspicuous ties to frontman Brandon Flowers’ own marital and religious commitments. This article traces such thematic changes to investigate relationships between love, masculinities, and spirituality in rock music. Through close readings of The Killers’ music, with particular care for the influence of their frontman, the article uncovers the cohesive evolution of the theme of romance in their
discography.
discography.
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As previous fandom studies have shown, fans' disappointment in canon narratives may lead to adaptations and fragmentations in fan communities. This article examines Team Delusional, a subset of Walking Dead (2010–) fandom that emerged on... more
As previous fandom studies have shown, fans' disappointment in canon narratives may lead to adaptations and fragmentations in fan communities. This article examines Team Delusional, a subset of Walking Dead (2010–) fandom that emerged on Tumblr after the death of a series character. Rather than accepting the character's death as canon, Team Delusional has built a postobject fan community around the theory that the character secretly survived and will return to the series. Largely overlooked or even rejected by the larger Walking Dead fandom, this group continues to use Tumblr as its main community base. By deploying Tumblr's specific features and politics, the group maintains its identity and engages in interpretive practices that resist canon restrictions and intrafandom conflict. This analysis of Team Delusional's interpretive practices on Tumblr demonstrates the ways in which this social media platform particularly lends itself to postobject counternarrative fan subgroups.
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Urban spaces are often thought of as teeming with life, but their relationship to death is no less worthy of consideration. Beyond graveyards that are still visible between towering buildings, urban spaces have incorporated signs of death... more
Urban spaces are often thought of as teeming with life, but their relationship to death is no less worthy of consideration. Beyond graveyards that are still visible between towering buildings, urban spaces have incorporated signs of death and human destruction into their aesthetic and cultural fabric. Especially interesting is death’s imbuement with “kitsch” in such spaces. Many critics (such as Walter Benjamin and Susan Sontag) have addressed theoretical definitions of “kitsch”, but what is common to the multitude of definitions is a sense that kitsch removes greater political and social elements from an event to present it as safe for public consumption. This short article examines the commodification, often via kitsch practices, of death in urban spaces with a focus on Manhattan.
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This article examines representations of sexuality in the first series of American Horror Story. Though the series presents many supernatural villains and is, on the surface, a typical haunted house story, it often creates its sense of... more
This article examines representations of sexuality in the first series of American Horror Story. Though the series presents many supernatural villains and is, on the surface, a typical haunted house story, it often creates its sense of horror through deployment of sexual tropes. The haunted house story itself is traditionally linked to notions of sexuality and class (Bailey, 1999; Ellis, 1989); this paper argues that American Horror Story (2011- ) emphasizes that link and manipulates such notions to explore their place in contemporary American thought and entertainment. Analysis of Kristeva’s and Creed’s linking of Horror to sexuality demonstrates that the series builds its sense of horror on abjection. Ghosts and other supernatural creatures in the series, this article contends, are merely accoutrements to a plot that is steeped in sexual anxieties. Grounded in Foucault’s characterization of sanctioned sexual repression as ‘a sentence to disappear’ and ‘an injunction to silence’ (Foucault, 1978: 4), this discussion of American Horror Story studies the show’s explicit references to, and depictions of, sexual practices that are typically neglected on mainstream television. Finally, this article questions the show’s success in subverting popular opinions about aberrant sexualities.
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Junji Itō’s horror manga Tomie presents the story of an eponymous entity who, in the form of a beautiful young woman, leads those around her to insanity and death. Yet even as she wreaks havoc in the minds and lives of her admirers, Tomie... more
Junji Itō’s horror manga Tomie presents the story of an eponymous entity who, in the form of a beautiful young woman, leads those around her to insanity and death. Yet even as she wreaks havoc in the minds and lives of her admirers, Tomie herself endures cycles of murder and rebirth, and she frames the violence she suffers as the logical consequence of male attraction to her. The manga thus reveals and, to a degree, subverts popular discourses regarding the nature of misogynistic violence. This chapter explores the manga’s negotiation of these discourses, first by situating Tomie within the genre of shōjo horror. In doing so, the chapter draws critical attention to the manga’s appeal to young women’s concerns and experiences and enables recognition of the gendered nature of horror itself. Of particular concern is the graphic depiction of the feminine body’s destruction and rebirth. Through such depictions, Tomie invokes not only the imagery but also the politics of body horror. Aligning shōjo and body horror, the chapter argues that, through the manga’s dichotomies of beauty/abjection, desire/violence, and power/subjugation, Tomie complicates narratives of gendered trauma in ways that hold particular resonance for feminist readings.
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American Horror Story boasts a complicated relationship with sexual aberration. The first episode of its first season prominently depicted a woman’s rape by a ghost in a rubber BDSM suit, and this instance now seems rather tame when... more
American Horror Story boasts a complicated relationship with sexual aberration. The first episode of its first season prominently depicted a woman’s rape by a ghost in a rubber BDSM suit, and this instance now seems rather tame when compared to subsequent depictions of sex-based deviance as the series has continued. It is, of course, natural that a television show preoccupied with sexuality and otherness would address and even focus upon queerness. Yet as a “horror story,” it cannot be expected to normalize queer identities even as they are increasingly recognized and even accepted by mainstream American society. The queerness of men (or those who are initially perceived as men) is a prominent theme in the series’s exploration of the grotesque, and its tendency to depict gay and bisexual men being violently harmed or even killed by anal penetration has received criticism. Queer women, however, have been given prominence in two seasons at the time of this writing: its second season, entitled Asylum, and its fifth, Hotel. In these seasons, nonheterosexual women emerge not only as lead characters but also as embodiments of Gothic lesbian histories. Their sexualities, far from being incidental, tie them inextricably to the Gothic and position them at the center of these seasons’ establishment of horror.
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The internet has emerged as an important space for the creation and dissemination of gothic and horror media, particularly in the form of memes. Located at the intersection of digital culture and folklore, some horror memes remain... more
The internet has emerged as an important space for the creation and dissemination of gothic and horror media, particularly in the form of memes. Located at the intersection of digital culture and folklore, some horror memes remain relatively isolated within particular online communities, while others have attained greater attention in mainstream media. This chapter provides an overview of several exemplary memes (the Rake, Jeff the Killer, the SCP Foundation, Smile.jpg, the Russian Sleep Experiment, and Slender Man) and discusses how these memes reveal significant characteristics of digital culture and space.
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The subgenre of films known as ‘torture porn’ has been a controversial presence in contemporary horror. Categorized based on their plots that center around graphic depictions of violence, torture porn films have been accused of catering... more
The subgenre of films known as ‘torture porn’ has been a controversial presence in contemporary horror. Categorized based on their plots that center around graphic depictions of violence, torture porn films have been accused of catering to immoral interests and have often been subjected to censorship. This chapter explores the issue of categorization of torture porn films and, aligning with previous scholarship on the subgenre, identifies inconsistencies within that categorization that reveal the subgenre to be much more complex than its early critics believed. The chapter further identifies and challenges popular criticisms of the subgenre.
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Arising from gothic treatments of the rural, the hillbilly horror subgenre revels in class tensions. The tropes and images of the subgenre have remained largely consistent in modern horror film history, indicating a larger societal... more
Arising from gothic treatments of the rural, the hillbilly horror subgenre revels in class tensions. The tropes and images of the subgenre have remained largely consistent in modern horror film history, indicating a larger societal disdain for rural inhabitants that is negotiated through the horror film. This chapter explores the sociohistorical discourses that the subgenre reflects with particular attention to the construction of the rural poor as abject embodiments of evil. The chapter then explores ways in which certain films subvert the tropes of hillbilly horror and thus counter those discourses.
Films discussed: Pumpkinhead, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Descent, Two Thousand Maniacs!, 2001 Maniacs, The X-Files
Films discussed: Pumpkinhead, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, The Descent, Two Thousand Maniacs!, 2001 Maniacs, The X-Files
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Lisa Brühlmann’s 2017 film Blue My Mind presents a somewhat typical coming-of-age horror narrative: after moving to a new city with her parents, teenaged Mia becomes alienated from her family, joins a rebellious group of friends, and... more
Lisa Brühlmann’s 2017 film Blue My Mind presents a somewhat typical coming-of-age horror narrative: after moving to a new city with her parents, teenaged Mia becomes alienated from her family, joins a rebellious group of friends, and discovers that her body is transforming into that of a mermaid. The transformation is a gradual and disturbing one, devoid of much romanticization of this mythological creature. Coupled with this transformation is a queer bond with the leader of her friend group and a sexual assault, the latter appearing to trigger the completion of Mia’s bodily change. Yet despite the mermaid’s association with the sea, the film’s imagery of the littoral space is infrequent, positioning it as a liminal space in Mia’s memory and in the spectator’s understanding of her transformation. This paper presentation analyzes the littoral space in Brühlmann’s film, arguing that despite its minimal role, it looms large as the site of queered gothic reckoning. Without a strongly narrativized bond to the sea, my paper would argue, the film establishes the shore as Mia’s origin and ending, a place of haunting and memory that requires the loss of her identity but may, in turn, reconcile her alienation and trauma. Furthermore, the paper argues, the film’s juxtaposition of the littoral space and the inorganic home space posits the queered non-human form as a transcendent rather than horrific one.
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This paper examines representations of suffering and female subjectivity in Greg Rucka’s Batman: Death and the Maidens. In this series, Rucka introduces a new female villain to the DC Universe, Nyssa Raatko. Her quest for vengeance... more
This paper examines representations of suffering and female subjectivity in Greg Rucka’s Batman: Death and the Maidens. In this series, Rucka introduces a new female villain to the DC Universe, Nyssa Raatko. Her quest for vengeance against her father, Batman’s immortal archnemesis Ra’s al Ghul, eventually pits her against Batman himself. Through graphic depictions of torture and loss, partly contextualized through the Holocaust, the comic explores women’s trauma in both historical and fantastical contexts. Comparing Nyssa’s trauma to that of Bruce Wayne, Rucka draws attention to the disparities in treatments of women’s and men’s experiences in superhero comics. Death and the Maidens ultimately poses the question of how women’s trauma functions in such comics. Perhaps equally importantly, the story and its unique female characterisation point toward anxieties about women’s empowerment within its fictional setting and the comics industry itself. This paper deploys the work of Foucault, Kristeva, and Creed to explore these anxieties.
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Women’s media fan cultures are frequently denigrated by mainstream observers. Negative representations of media fans have resulted in fandom subcultures being considered forms of mindless consumption, with fans’ mental health questioned... more
Women’s media fan cultures are frequently denigrated by mainstream observers. Negative representations of media fans have resulted in fandom subcultures being considered forms of mindless consumption, with fans’ mental health questioned and their fannish practices mocked. However, academic work has done much to emphasize the social importance of fan communities, particularly for women, who are often marginalized from the male-centric production of media texts. This article explores women’s involvement in comic book fandom, with a focus on DC Comics. Female fans of superhero comics find themselves in a precarious cultural position, engaging with texts that are traditionally produced, disseminated, and consumed by men. Too often, women in comics fandom are criticized or ignored not only by cultural outsiders, but also by male participants and creators within the fandom. Female fans have responded through acts of creative involvement with source texts, producing embodiments (such as cosplay and roleplay) and visual and textual media (such as fan art and fan fiction). Through such production, women claim authority and even ownership over a medium which may otherwise fail to meet their needs as consumers. This article discusses these methods of ownership and how they function in women’s comics fandom, drawing from qualitative surveys conducted in 2012 and 2013 which asked female comics fans to detail their experiences as active consumers and creators. Particular attention is given to the female fan response to DC’s controversial New 52, a 2011 relaunch of their titles.
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This paper explores how the Harry Potter series links a female villain's sadism to childlessness. No copy is currently available.
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Since her debut in the DC Universe in 1971, Talia al Ghul has fulfilled more roles than are typically assigned to female characters in comics. She has been Batman’s lover, mother of his only biological child, daughter of immortal... more
Since her debut in the DC Universe in 1971, Talia al Ghul has fulfilled more roles than are typically assigned to female characters in comics. She has been Batman’s lover, mother of his only biological child, daughter of immortal eco-terrorist Ra’s al Ghul, partner to Lex Luthor, foil to Superman, advisor to a former Robin, member of the Society of Super Villains, and an independent agent of both good and evil. However, with her revealing costumes and curvacious figure, Talia fulfills an even more important role to the DCU’s overarching narrative—that of the heterosexual Western male fantasy of the Eastern woman. This paper presentation explores the multifaceted representations of Talia throughout her forty-year history, noting patterns of Orientalist fantasy in the depiction of both her actions and her appearance. Working from the initial Orientalist inspiration for Talia’s villainous family as related by the character’s creators, I posit that Talia’s chief function in the DCU has traditionally been to embody the stereotype of the “Dragon Lady,” an exotic temptress capable of unconscionable acts of betrayal. I examine Talia’s forty-year struggle between being a villainess and heroine, and argue that her presentation—and, indeed, her level of agency—often relies on her conformity to Western myths about Arabic and East Asian woman. Torn between her wish to please the heroic Batman and her loyalty to her terrorist father, Talia regularly sabotages the efforts of both men, depending on her unpredictable mood. Furthermore, I contend that, while Talia is a woman of mixed ethnicity, differing racial aspects of her appearance are emphasized according to which role she performs in a given story. I demonstrate that her more submissive moments occur when her Arabic heritage appears most prominently, whereas she is presented as a much stronger and more independent woman when her East Asian features are emphasized—or, perhaps more controversially, when she undergoes “whitewashing.” Finally, I investigate the possibility that Talia sometimes serves as a metatexual indictment of Western heterosexist fantasy, craftily appropriating stereotypical images of Orientalism in order to manipulate heterosexual male characters.
This conference paper served as the basis for the chapter "The Dragon Lady of Gotham: Feminine Power, the Mythical East, and Talia al Ghul" in The Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture.
This conference paper served as the basis for the chapter "The Dragon Lady of Gotham: Feminine Power, the Mythical East, and Talia al Ghul" in The Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture.
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A study of how Lady Gaga's use of non-word vocalizations, phones, and phonemes contributed to her gothic and post-human image during the Fame Monster and Born This Way eras.
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Junji Itō’s horror manga Tomie presents the story of an eponymous entity who, in the form of a beautiful young woman, leads those around her to insanity and death. Yet even as she wreaks havoc in the minds and lives of her admirers, Tomie... more
Junji Itō’s horror manga Tomie presents the story of an eponymous entity who, in the form of a beautiful young woman, leads those around her to insanity and death. Yet even as she wreaks havoc in the minds and lives of her admirers, Tomie herself endures cycles of murder and rebirth, and she frames the violence she suffers as the logical consequence of male attraction to her. The manga thus reveals and, to a degree, subverts popular discourses regarding the nature of misogynistic violence. This chapter explores the manga’s negotiation of these discourses, first by situating Tomie within the genre of shōjo horror. In doing so, the chapter draws critical attention to the manga’s appeal to young women’s concerns and experiences and enables recognition of the gendered nature of horror itself. Of particular concern is the graphic depiction of the feminine body’s destruction and rebirth. Through such depictions, Tomie invokes not only the imagery but also the politics of body horror. Aligning shōjo and body horror, the chapter argues that, through the manga’s dichotomies of beauty/abjection, desire/violence, and power/subjugation, Tomie complicates narratives of gendered trauma in ways that hold particular resonance for feminist readings.
Research Interests:
As previous fandom studies have shown, fans' disappointment in canon narratives may lead to adaptations and fragmentations in fan communities. This article examines Team Delusional, a subset of Walking Dead (2010–) fandom that emerged... more
As previous fandom studies have shown, fans' disappointment in canon narratives may lead to adaptations and fragmentations in fan communities. This article examines Team Delusional, a subset of Walking Dead (2010–) fandom that emerged on Tumblr after the death of a series character. Rather than accepting the character's death as canon, Team Delusional has built a postobject fan community around the theory that the character secretly survived and will return to the series. Largely overlooked or even rejected by the larger Walking Dead fandom, this group continues to use Tumblr as its main community base. By deploying Tumblr's specific features and politics, the group maintains its identity and engages in interpretive practices that resist canon restrictions and intrafandom conflict. This analysis of Team Delusional's interpretive practices on Tumblr demonstrate the ways in which this social media platform particularly lends itself to postobject counternarrative fan su...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
The Killers’ music crosses genres and seems to alternate between upholding or challenging the conventions of rock music. This is particularly evident in their depiction of romantic desire. Through their recording career, their work has... more
The Killers’ music crosses genres and seems to alternate between upholding or challenging the conventions of rock music. This is particularly evident in their depiction of romantic desire. Through their recording career, their work has undergone a dramatic shift in its engagement with love. Early songs often dealt with spurned male lovers who react violently to rejection, culminating in what is known as the band’s Murder Trilogy. However, their more recent work has departed from rock’s critically cited fixation with freedom and sexualized love to concern the struggles of prolonged relationships in which partners face the pressures of romantic disillusionment. Their evolution has conspicuous ties to frontman Brandon Flowers’ own marital and religious commitments. This article traces such thematic changes to investigate relationships between love, masculinities, and spirituality in rock music. Through close readings of The Killers’ music, with particular care for the influence of thei...