nefertiti: Handmaiden by Gaslight: Gothic Film Adaptation, Gendered Subjectivity and Vengeance
nefertiti: Handmaiden by Gaslight: Gothic Film Adaptation, Gendered Subjectivity and Vengeance Gothic storytelling is marked by changing narrators, multiple perspectives, the instability of perception, and the reexamination of rationality and sanity as constructions rather than absolutes. Horror’s classic “Is this real or am I going crazy?” conflict becomes profoundly lethal in the gothic as it reflects the historic blood shed by way of gendered subjectivities. The Handmaiden is a unique, complex new entry in gothic storytelling that recalls the dense subtext and filmic innovations of its predecessors like Gaslight, a film that seventy years later still confounds viewers with insights and fuel for modern-day vernacular on psychological abuse. Both of these films not only expose the obfuscation of women’s lives and legacies by men who weaponize the threat of the asylum against them, but also build toward climaxes in which the heroines carry out vengeance upon their abusers and reclaim their freedom. Here is my labor of love: I write about the sumptuous collection of gothic literary tropes that drive Gaslight and The Handmaiden. Please share and let me know what you think! -- source link