UCL Discovery
UCL home » Library Services » Electronic resources » UCL Discovery

Sexsationalist feminism in The Devil's Carnival project (2012, 2015)

Ramalho, Joana Rita; (2021) Sexsationalist feminism in The Devil's Carnival project (2012, 2015). In: Lobalzo Wright, Julie and Shearer, Martha, (eds.) Musicals at the Margins: Genre, Boundaries, Canon. (pp. 99-111). Bloomsbury Academic: London, UK. Green open access

[thumbnail of Sexsationalist Feminism - JRamalho.pdf]
Preview
Text
Sexsationalist Feminism - JRamalho.pdf - Published Version

Download (246kB) | Preview

Abstract

Combining the grim and the glorious with a humorous self-reflexivity, Darren Lynn Bousman and Terrance Zdunich’s sacrilegious musicals, The Devil’s Carnival (2012) and Alleluia! The Devil’s Carnival (2015), challenge dominant power structures and render audible the debased voices of society. These extravagant experiments in camp constitute a particularly interesting case study for the way they adhere to set rules and conventions of the Gothic and the musical, while giving them a luscious apocalyptic and intergeneric twist. In this chapter, I will analyze how the films use narrative, characterization, and mise-en-scène to forge a singular, self-conscious reflection on the musical form and the film industry. Furthermore, drawing on Marie-Luise Kohlke’s notion of “sexsation,” I will investigate the ways in which the project, especially the first installment, problematizes representations of femininity through a focus on the spectacularizing of pain—all to the strains of a jazzy, cabaret, and punk-rock soundtrack.

Type: Book chapter
Title: Sexsationalist feminism in The Devil's Carnival project (2012, 2015)
ISBN-13: 9781501357091
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/musicals-at-the-marg...
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: sexsation, heaven and hell, victimization, feminism, patriarchal eroticism, pain and suffering, Aesop’s Fables, dollhood, abjection, studio executives, Gothic, musicals
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > SELCS
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10199242
Downloads since deposit
Loading...
0Downloads
Download activity - last month
Loading...
Download activity - last 12 months
Loading...
Downloads by country - last 12 months
1.United Kingdom
2
2.Australia
1

Archive Staff Only

View Item View Item