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.
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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 |
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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 |
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