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Session 3: Monsters Performed
Chair: Hannah Priest

Jumping, Yelling, Screaming: The Spooky Art of John Carpenter
José Gabriel Ferreras Rodríguez
Departamento de Información y Documentación, Facultad de Comunicación y Documentación, Campus Universitario de Espinardo, Espinardo (Murcia), España

No abstract is presently available

Divas Undone: The Errant Heroine as Operatic Monster
Holly Baumgartner
Department of General Studies, Mercy College of Northwest Ohio, Ohio, USA

Some of the greatest tragedies to grace the stage are those of opera. In these dramatic performances, tension often resides in the dynamic relationship between the female protagonist, who encompasses such memorable roles as Tosca, Carmen, and Mimi, and the male antagonist, who, like Tosca’s Scarpia, is cast in villainous proportions made even more monstrous by the stripped down action and stylized form of the opera libretto.
This presentation scrutinizes the highly-gendered interaction between these characters  and deconstructs the villain’s ability to subvert the heroine’s strengths, reflecting them back in a mirrored inversion culminating in violence and tragedy.
It is too easy to blame hubris, a tragic flaw, an essential weakness of the larger than life heroine, but it is her strength, her core, that clashes with the strengths of her antagonizer. The repulsive machinations of the villain are a foil for her virtues – from piety to patience; however, they become distorted, bringing about her downfall. At the same time that the villain functions as a character foil, he is also foiled by the heroine, even though her success is simultaneously her destruction. These heroines, through the combustible threads tying them to their wicked counterparts, are, on the surface, those of the stereotypical damsel-in-distress; after all, many of the best operas are well past their 100th anniversaries. Yet even when historically contextualized, the ruthless connection between these prominent players complicates any easily reducible gender roles. The progenitors of despair serve up lessons on the performance of courage, the repercussions of choice, but, most ironically, in a medium that is all about voice, the need for voice.

“What claimed our love and compassion was misshapen humanity in all its forms.” Sick Caliban’s Story
Anna Kowalcze
Jagiellonian University, Poland

No abstract is presently available

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