Supernatural Mothers and Wombs of Discontent - Exploring Horror's Deviant Reproductions

An interdisciplinary and international roster of contributors discuss the womb and the mother as separate sources of supernatural reproduction in horror media, arguing that the alchemy of pregnancy and birth warrants a sustained examination of supernatural motherhood in diverse contexts.

From television shows like WandaVision and films like The Witch (2015) to novels like Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Salman Rushdie’s Victory City, contributors analyze a variety of horror media texts, identifying and unpacking key themes including the monstrous feminine, gynae horror, and magical motherhood.

As narratives foregrounding the Othering of the mother figure emerge from these texts on a broader scale, the volume ultimately brings these wide-ranging explorations together to interrogate motherhood as an expression of systemic power relations, positing that the supernatural functions as a foil against which the social constructions of birth, birthing, and motherhood may be reconsidered and perhaps even redefined.