Le Féminin et le diable: Possessions et exorcismes comme manifestation de la répression sexuelle feminine

• Main Author: Alexandra Dagenais
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Montreal Monstrum Society 2019-06-01
• Series: Monstrum
• Subjects: demonic possession; Julia Kristeva; Robin Wood; exorcism; psychoanalysis; horror cinema; possession films; The Last Exorcism; The Last Exorcism 2; The Exorcism of Emily Rose; The Devil's Hand; Grace: The Possession; The Exorcist; The Devil Inside; patriarchy; patriarchal order
• Online Access: https://www.monstrum-society.ca/uploads/4/1/7/5/41753139/dagenais_-_feminine_et_diable_-_monstrum_2.pdf
• ISSN: 2561-5629

Addresses the motif of the possessed woman in the demonic possession subgenre as a manifestation of female sexuality repressed under the constraints imposed by the patriarchal order. Combining a psychoanalytic theoretical framework, from Robin Wood's notion of the return of the repressed, with Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection, as well as other feminist horror theorists, the essay explores how the spectacle of exorcism demonizes female sexuality. [The text of this essay is in French.]