Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization Galt Rosalind
The pontianak, a terrifying female vampire ghost, is a powerful figure in Malay cultures, as loved and feared in Southeast Asia as Dracula is in the West. In animist tradition, she is a woman who has…
Specifikacia Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization Galt Rosalind
The pontianak, a terrifying female vampire ghost, is a powerful figure in Malay cultures, as loved and feared in Southeast Asia as Dracula is in the West. In animist tradition, she is a woman who has died in childbirth, and her vengeful return upsets gender norms and social hierarchies. The pontianak first appeared on screen in late colonial Singapore in a series of popular films that combine indigenous animism and transnational production with the cultural and political force of the horror genre.In Alluring Monsters, Rosalind Galt explores how and why the pontianak found new life in postcolonial Southeast Asian film and society. She argues that the figure speaks to a series of intersecting anxieties: about femininity and modernity, globalization and indigeneity, racial and national identities, the relationship of Islam to animism, and heritage and environmental destruction.
Abandoned Cinemas of the World
Rosalind and the Little Deer
The Sea of Monsters
Of Monsters and Maidens
Dawn of the Monsters
The Monsters of Rookhaven
King of the Monsters