Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization Galt Rosalind
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…
Specifikacia Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization Galt Rosalind
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. 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. In animist tradition, she is a woman who has died in childbirth, and her vengeful return upsets gender norms and social hierarchies.
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.