Getting Medieval: Bodies of Fear, Serial Killers and Se7en

Shona Hill

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Getting Medieval: Bodies of Fear, Serial Killers and Se7en

In: The Domination of Fear

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Shona Hill

Shona Hill
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 53–76

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789042030855_005

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Fear can be understood as a perspective for viewing social experience. To explore this perspective, this paper will use an example of serial killing displayed through the wounded body in Fincher’s 1995 film Se7en. Instead of asking why serial killers are so popular in the entertainment media, I examine how they are presented. I argue that what is interesting about the way Se7en interacts with its audience is that it presents a resurrection of a medieval worldview. Telling a story of death through the Christian wounded body was a mundane event in the public spaces of the medieval execution. Yet from a contemporary perspective the presentation of public death in this film is understood in terms of information and images pertaining to fear, horror and terror. This presentation affects audiences to the point where they are both horrified and mesmerised, as much for what they think they see, as for the actual presentation of wounded bodies in this film.

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The Domination of Fear

Series: At the Interface / Probing the Boundaries, Volume: 70

E-Book ISBN:: 9789042030855

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 01 Jan 2010

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Getting Medieval: Bodies of Fear, Serial Killers and Se7en

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The Domination of Fear

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