Shrieking, Biting, and Licking

The Monstrous-Feminine and Abject Female Monsters in Video Games

Authors

  • Sarah Stang York University

Keywords:

monstrous-feminine, abject, psychoanalysis, sirens, vampires, female body, wraiths, God of War, The Witcher

Abstract

This article examines examples of the monstrous-feminine in the form of abject female monsters in a selection of critically acclaimed and commercially successful video games. Various female monsters from CD Projekt RED’s The Witcher series (2007-2015), and Santa Monica Studio’s God of War series (2005-2013) are considered as examples of the abject monstrous-feminine which fall into a long tradition in horror media of making the female body and body movements into something horrific and repulsive. These female monsters use shrieking, biting, licking, and spreading disease as weapons against the male protagonist, who must slay them to restore symbolic order and progress in the games.

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Published

2018-01-14

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 2 (2018): Special Issue: 'Body Movements'

Section

Articles

License

CC BYCopyright for papers and articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to the University of Glasgow. It is a condition of publication that authors license their paper or article under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.