Understanding the Politics of Hagsploitation: A Reading of Select Horror Narratives of 20th Century

Abstract

There have always been undeniable gaps between the experiences of women from all over the world. Across continents, within countries, in states earmarked for select population, experiences have been different. Hence, apparently it has not left much room for homogenous studies of female experience. It further gets complicated as female experiences vary in terms of their respective representational politics. In the association of ageing female with narratives of horror resides the crux of literary hagsploitation.  This paper explores through select Bengali short stories, how literature deals with female ageism and the horror it harbours within. It is important to trace the course of female ageing to understand how it operates on individual as well as their collective existence.  Despite certain common grounds identified by the First and Second waves of Feminism, a pressing need was felt to make distinct spaces for Womanism and postcolonial feminism to develop as independent feminist movements. In this paper, select feminist ideas of Barbara Creed, Simon de Beauvoir and Julia Kristeva will be focussed on with relevant references to other theorists.