(Un)common Horrors

Bilo je jasno da će prije ili poslije dječak s naočalama i crvenim hlačicama šutnuti loptu izvan igrališta. Bilo je jasno jer ju je udarao pakosno, kao da postoje neriješeni računi između stopala i lopte, ne mareći odveć za smjer, protivnika ili završni rezultat. Kad god bi krenuo u napad, ti bi se načas isključio iz razgovora. Osjetio bi kako se netko u tebi penje na male ljestve - baš tu, ispod prsne kosti - odakle se utakmica očito bolje vidi. Ti bi stajao ondje i puštao ga da se popne, a topot njegovih stopala po prečkama zvučao ti je kao kakvo dopunsko srce. Nadao si se da ga ne čuje gospođa koja je sjedila pored tebe, i s kojom si, u odijelu i s kravatom, razgovarao o nekretninama, porezima i špekulacijama. Čim bi se igra prekinula, ti bi u sebi ponovno začuo stopala kako silaze prečkama, zadihanost i zatim tišinu. Tada bi ponovno progovorio: dvadeset godina iskustva za savjet prijateljici. Kad je došlo do izjednačenja shvatio si da je stigao i čas da se pomakneš s klupe. U tebi ...

Central to this essay is the feature film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night by the Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour. The director binds viewers to a vampire’s point of view – one that expresses both female desire and feminist anger – by using film-specific stylistic devices such as the depth of field, framing, lighting, sound, and location. The film embraces feelings of anger and rage when confronted with patriarchal domination and violence, and turns these feelings into liberatory tools that give rise to both feminist analysis and agency. And while gender oppression is rejected violently, the film also establishes a community of care that amends, escapes, reveals, and resists patriarchal and capitalist oppression.Keywords: feminist rage, sexual and gender-specific violence, film-specific stylistic devices, depth of field, framing, and lighting, vampire technologyIn her debut feature film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, the Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour plays ...

It’s summer and the beer keeps flowing down our throats, the music echoes from a club and every now and then we walk out on the terrace to catch a breath of air free of smoke, to meet someone and start something new, and if it doesn’t happen, we go back inside and shake at the dance floor, at the bar. And when we get bored, we walk out again and look from someone.We give up before the end, before sunrise, because we cannot stand the dawn that will reveal our impotence, we stumble and laugh along as if we’ve won a trip to the heavens in which no one lives, we give everything we’ve got to remain in this good trance, we imagine what we’d do if she weren’t such a cow that got hooked on that good-for-nothing, and, after all, don’t you think good girls always end up with the likes of him, we’ll never understand it. Comfort is good, but not good enough to put an end to this night, to peacefully collapse into our bed next to the open window and fall asleep as if love exists, and tonight we jus...

Probudila nas je vatra. Sestra i ja užasnute smo ugledale bakinu kuću lutaka kako gori u kutu naše sobe. Nekako smo jastucima uspjele ugušiti požar pa poput dvaju uznemirenih divova provirile unutra. Plamenovi su zacrnjeli šarene tapete, a ostaci namještaja stršili su kao kostur pougljenjene ptice. Kašljale smo sve do stuba. Prazne oči ogledala zrcalile su samo trag od pepela koji je lebdio u zraku, pa smo malim prstom razvalile vrata spavaonica na drugom katu, strepeći od onog najgoreg. Usamljena porculanska stanarka, udovica otkad joj je suprug sestri nespretno ispao iz ruku, visjela je s lustera svoje spavaonice. *Češljat ću te kad god me to budeš tražila, govorila je ružna blizanka lijepoj, prihvaćajući ulogu služavke osuđene na sjenu. Lijepa je blizanka voljela slušati pseći dah svoje sestre, znati da je budna u olujnim noćima i da bdije nad njezinim mirnim snom. Zabranjujem ti da spavaš, govorila bi joj, ne smiješ zaspati prije mene, a ako dođe čudovište, neka prvo pojede tebe, i...

From the dark streets of Vienna, we travel back to our sunlit lands, telling the tale of Radovan’s right arm. Among other things, its very palm will touch Gila, so even the reader will get to feel the young healer’s white hair and the delicate pallor of her cheeks.

This paper examines the role of narrativization as a form of improvised trauma treatment in the first six seasons of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The Walking Dead explores a modern America that has been decimated by a traumatic event. This event, a zombie apocalypse, results in the permanent loss of infrastructure and social services. What remains in this unpredictable landscape for survivors is a reliance on Christian narratives, expressed through pious characters and burial rituals that strive to provide meaning and purpose in the new world. Survivors perform burial rituals to preserve a connection to the pre-apocalyptic world and to narrativize trauma, both personal and collective. This paper contends that The Walking Dead uses the context of cultural trauma not to reflect on or critique nationalist agendas and ideologies but to identify the past as a robust repository for the future.Keywords: The Walking Dead, trauma, narrative, emplotment, Christianity, burial