The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film

Abstract Since the release of Jordan Peele’s Academy Award–winning horror hit Get Out (2017), interest in Black horror films has erupted. This renewed intrigue in stories about Black life, history, and culture, or “Blackness,” has taken two forms. First, the history and politics of race have been centered in the horror genre. Second, Black horror has become an increasingly visible topic in mainstream discourses, with scholars, critics, and fans contending that Black horror is seeing its so-called renaissance. Critical attention to Blackness in horror has primarily focused on the United States and the Western world, despite Black stories having featured prominently in the genre—through the work of actors, screenwriters, directors, producers—globally and across cultures. The chapters in this handbook explore global Black horror cinema by interrogating Blackness and the ways it manifests in films across the diaspora and around the world. Chapters pose and answer questions, including, How are taxonomies of race presented?; Who is considered “Black?”; How is Blackness constructed in the culture in which it is produced and/or distributed?; How is horror defined and represented globally and/or culturally?; and, What textual role does Blackness play in horror? Sophisticated, innovative, argument-driven research brings to bear the most enlightened reflections upon Black horror’s place in the world. The Oxford Handbook of Black Horror Film presents expansive scholarship about Blackness, expanding the ways in which researchers, critics, and fans see and make meaning of Black experiences. In this volume, leading scholars from around the world contribute provocative, worthy examinations of this genre in all its rich and empowering possibilities.