Pages, Screens, Technology: Helen McClory’s Pretty Dead Girl Takes a Break’s Haunting Narrative

Maddalena Carfora

doi:10.13125/2039-6597/6384

Maddalena Carfora Università di Napoli L’Orientale

DOI: https://doi.org/10.13125/2039-6597/6384

Keywords: Gothic mode, Contemporary literature, Screen, Affect, Femicide

Abstract

This paper aims to shed light on some characteristics of contemporary Anglophone Gothic literature as they are involved in cultural, social, and technological issues. Drawing on Lars Elleström’s theoretical framework, this contribution examines Helen McClory’s short story Pretty Dead Girl Takes a Break (2015), highlighting how the represented intermedial relationship between literature and screen technology can generate feelings of threat and fright that are deeply connected to a relevant contemporary issue, namely femicide.

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