The Neon-Gothic: Some Theoretical Considerations
Abstract
This paper examines the use of neon lighting in contemporary Gothic cinema, proposing the definition of a new film subgenre: “neon-gothic.” Drawing on Walter Benjamin’s reflections on “modes of illumination” and Jacques Fontanille’s semiotics of light, it explores how neon—historically linked to twentieth-century consumer culture—is resemanticized in contemporary film. The analysis focuses on three key works: André Øvredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe, where the morgue’s white light spectralizes and objectifies the female body; Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, where colored lighting intensifies the commodification of the female body within the fashion industry; and Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, in which neon becomes a symbol of the fusion between reality and media imagery. Through Patricia MacCormack’s concept of “cinesexuality,” the paper highlights how neon lighting creates topographical spaces that redefine the relationship between viewer and film, offering new ways to articulate the abject and the erotic.
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