Ghostly Bells and Monstrous Drumming : An Exploration of Intermediality and Supernatural Strangeness in "Especially Heinous"

Abstract: Various contemporary female authors deploy supernatural motifs portrayed through or alongside diverse forms of intermediality in texts which thematise the patriarchal oppression of women. In order to throw light on this phenomenon, this thesis investigates the intermedial relations and supernatural motifs of Carmen Maria Machado’s novella “Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order: SVU”, and their relation to the political themes of the text. The analysis is based on the method of intermediality, primarily on Lars Elleström’s and Irina O. Rajewsky’s categorisations of intermedial relations. The supernatural motifs are situated within the hybrid context of the gothic and magical realism, and understood as an expression of strangeness. The analysis of this thesis finds that media transformation in combination with supernatural motifs serve to visualise oppressive and violent structures that are typically obscured. What is more, the similarities and tensions between intermediality and supernatural strangeness emphasise the dread and confusion produced in the encounter with uncanny or eerie societal forces. Finally, the tension and the resistance that arise where supernatural strangeness and intermediality meet illustrate a fundamental dilemma of communication: that it is always mediated, and thus, always incomplete.