Melancholic Grief and the Psychic Experience of Reproductive Loss in Emma Tammi’s The Wind (2018)

Abstract

Horror films directed by women are uniquely suited to problematize the psychic experience of reproductive loss. This article analyzes Emma Tammi’s The Wind (2018) to understand how the film’s horrific representations of interior spaces (the body, the mind, and the home) reflect the psychic experience of melancholic grief associated with reproductive loss. The film functions to problematize the affective complacency that demands that good mothers conceal their negative feelings of loss, animosity, and jealousy. In the context of the maternal experience of infant mortality, the “mask of motherhood” perpetuates the psychic antagonisms of ambivalence and melancholic guilt associated with losing a child. Toward that end, a critical discourse analysis of The Wind and related paratexts considers how the spatial relations between the interior homestead and exterior landscape serve to reflect the monstrous experience of melancholic grief. The resulting analysis provides a feminist approach to understanding melancholic grief and identifies horror films as important discursive spaces for developing alternative representations of mother’s psychic experiences of loss.

Keywords:

• feminism
• horror
• melancholy
• motherhood
• reproductive loss
• The Wind

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

The author reports there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann

Mariliis Elizabeth Holzmann is a PhD student in art history and visual culture at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, Estonia. She is a horror fan with an academic interest in the genre. Her research interests include women filmmakers, the depictions of national and queer identities, and feminist approaches to film. Her doctoral research focuses on onscreen representations of women in the contemporary horror films made by women directors.