英文摘要 |
This article investigates the development of the peculiar character type of “child hillbilly”--especially the “feral child” subtype--and its social/cultural significations in contemporary Rural Gothic/Horror narratives. The fear of the “feral child,” this article argues, reflects an urban-centered abjection of the “rural Other,” an ambivalent mindset toward the individual and collective origins, and an anxiety about dysfunctional techniques of government intended to tame the child like domesticating beasts. The “child hillbillies” represented in contemporary popular culture revolt against the beloved American country boy archetype molded by literary canons, expressing intensifying worries over the rebellious youth in the context of the institutionalized and systemized corrective education. The regime of rectification and punishment imposed upon children points to the adults’ obsession with order and control, whereas the monstrous body of the “feral child” symbolizes the mounting threats for both senior authority and “urbanormativity.” In the multiplying cultural representations of “child hillbillies,” we perceive a sense of crisis in a time of baffled youth management and depressing intergenerational communication. |