Graduation Date
Spring 2025
Document Type
Project
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in English, emphasis in Applied English Studies
Committee Chair Name
Dr. Andrea Delgado
Committee Chair Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Dr. Renee Byrd
Second Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Dr. Natalie Gianini
Third Committee Member Affiliation
Cal Poly Humboldt Faculty or Staff
Keywords
Horror, Embodiment, Clive Barker
Subject Categories
English
Abstract
The collection Books of Blood is an anthology series of short stories written between 1984 and 1985. Only two, the very first and last, have any unifying story. For our purposes we will be looking at stories in particular that exemplify the themes I am speaking about. Barker's writing often heavily focuses on the ways that the body stands outside the control of the individual, something that a person resides in and must always rely upon, but is not actually in their control in most senses. His horror explores the ways in which the human body is both the first and really only way that the world can be understood, and also a canvas for the ways in which the world changes the individual. Some of his villains, such as the tumor that we will be discussing when we reach the sections of The Son of Celluloid, are themselves malignant parts of the body which have run wild and begun to hunt others. In other cases, such as In The Hills, The Cities the body is used as a platform to look at the ways in which one fits themselves into society as a whole, and the ways that this whole can be comforting but also a source of horror, distress, and alienation. Finally, The Body Politic examines this metaphor through the lens of the body in revolt, literally. People's hands across an unnamed city begin to come to life on their own and plan a revolution against the greater body which oppressed them. They start to conspire to sever themselves and gather together into a new society. Here, the reverse of the previous story is seen. Rather than the individual as part of a whole, here the individual finds that there are in fact many small parts of themselves, bringing forth not only an interesting metaphorical lens with which to look at the way that society an resemble a body which pulls itself apart, but also raising the question of who exactly is the individual at all. Are you the whole of your own body, or just the mind? Is this mind separate in some way from the physical shell that holds it, or are we composite being borne from many different parts working in unison?
Citation Style
MLA
Recommended Citation
Vargas, Ian, "All red inside: embodied metaphor in Clive Barker's Books of Blood" (2025). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 2277.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/2277
Included in
Literature in English, British Isles Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons