The number of critical studies on Body Horror – which according to the book Contemporary Body Horror (2024) by Xavier Aldana Reyes can be “loosely defined as a subgenre of horror concerned with the maiming, destruction, transformation or grotesque exaggeration of the human body” (Aldana Reyes 2024) – published in recent years shows the growing cultural interest in the subject. But there is one aspect of this field of the horror genre that deserves special attention: For some time now, women have been taking over the Body Horror motif in Film and Literature and appropriating the narrative about their own bodies.

At the conference “Female Body Horror in Contemporary Literature”, to be held at the University of Bremen on 21-22 November 2025, we will discuss literary representations of women’s Body Horror from a comparative perspective in order to fill the theoretical gap that exists around this topic. Some possible, but not exclusive, thematic axes that could be addressed at the conference include:

-Bodily transformations as well as the loss of identity in pregnancy as Body Horror.
-Surrogate motherhood: While in journalistic discourse the figure of the ‘surrogate mother’ is mostly erased, in different recently published literary genres there is a much more critical view of surrogate motherhood. Some motifs to analyse are the woman-incubator in dystopias (for example, Cadáver exquisito, by Agustina Bazterrica, 2017) or the brutal externalisation of human reproduction (for example, El cuerpo es quien recuerda, by Paula Puebla, 2022).
-Women as fantastic fear-instilling figures, such as vampires, apparitions, monsters (e.g. Malasangre, by Michelle Roche Rodríguez, 2020).
-Monstrosity, exploitation, fragmentation of female bodies in narco-literature.
Contributions in English in all fields of literary studies are welcome. Abstracts (max. 500 words) should be submitted by 30 Juni 2025 to F.Sannders@uni-bremen.de

Travelling and accommodation costs cannot be covered.

Literature
Aldana Reyes, Xavier, Contemporary Body Horror,Cambridge University Press 2024.
Bazterrica, Agustina, Cadáver exquisito, Buenos Aires: Alfaguara 2017.
Roche Rodríguez, Michelle, Malasangre, Barcelona: Anagrama 2020.
Puebla, Paula, El cuerpo es quien recuerda, Buenos Aires: Tusquets 2022.