Books

Little Horrors

Posted by Leo Ruickbie on

Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Anomalous Children and the Construction of Monstrosity, edited by Simon Bacon and Leo Ruickbie

Little Horrors
Little Horrors edited by Simon Bacon and Leo Ruickbie

Gone is the innocence of childhood enshrined in some imagined Golden Age. Have we entered the age of the monstrous child, the little horror; or have we just re-discovered it anew? This volume raises questions at the heart of society and culture, and through an interdisciplinary, trans-cultural analysis presents important findings on socio-cultural representations and embodiments of the child and childhood. At the start of the 21st century, new anxieties constellate around the child and childhood, whilst older concerns have re-emerged, mutated and grown stronger. This volume studies the ‘problem’ child, both factual and fictional, through varying historical periods and cultures, to whether it is the child or the society that makes them that is truly monstrous.

Introduction
Simon Bacon and Leo Ruickbie

Part I Paranormal Little Horrors

The Naughty Little Children: The Paranormal and Teenagers
Renaud Evrard

The Possession of John Starkie
Joyce Froome

I Was a Real Teenage Werewolf: The 17th Century Witchcraft Trial of Jean Grenier
Leo Ruickbie

Evil Twins: Changing Perceptions of Twin Children and Witchcraft amongst Yoruba Speaking People
Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold

Part II Un/Dead Little Horrors

Imprints: Forming and Tracing the Malevolent Ghost-Child
Jen Baker

Undead Role Models: Why the Zombie Child Is Irresistible
Anthony Adams

Children for Ever! Monsters of Eternal Youth and the Reification of Childhood
Simon Bacon

‘Not a child. Not old. Not a boy. Not a girl’: Representing Childhood in Let the Right One In
Allison Moore

Part III Monstrous Little Horrors

Doli Incapax: Examining the Social, Psychological, Biological and Legal Implications of Age-Related Assumptions of Criminal Responsibility
Jacquelyn Bent and Theresa Porter

Deviance on Display: The Feral and the Monstrous Child
Gerd H. Hövelmann

Perverted Postmodern Pinocchios: Cannibalistic Vegetal-Children as Ecoterrorist Agents of
Maternal Imagination
Anna Kérchy

Part IV The Future of Little Horrors?

Black Eyed Kids and the Child Archetype
Brigid Burke

From the Monster to the Evil Sinthomosexual Child: Category Mixing, Temporality and Projection in Horror Movies
Marc Démont

Indigo Children: Unexpected Consequences of a Process of Pathologisation
Gerhard Mayer and Anita Brutler

Only available from Inter-Disciplinary Press.

Published by Leo Ruickbie

Dr Leo Ruickbie, FRHistS, FRAI, Associate of King’s College, is a Visiting Fellow in Psychology at the University of Northampton and the author of six books, most recently Angels in the Trenches: Spiritualism, Superstition and the Supernatural During the First World War. Actively involved in the parapsychological research community, he is a Council Member of the Society for Psychical Research and a Professional Member of the Parapsychological Association. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. In 2021, he won third prize in the essay contest organised by the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies.