1) Connect The Exorcist to one gothic convention in your introduction and conclusion. You can just mention it in these 2 places- no need to add an outside source. The easiest way to do this is to say that either, a) yes, The Exorcist is an example of gothic fiction that uses X convention, or b) no, The Exorcist challenges X convention thus complicating the traditional form of the gothic novel. Either way is great.
2) Anywhere in the body paragraphs, add 2-3 quotes from 2 different outside sources to help connect the novel to the convention you mention in the intro and conclusion.

ANSWER

Genre Analysis Essay: Freudian Uncanny Convention

The Exorcist is an American horror novel authored by William Peter Blatty, published in 1971, and one of the horror cinema’s scariest and significant blockbusters. The novel describes and details Regan MacNeil’s demonic possession, a young 12-year-old girl. Two priests Father Karras and Merrin, set out to exorcise the demon after establishing it is not a mental disorder. This background of the novel is essential when analyzing the novel’s genre as it provides diction, content, scenes, and patterns that form a communicative set exhibiting similarities in structure, style, and content with the gothic genre. The gothic genre profoundly influenced the development of subgenres such as horror fiction literature, as seen in the Exorcist, vampire, and ghost stories. Gothic literature presents the beliefs of supernatural beings with intricate plots, medieval settings, ruined castles, or haunted houses (Encyclopedia.com). This paper finds that Yes, The Exorcist is an example of gothic fiction that uses the Freudian uncanny convention. This is seen through the elements of confusion between verisimilitude and imagination, fear evoking coincidences, presence of all-controlling genius, and reanimation, which are portrayed horrifically and exaggeratedly taping into the real world fears and anxiety among the audience.

The Exorcist provides obvious and subtle instances that explain the Freudian uncanny concept, which explains that somethings or events can be familiar yet foreign or eerie through which the mixed feelings of familiarity and unfamiliarity induces an uncomfortably strange and dreadful feeling. One prominent example would be the terror and helplessness a parent feels and encounters when their child is sick, and the hope of recovery dwindles every minute, as every medicine or mitigation strategy adopted fails to relieve the child’s suffering and pain. The scenes of Regan urinating during her famous movie star mother’s dinner party, knocking her down, and emitting offensive or obscene words to priests (Blatty 281) and doctors show a lack of recovery, with the highest fear being her transformation into a demon-possessed monster. Within this fear and helplessness of Chris, a mother, and parent, this incident presents familiar and foreshadowed fears of the American youth. The images seem to redefine the social morals and ways of life in that period. Riley argues, “The monstrous children in Blatty’s novels, in particular, reflected concerns over what many saw as an alarming increase in adolescent drug use, sexual activity, and other rebellious and anti-social behavior in the late nineteen-sixties and early nineteen-seventies.” (Riley). Regan’s grotesque images bring out this fear and even more to her mother, who worked on a film that highlighted the continued rebellion from college campus students, heightening the representation of explosive social changes seen from youth explosions. This instigated a familiar yet foreign horror, terror, and fear evoking coincidence among parents (Chris) of losing their children unknowingly.

The Freudian uncanny concept explains the manifestation of coincidences that imply that some events or things are fated to occur, explaining the all-controlling genius concept. This is explained through the structural and social changes in The Exorcist. Regan serves as a “type of moral symbol warning of the dire consequences of an evolving family structure that places more emphasis on parental identity.” (Riley). Blatty expresses the fears that would develop in the family social institution’s contemporary structure in the wake of career development, self-realization, and women empowerment, considering the novel feeds on women’s guilt for moving into the corporate world  (Blatty 49). During the exorcism event, the demon jeers Chris stating, “It is you who have done it! Yes, you with your career before anything, your career before your husband, before her.” (Blatty 283).  Regan comes from a family with a broken or failed marriage seen in instances when Chris curses her husband on the phone, showing signs of divorce and hostile environments (Blatty 283). Her mother performs the patriarchal and matriarchal roles, and Regan seems to yearn for her mother’s presence only. With a possessed Regan, she murders Burke, a man romantically involved with her mother, showing Regan’s need to have a complete family of her mother and father without outsiders (Blatty 118). This example instigates a feeling of being buried alive. Regan seems to be buried within herself with a dominant supernatural being (demon) taking over, which brings about the uncertainties and confusion of whether Regan could be in verisimilitude or in her imagination. Moreover, she tries to mastermind or be the controlling genius to maintain the traditional family structure and eliminate the possibilities of structural changes in the family unit when she killed Burke.

The Exorcist expresses Freudian uncanny convention through the reanimation of Father Karras’s mother within Regan. Reanimation refers to resuscitation or life restoration, in this case, of the dead. During the exorcism session conducted by Father Karras and Merrin, Regan, in her possessed state, spoke in his mother’s voice, asking why he had left her to become a priest with sorrow, accusatory and lonely voice (Blatty 287). The reanimation of the priest’s mother in Regan torments and haunts him psychologically, considering he was already tormenting himself on the decision he made regarding placing his mother in a mental facility. It was a relived moment for Father Karras that instigated a familiar feeling and fear of what had occurred, instigating a déjà vu, an uncanny sensation, reliving or re-experiencing an event again. Moreover, Regan’s change of voice from the monstrous voice to Father Karras’s mother, crying, “You always good boy, Dimmy. Please! I am’ afraid! Please no chase me outside, Dimmy! Please!” (Blatty 287) exhibits the ventriloquism element of the uncanny (Wytovich). Changing her voice to resemble the Father’s mother is rather creepy, which instigates a familiar fear and psychological experience of leaving and putting his mother in the mental facility, which is unsettling and eerie until recently in the novel when it is reanimated in Regan.

The analysis above shows that The Exorcist novel is an example of gothic fiction, as it embodies the presence of supernatural beliefs through demonic possession of Regan. Moreover, it integrates the conventions of gothic fiction literature of Freudian uncanny concept that explains that somethings or events can be familiar yet foreign or eerie through which the mixed feelings of familiarity and unfamiliarity induces an uncomfortably strange and dreadful feeling. The events that support this convention include the exorcism event, which embodies the uncanny reanimation and ventriloquism elements, which enhances the Freudian concept. It also sets fear evoking coincidences associated with the American youths’ social and structural changes in the 1970s among parents and the family institution, bringing out the confusion of verisimilitude and imagination, and describing Regan as an example of an all-controlling genius. All these events and occurrences are portrayed horrifically and exaggeratedly, tapping into the real-world fears or anxiety among the audiences and characters themselves, as seen with Father Karras.

Works Cited

Blatty, William Peter. The Exorcist. New York: Harper, 1971.

Encyclopedia.com. “Gothic Themes, Settings, And Figures.” Gothic Literature: A Gale Critical Companion 16 October 2020. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/culture-magazines/gothic-themes-settings-and-figures.

Riley, Brian Patrick. “Revisiting The Exorcist: The Forbidden Pleasures of Resistant Reading.” The Journal of Popular and American Culture (2017). https://responsejournal.net/issue/2017-11/article/revisiting-exorcist-forbidden-pleasures-resistant-reading.

Wytovich, Stephanie M. Elements of the Uncanny: THE EXORCIST. 14 March 2011. http://stephaniewytovich.blogspot.com/2011/03/elements-of-uncanny-exorcist.html. 11 November 2020.