Nuns in Popular Culture

Films and television programs about nuns are among the most successful and popular we watch, from old favorites like The Sound of Music to more recent hits like Call the Midwife and Mrs. Davis. This collection of new essays studies the fascinating and often controversial ways nuns have been portrayed in popular media, including as warriors, career women, and agents of supernatural horror. Specialist contributors in popular culture study more than a century of works from around the globe in genres as diverse as musicals, horror films, and even heavy metal music videos.

Marcus K. Harmes is a professor at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia. He researches on British popular culture especially science fiction and horror.
Meredith A. Harmes teaches at the University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia and has a research background in political science and British political history.

Edited by Marcus K. Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 200
Bibliographic Info: bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2024
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9374-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5343-3
Imprint: McFarland

A Force of Habit: Popular Culture Presentations of Nuns

Marcus K. Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes 1

Period Drama and Female Agency from the Middle Ages to Vatican II

Meredith A. Harmes and Marcus K. Harmes 18

Deconstructing Boundaries of Sexual Transgression Through the Nuns in Pier Paolo Pasolini’s The Decameron (1971)

Hiju Kim 32

Black Narcissus: A Nuns’ Story Through the Lens of Folk Horror

William Gombash 43

Fallen Angels: From Mothers Superior to Demon Nuns in Screen Narratives of Spain’s Stolen Children

Mary Farrelly 55

“Too good a woman for God alone”: Reading Nuance and Complexity in the Representation of Television’s Warrior Nuns

Louise Coopey 68

The Devil We Know: Juan López Moctezuma’s Alucarda and the Limits of Anticlerical Horror

Andrew Grossman 81

“Twin” Sisters Unrestrained: Recyclability in Italian Nunsploitation

Jonathon Barratt 97

The Strange and the Sacred: Depictions of Catholic Nuns in Supernatural Horror Stories

Susan Hopkins 111

Hail Mary Full of Horror: Rage and Religious Trauma in The Conjuring Universe

Michelle D. Wise 127

“I don’t disagree that there’s evil in the world. I do disagree that we’re powerless against it”: Faith, Feeling and “Fleshy” Desires in HBO’s Oz

Abel F. Fenwick 140

Brides of Satan: Nuns in Contemporary European Heavy Metal

Michael B. Charles 154

Sacrilegious Sisters: The Sanctification of Nunhood in Malayalam Cinema

Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh 167

Final Thoughts: Nuns Face Their Futures

Marcus K. Harmes and Meredith A. Harmes 180

About the Contributors 189

Index 191