The Paranormal and Popular Culture
A Postmodern Religious Landscape
Routledge Studies in Religion Series

Interest in preternatural and supernatural themes has revitalized the Gothic tale, renewed explorations of psychic powers and given rise to a host of social and religious movements based upon claims of the fantastical. And yet, in spite of this widespread enthusiasm, the academic world has been slow to study this development. This volume rectifies this gap in current scholarship by serving as an interdisciplinary overview of the relationship of the paranormal to the artefacts of mass media (e.g. novels, comic books, and films) as well as the cultural practices they inspire.

After an introduction analyzing the paranormal?s relationship to religion and entertainment, the book presents essays exploring its spiritual significance in a postmodern society; its (post)modern representation in literature and film; and its embodiment in a number of contemporary cultural practices. Contributors from a number of discplines and cultural contexts address issues such as the shamanistic aspects of Batman and lesbianism in vampire mythology.

Covering many aspects of the paranormal and its effect on popular culture, this book is an important statement in the field. As such, it will be of utmost interest to scholars of religious studies as well as media, communication, and cultural studies.

Introduction, Darryl Caterine Part I: The Return of the Sacred 1 What Can the Paranormal in Popular Culture Tell Us About Our Relationship with the Sacred in Contemporary Society? Madeleine Castro 2 Paranormal Medicine, Charles F. Emmons 3 The Right to a Narrative: Metamodernism, Paranormal Horror, and Agency in The Cabin in the Woods, Linda C. Ceriello and Greg Dember 4 The Dark Knight Rises: Shamanic Transformations in Gotham City, Jack Hunter 5 These Lovers Are Out of This World: Sex, Consent, and the Rhetoric of Conversion in Abductee Narratives, Elizabeth Lowry 6 The Mystery of Everything Out There: Bigfoot and Religion in the Twenty-First Century, Joshua Paddison 7 The Haunters and the Hunters: Popular Ghost Hunting and the Pursuit of Paranormal Experience, Leo Ruickbie Part II: The Spell of Occulture 8 Religions of the Red Planet: Fin de Siècle Martian Romances, Christa Shusko 9 Paranormal Women: the "Sexual Revolution" and Female Sexuality in Hammer Studios’ Karnstein Trilogy, Jay Daniel Thompson 10 "We’re Ready to Believe You!" Spiritualism and the Interpretation of Paranormal Experience in Ghostbusters (1984), Matthew N. Anderson and Collin L. Brown 11 Jesus and The Undead: Resurrected Bodies in Scripture and the Zombie Apocalypse, Kelly J. Murphy 12 Haunting the Ghost of Mark Twain, Ann M. Ryan 13 Accounts of High Strangeness: A Brazilian Perspective on the Paranormal and Popular Culture, Leonardo Martins 14 How the Necronomicon Became Real: The Ecology of a Legend, Joseph P. Laycock 15 Miranda Barbour and the Construction of a "Satanic Cult" Murder, Daniel Linford 16 "What Would You Do When…?": Ostensive Play in the Zombie Apocalypse Narrative, Brent C. Augustus 17 Paranormal Beliefs, New Religious Movements and the New Age Spiritual Milieu, James R. Lewis and Sverre Andreas Fekjan 18 Cryptofiction! Science-Fiction and the Rise of Cryptozoology, Justin Mullis 19 When Did Fairies Get Wings? Simon Young 20 A Contactee Canon: Gray Barker’s Saucerian Books, Gabriel McKee; Conclusion, John W. Morehead

Darryl Caterine is a professor of religious studies at Le Moyne College, USA. He is the author of Haunted Ground: Journeys through a Paranormal America (2011), and a number of articles and chapters on the paranormal, including essays in The Brill Handbook of Spiritualism and Channeling, Nova Religio: The Journal of Emergent and Alternative Religions, and the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.

John W. Morehead is an academic researcher and writer specializing in new religious movements as well as religion and popular culture. His writing includes a chapter on Matrixism for The Brill Handbook of Hyper-real Religions; entries on Paganism for The Handbook of Religion; and the co-editing and editing of volumes on religion and pop culture including The Undead and Theology, Joss Whedon and Religion, The Supernatural Cinema of Guillermo del Toro, and Fantastic Fan Cultures and the Sacred. He blogs at www.TheoFantastique.com.