‘Infertile, domestically unnecessary, and jealous’: Hags, Witches and the Magic Spinster
‘Infertile, domestically unnecessary, and jealous’: Hags, Witches and the Magic Spinster
One of the most enduring types of female ageing in fictional texts is the witch. Representations of the witch in British film are informed by a cultural imaginary which extends back through the centuries. A sequence of post-war films reiterated the threat of the ageing woman by evoking the supernatural, drawing on myths of the ageing unattached woman as a monstrous hag. In contrast the chapter examines a more benign figuration of the female grotesque and the supernatural with Margaret Rutherford’s performance as an eccentric medium in Blithe Spirit (1945), which was to define her persona as a ‘magic spinster’. The 1960s and 1970s witnessed a return to the ageing woman as monster, as British horror films increasingly targeted a youth audience. These monstrous women were a boon for the ageing actress, finding a new younger audience.
Keywords: Female ageing, Witch, British film, Post-war, Supernatural, Hag, Female grotesque, Margaret Rutherford, British horror films, Spinster
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