Lewis Barnavelt and the Rainbow over New Zebedee: Queering The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Maciej Skowera

doi:10.32798/dlk.29

Published: 2019-07-24

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2019)

Lewis Barnavelt and the Rainbow over New Zebedee: Queering The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Maciej Skowera

Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura

Section: Studies

https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.29

Abstract

The paper discusses The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973) by John Bellairs and its film adaptation, directed by Eli Roth (2018), from queer theory and gender studies perspectives. The author of the article aims to overview and develop existing queer in‑terpretations of the first novel in the Lewis Barnavelt series, with contextual references to the cycle’s subsequent volumes, and to conduct a queer theory ‑inspired analysis of Roth’s motion picture. The genre represented by the novel and the film is also consid‑ered by taking the scholarly reflections on the queer aspects of the Gothic and the hor‑ror into account. The author concludes that although both versions of the story fail at portraying femininity in an unconventional way, they succeed in showing that queer‑ness and, more generally, the Otherness should be highly appreciated and valued.

Supporting Agencies

The article was written during the author’s stay in Munich at the International Youth Library (Internationale Jugendbibliothek) as part of the fellowship programme funded by the Federal Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Keywords:

adaptation, American Gothic, children's and young adult film, children's and young adult literature, Eli Roth, gender studies, Gothic fiction, John Bellairs, Lewis Barnavelt, queer theory, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, horror

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >>

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Download files

PDF

Citation rules

Skowera, M. (2019). Lewis Barnavelt and the Rainbow over New Zebedee: Queering The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Dzieciństwo. Literatura I Kultura, 1(1), 85–108. https://doi.org/10.32798/dlk.29

Cited by / Share

References

Abbruscato, J., & Jones, T. (Eds.). (2014). The Gothic fairy tale in young adult literature: Essays on stories from Grimm to Gaiman. Jefferson, NC: McFarland.
Google Scholar

Aguirre, M. (1990). The closed space: Horror literature and Western symbolism. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Google Scholar

Asselin, D., Asselin, P. (Producers), & Cox, N. (Director). (1979). Vincent Price’s Once upon a midnight scary [Television film]. New York, NY: CBS.
Google Scholar

Abate, M. A., & Kidd, K. (Eds.). (2011). Over the rainbow: Queer children’s and young adult literature. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
Google Scholar

Beauvais, C. (2015). The mighty child: Time and power in children’s literature. https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.4.
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J. (1998a). The figure in the shadows. In The best of John Bellairs. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble. (Original work published 1975).
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J. (1998b). The house with a clock in its walls. In The best of John Bellairs. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble. (Original work published 1973).
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J. (1998c). The letter, the witch, and the ring. In The best of John Bellairs. New York, NY: Barnes and Noble. (Original work published 1976).
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J., & Strickland, B. (1993a). The ghost in the mirror. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J., & Strickland, B. (1993b). The vengeance of the witch-finder. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Bellairs, J., & Strickland, B. (1995). The doom of the haunted opera. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Benshoff, H. M. (1997). Monsters in the closet: Homosexuality and the horror film. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Google Scholar

Berman, S. (2018, September 21). Re: The genius of John Bellairs’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls [Web article comment]. Retrieved from https://www.tor.com/2018/09/21/the-genius-of-john-bellairss-the-house-with-a-clock-in-itswalls/.
Google Scholar

Bilson, G. (Producer). (1954–1956). Captain Midnight [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: CBS.
Google Scholar

Bishop, C. (2018). Necromancy, demons and demonic possession, witches, occult… [Film review: The House with a Clock in Its Walls]. Christian Answers. Retrieved from https://christiananswers.net/spotlight/movies/2018/housewithaclockinitswalls2018.html.
Google Scholar

Bloom, C. (2012). Horror fiction: In search of a definition. In D. Punter (Ed.), A new companion to the Gothic (pp. 211–223). https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444354959.ch15.
Google Scholar

Bond Stockton, K. (2009). The queer child, or growing sideways in the twentieth century. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Google Scholar

Browning, J. E. (2017). Horror criticism. In M. Cardin (Ed.), Horror literature through history: An Encyclopedia of the stories that speak to our deepest fears (Vol. 1, pp. 97–101). Santa Barbara, CA & Denver, CO: Greenwood.
Google Scholar

Broughton, M. A. (2001). Bellairs, John. In B. E. Cullinan & D. G. Person (Eds.), The Continuum encyclopedia of children’s literature (pp. 72–73). New York, NY & London: Continuum.
Google Scholar

Bruhm, S., & Hurley, N. (Eds.). (2004). Curiouser: On the queerness of children. Minneapolis, MN & London: University of Minnesota Press.
Google Scholar

Butler, J. (2006). Gender trouble: Feminism and subversion of identity. New York, NY & London: Routledge. (Original work published 1990).
Google Scholar

Chambliss, A., Wolkoff, B. (Writers), & La Salle, E. (Director). (2016). Ruby slippers [Television series episode]. In E. Kitsis & A. Horowitz (Producers), Once upon a time. Burbank, CA: ABC.
Google Scholar

Chubb, L. (2016, April 24). One Million Moms protest lesbian kiss on family-friendly TV show Once Upon a Time. Gay Star News. Retrieved from https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/one-million-moms-lesbian-kiss/#gs.wRqrvKE.
Google Scholar

Connelly, J., & Mosher, B. (Producers). (1964–1966). The Munsters [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: CBS.
Google Scholar

Davidson, G. (1967). Azazel. In A dictionary of angels: Including the fallen angels (pp. 63–64). New York, NY: The Free Press.
Google Scholar

Demory, P. (2018). Queer adaptation. In D. Cutchins, K. Krebs, & E. Voigts (Eds.), The Routledge companion to adaptation (pp. 146–156). https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315690254-17.
Google Scholar

Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer. Interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis, MN & London: University of Minnesota Press.
Google Scholar

Duffy M. J. (2004) Mystery, the genetic system, and children’s books. Analecta Husserliana, 82, 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1017-7_14.
Google Scholar

Fischer, B. J., Vanderbilt, J., Kripke, E. (Producers), & Roth, E. (Director). (2018). The house with a clock in its walls [Motion picture]. United States: Universal Pictures.
Google Scholar

Graves, R., & Patai, R. (2005). The Sons of God and the Daughters of Men. In Hebrew myths: The book of Genesis (R. A. Davis, ed.). Manchester: Carcenet. (Original work published 1963).
Google Scholar

Haefele-Thomas, A. (2017). Queer American Gothic. In J. A. Weinstock (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to American Gothic (pp. 115–127). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337998.009.
Google Scholar

Haggerty, G. E. (2016). Queer Gothic. Urbana, IL & Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Google Scholar

Hahn, D. (2015). Bellairs, John. In The Oxford companion to children’s literature (2nd ed., p. 62), Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Heinecken, D. (2011). Haunting masculinity and frightening femininity: The novels of John Bellairs. Children’s Literature in Education, 42(2), 118–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9127-7.
Google Scholar

Heinecken, D. (2014). My monster myself: Recuperating the maternal in early children’s horror by Zilpha Keatley Snyder and Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 39(1), 68–87. https://doi.org/10.1353/chq.2014.0020.
Google Scholar

Helman, A., & Osadnik, W. M. (1996). Film and literature: Historical models of film adaptation and a proposal for a (poly)system approach. Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, 23(2), 645–657.
Google Scholar

Hendrix, G. (2018, September 21). The genius of John Bellairs’s The House with a Clock in Its Walls. Tor.com. Retrieved from https://www.tor.com/2018/09/21/the-genius-ofjohn-bellairss-the-house-with-a-clock-in-its-walls/. (Original work published 2013).
Google Scholar

Hoberman, D., Lieberman, T. (Producers), & Condon, B. (Director). (2017). Beauty and the Beast [Motion picture]. United States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Google Scholar

Hogle, J. E. (2002). Introduction: The Gothic in Western culture. In J. E. Hogle (Ed.), The Cambridge companion to Gothic fiction (pp. 1–20). https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL0521791243.001.
Google Scholar

Huskey, M. (2010). A specter is haunting New Zebedee: Reading John Bellairs as queer-kid gothic. Poster session presented at the Washington State University Academic Showcase, Pullman, WA. Retrieved from https://research.libraries.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2357/Huskey - Specter is haunting.pdf?sequence=1.
Google Scholar

Illuminati, V. (2016). “Speak to Me in Capital Letters!”: Same-sex parenting, new families and homosexuality in Italian and translated picturebooks by Lo Stampatello. In A. M. Ramos, S. Mourão, & M. T. Cortez (Eds.), Fractures and disruptions in children’s literature (pp. 228–243). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.
Google Scholar

Jackson, A., Coats, K., & McGillis, R. (Eds.). (2008). The Gothic in children’s literature: Haunting the borders. New York, NY & London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Jarkovská, L. (2014). Children’s literature and the politics of gender. Journal of Gender and Power, 2(2), 73–82.
Google Scholar

Kehily, M. J., & Montgomery, H. (2009). Innocence and experience: A historical approach to childhood and sexuality. In M. J. Kehily (Ed.), An introduction to childhood studies: Second edition (pp. 70–89). New York, NY: Open University Press.
Google Scholar

Kidd, K. B. (2004). Making American boys: Boyology and the feral tale. Minneapolis, MN & London: University of Minnesota Press.
Google Scholar

Kidd, K. (2011). Queer theory’s child and children’s literature studies. PMLA, 126(1), 182–188. https://doi.org/10.1632/pmla.2011.126.1.182.
Google Scholar

Kincaid, J. R. (1992). Child-loving: The erotic child and Victorian culture. New York, NY & London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Lesnik-Oberstein, K. (2016). Children’s literature: Sexual identity, gender and childhood. Breac, 6. Retrieved from https://breac.nd.edu/articles/childrens-literaturesexual-identity-gender-and-childhood/.
Google Scholar

Lesnik-Oberstein, K., & Thomson, S. (2002). What is queer theory doing with the child?. Parallax, 8(1), 35–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534640110119605.
Google Scholar

Levy, D. (Producer). (1964–1966). The Addams family [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: ABC.
Google Scholar

McCort, J. R. (Ed.). (2016). Reading in the dark: Horror in children’s literature and culture. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi.
Google Scholar

McElmeel, S. L. (1999). John Bellairs. In 100 Most Popular Children’s Authors: Biographical Sketches and Bibliographies (pp. 30–34). Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Google Scholar

McLelland, M. (2005). Inside out: Queer theory and popular culture. In E. Mackinlay, E. Collins, & S. Owens (Eds.), Aesthetics and experience in music performance (pp. 255–265). Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press.
Google Scholar

Moon, M. (1998). A small boy and others: Imitation and initiation in American culture from Henry James to Andy Warhol. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Google Scholar

Mumford, G. (2017, March 16). Beauty and the Beast: Disney refuses to cut gay scene for Malaysian release. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/16/beauty-and-the-beast-disney-gay-scene-malaysia.
Google Scholar

Murphy, R., & Falchuk, B. (Producers). (2011–Present). American horror story [Television series]. Los Angeles, CA: FX.
Google Scholar

Nikolajeva, M. (2010). Power, voice and subjectivity in literature for young readers. New York, NY & London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Oittinen, R. (2006). Adaptation. In J. Zipes (Ed.), The Oxford encyclopedia of children’s literature (vol. 1, p. 10). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Google Scholar

Page-Kirby, K. (2018, September 20). A weirdo finds his power in The House with a Clock in Its Walls. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/2018/09/20/weirdo-finds-his-power-house-with-clock-its-walls/?utm_term=.7a4613bcfffa.
Google Scholar

Perdzyńska, K. (2010). Czyje online disinhibition? Wojny kulturowe o status homoseksualizmu. In Ł. Kapralska & B. Pactwa (Eds.), Agora czy Hyde Park? Internet jako przestrzeń społeczna grup mniejszościowych (pp. 335–371). Kraków: Nomos.
Google Scholar

Pheasant-Kelly, F. (2013). Abject spaces in American cinema: Institutional settings, identity and psychoanalysis in film. London & New York, NY: I. B. Tauris.
Google Scholar

Pugh, T. (2011). Innocence, heterosexuality, and the queerness of children’s literature. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203831410.
Google Scholar

Pugh, T. (2018). The queer fantasies of the American family sitcom. DOI: 10.2307/j.ctt1trkkgj.
Google Scholar

Raghavan, S. (2017, March 22). Disney’s hit Beauty and the Beast is banned in Kuwait for its ‘gay moment.’ The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/03/22/disneys-hit-beauty-and-the-beastis-banned-in-kuwait-for-its-gay-moment/?utm_term=.314f7b5e15b8.
Google Scholar

Rose, J. (1984). The case of Peter Pan, or the impossibility of children’s fiction. London: Macmillan.
Google Scholar

Schmidt, G. D. (1987). See how they grow: Character development in children’s series books. Children’s Literature in Education, 18(1), 34–44. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01135437.
Google Scholar

Sedgwick, E.K. (1985). Toward the Gothic: Terrorism and homosexual panic. In Between men: English literature and male homosexual desire (pp. 83–96). New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Google Scholar

Sedgwick, E. K. (1991). How to bring your kids up gay: The war on effeminate boys. Social Text, 29, 18–27. https://doi.org/10.2307/466296.
Google Scholar

Skowera, M. (2016). Cthulhu dla dzieci. Nawiązania do twórczości H. P. Lovecrafta w serii Johna Bellairsa i Brada Stricklanda o Luisie Barnavelcie. Creatio Fantastica, 3–4(54–55), 19–37.
Google Scholar

Slany, K. (2016). Groza w literaturze dziecięcej. Od Grimmów do Gaimana. Kraków: WN UP.
Google Scholar

Sobolczyk, P. (2014). Queer gothic – queer modernism. Poznańskie Studia Polonistyczne. Seria Literacka, 24(44), 71–93. https://doi.org/10.14746/pspsl.2014.24.5.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (1998). The specter from the magician’s museum. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (2000). The beast under the wizard’s bridge. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (2001). The tower at the end of the world. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (2003). The whistle, the grave, and the ghost. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (2006) The house where nobody lived. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Strickland, B. (2008). The sign of the sinister sorcerer. New York, NY: Dial Books for Young Readers.
Google Scholar

Vassiloudi, V. (2016). (En)gendering children’s literature in the Western paradigm: What the critics don’t tell us about gender…. Asian Women, 32(4), 23–43.
Google Scholar

Wannamaker, A. (2008). Boys in children’s literature and popular culture: Masculinity, abjection, and the fictional child. New York, NY & London: Routledge.
Google Scholar

Warner, M. (1991). Introduction: Fear of a queer planet. Social Text, 29, 3–17.
Google Scholar

Wein, E. (2000). Mystery in a house. The Lion and the Unicorn 24(2), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1353/uni.2000.0024.
Google Scholar

Witkowska, A. (2013). American Gothic, czyli horror amerykańskiego domostwa. Analiza „udomowionej”, amerykańskiej wersji gotyku na przykładzie seriali American Gothic i American Horror Story. Media – Kultura – Komunikacja Społeczna, 9, 154–162.
Google Scholar

Maciej Skowera

maciej.skowera@koszykowa.pl
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0299-3515

Affiliation:

University of Warsaw, Warsaw Public Library – Central Library of Mazovia Province Poland

Bio Statement (e.g., department and rank)

Maciej Skowera – MA, prepares a doctoral dissertation at the Institute of Polish Literature of the Faculty of Polish Studies at the University of Warsaw (Poland) on the presence of Lewis Carroll’s Alice duology, L. Frank Baum’s Oz series, and J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan works in the cultural imaginarium. He works at the Museum of Children’s Books in Warsaw. Contact: maciej.skowera@koszykowa.pl.