“The Beast from the East”

Autor(en)

Maria Katharina Wiedlack

Abstrakt

This article analyzes characters in North American popular culture who migrated from the post-socialist world to the United States and other Western countries. It focuses on the Anglo-Ukrainian clone Helena in the television show Orphan Black (Space/BBC America, 2013-2017), the Russian girl Esther in the horror movie Orphan (2009), and the psychopathic Russian assassin Villanelle in the television show Killing Eve (B B C America, 2018-2022). All these fictional characters are orphans. Moreover, they all share the same pathology: a mental disorder or disability that predestines them to become ruthless killers. I argue that the fictional killers embody North American fears surrounding the mobility of the Cold War Other in the aftermath of the fall of the so-called Iron Curtain and the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik

Journal

Journal of the Austrian Association for American Studies (JAAAS)

Band

3

Seiten

55-75

Anzahl der Seiten

21

DOI

https://doi.org/10.47060/jaaas.v3i1.44

Publikationsdatum

06-2023

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

602005 Amerikanistik, 509002 Disability Studies, 604011 Filmwissenschaft, 504014 Gender Studies

Schlagwörter

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 3 – Gesundheit und Wohlergehen

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/fde67ce9-da8c-4e19-b80a-648ecfd5701f