Trauma, Horror and the Female Serial Killer in Stephen King’s Carrie and Misery

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the female serial killer in relation to horror and trauma in Stephen King’s horror fiction with a particular interest in two of his novels that feature female protagonists, Carrie and Misery. This article argues that King’s work presents a unique case for the female serial killer; she is ruthless and capable of committing acts of murder, yet she is tied to her own and the narrative’s history of trauma. The female serial killer falls both within and outside the parameters of the horror genre to occupy a new dimension where trauma and horror meet. She is the link between the inner world of trauma and addictive public acts of violence, and in King’s narratives the female serial killer is one of the main ingredients in a complex recipe that involves the depiction of violence and serial murder in relation to the dynamics of conformity, agency and transgression.