Academic program: Mass Communication

Genre, as a cultural category, emerges through the relationship between audiences, producers, media industries, and socio-historical context. However, in 2017, media commentators, audiences, and producers began talking about “woke horror” in relation to Jordan Peele’s film Get Out as if it fully defined the genre. Using textual analysis, audience reception, and production studies, I trace the formation of “woke horror” to argue that it is a distinct subgenre that speaks to the post-racial myth.