Carol Jeanne Clover (born July 31, 1940) is an American professor of Medieval Studies (Early Northern Europe) and American Film at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. Clover has been widely published in her areas of expertise, and is the author of three books. Clover's 1992 book, '' Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film'' achieved popularity beyond academia. Clover is credited with developing the "

final girl The final girl is a trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been observed in many films, including '' ...

" theory in the horror genre, which has changed both popular and academic conceptions of

gender in horror films The representation of gender in horror films, particularly depictions of women, has been the subject of critical commentary. Critics and researchers have argued that horror films depict graphically detailed violence, contain erotically or sexu ...

. Clover is a featured expert in the film '' S&Man'', which premiered at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

in 2006.

Biography

Clover attended the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...

for both her undergraduate and graduate studies. In 1965, Clover was a Fulbright Fellow at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

in Sweden. From 1971 to 1977 Clover was an assistant professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

before returning to Berkeley, where she became Class of 1936 Professor Emerita in the departments of rhetoric, film, and Scandinavian.

Honors

Clover has been awarded fellowships by the

American Council of Learned Societies American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

, as well as the Mellon, Guggenheim, and Rockefeller foundations. In 2001 she became the Hesselgren Distinguished Professor (Sweden). She is a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States of America, United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bow ...

(elected 1995) and has honorary doctorates from

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( is, Háskóli Íslands ) is a public research university in Reykjavík, Iceland and the country's oldest and largest institution of higher education. Founded in 1911, it has grown steadily from a small civil servants' s ...

. For her scholarly contributions to the study of early Icelandic culture, she was honored in 2018 by the president of Iceland with the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Falcon.

Works

* ''Old Norse Icelandic Literature: a critical guide,'' University of Toronto Press, in association with the Medieval Academy of America, reprinted 2005 * ''Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film,'' Princeton University Press, 1992 and the British Film Institute, 2004 * ''The Medieval Saga,'' Cornell University Press, 1982

Articles

* "Telling Evidence in ''Njáls saga''", in ''Emotion, Violence, Vengeance and Law in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of William Ian Miller'', ed. by Kate Gilbert and Stephen D. White, Medieval Law and Its Practice, 24 (Leiden: Brill, 2018), pp. 175–88 . * "God Bless Juries!" ''Refiguring American Film Genres History and Theory'', ed. Nick Browne (University of California Press, 1998): 255-77. * "Law and the Order of Popular Culture," ''Law in the Domains of Culture'', ed. Austin Sarat and Thomas R. Kearns (University of Michigan Press, 1998): 97- 119. * "Judging Audiences: The Trial Movie." ''Film Studies'', ed. Christine Gledhill and Linda Williams. (London: Arnold, 1998). * "Dancin’ in the Rain." ''Critical Inquiry'', 21 (1995). * "Regardless of Sex: Men, Women, and Power in Early Northern Europe." ''Speculum: Journal of the Medieval Academy of Amnerica'', 68 (1993). Rpt. in ''Studying Medieval Women: Sex, Gender, Feminism''. Medieval Academy of America, 1993. Rpt. in ''Representations'', 44 (1993). * "The Politics of Scarcity: On the Sex Ratio in Early Scandinavia." ''Scandinavian Studies'', 60 (1988), 147–88. Rpt. in ''New Readings on Women in Old English Literature''. Ed. Helen Damico and Alexandra Hennessey Olsen. Indiana Univ. Press. * "Hildigunnr's Lament: Women in Bloodfeud." In ''Structure and Meaning''. Ed. Gerd Wolfgang Weber, et al. Odense Univ. Press, 1987. * "The Long Prose Form." ''Arkiv för nordisk filologi'', 101 (1986). * "The Germanic Context of the Unferth Episode," ''Speculum'', 55 (1980). * "Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film," ''Representations'', 20 (1987). * "Warrior Maidens and Other Sons", ''Journal of English and Germanic Philology'', 85 (1986), 35–49. * "''Vǫlsunga saga'' and the Missing ''Lai'' of Marie de France’, in ''Sagnaskemmtun: Studies in Honour of Hermann Pálsson on his 65th Birthday, 26th May 1986'', ed. by Rudolf Simek, Jónas Kristjánsson and Hans Bekker-Nielsen, Philologica Germanica, 8 (Vienna: Böhlau, 1986), pp. 79–84.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clover, Carol J. 1940 births Living people Film theorists Writers from California American feminist writers American horror writers Place of birth missing (living people) University of California, Berkeley College of Letters and Science faculty University of California, Berkeley alumni American expatriates in Sweden Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Falcon

Biography

Honors

Works

Articles

See also

References