Carol Jeanne Clover (born July 31, 1940) is an American professor of

Medieval Studies Medieval studies is the academic interdisciplinary study of the Middle Ages. A historian who studies medieval studies is called a medievalist. Institutional development The term 'medieval studies' began to be adopted by academics in the opening ...

(Early

Northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

) and

American Film The cinema of the United States, primarily associated with major film studios collectively referred to as Hollywood, has significantly influenced the global film industry since the early 20th century. Classical Hollywood cinema, a filmmakin ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. 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 academe. Clover is credited with developing the "

final girl The final girl or survivor girl is a Trope (cinema), 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 ob ...

" 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 sex ...

. 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 most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

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

Fulbright Fellow The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () 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 operation. Initially fou ...

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

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

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 The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...

, 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 (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

(elected 1995) and has honorary doctorates from

Lund University Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...

(Sweden) and the

University of Iceland The University of Iceland ( ) 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' school to a modern co ...

. 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

* ''The Medieval Saga'' (1982)''.''

Cornell University Press The Cornell University Press is the university press of Cornell University, an Ivy League university in Ithaca, New York. It is currently housed in Sage House, the former residence of Henry William Sage. It was first established in 1869, maki ...

. * ''Old Norse Icelandic Literature: A Critical Guide'' (1985)''.''

University of Toronto Press The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911. The press originally printed only examination books and the university calendar. Its first s ...

, in association with the

Medieval Academy of America The Medieval Academy of America (MAA; spelled Mediaeval until ) is the largest organization in the United States promoting the field of medieval studies. It was founded in 1925 and is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The academy publishes the q ...

. * '' Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film'' (1992)''.''

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

. ** Reprint: the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves filmmaking and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

, 2004

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 America'', 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 People from Visalia, California

Biography

Honors

Works

Articles

See also

References