The Heart

Abstract

Whilst the brain is the source of the electrical activity that sparks each unique identity, the heart is considered the pumping emotional centre of the individual. The reduction of the heart to a symbol turns it into a body part that is capable of being externally transferred. Such a Gothic extraction is discussed in relation to the film My Bloody Valentine (1981). The uncanny beat of a dead man’s heart is addressed in Edgar Allan Poe’s 1843 short ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ and its 1941 film adaptation. The mad science of heart transplant fiction is explored in the films The Walking Dead (1936), Doctor Blood’s Coffin (1961), Night of the Bloody Apes (1969), Dr. Giggles (1992) and Awake (2007), and Judy Budnitz’s 1998 short story ‘Guilt’.