‘I’m not frightened…I’m not frightened…’
‘I’m not frightened…I’m not frightened…’
This chapter evaluates ‘Christmas Party’, the first of two stories directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. The story is told from the perspective of teenager Sally O'Hara (Sally Ann Howes) who relates a spooky encounter that she had at a festive gathering. During a game of ‘Sardines’, after spurning the amorous adolescent advances of fellow partygoer Jimmy Watson (Michael Allan), she finds herself in the high attic reaches of the party's large country house setting where she happens upon a weeping child dressed in Victorian clothes. Sally comforts the child, who identifies himself as Francis Kent, and sings him to sleep before returning to the party downstairs, only then realising that she has just seen a ghost. The chapter assesses ‘Christmas Party’ in relation to the very English tradition of the festive ghost story and charts how the rendering of Sally's tale negotiates the territory of adolescent liminality.
Keywords: Christmas Party, Alberto Cavalcanti, English tradition, festive ghost story, adolescent liminality
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