Horror: Genre and Writing

Mr. C Le Pard

Contents

• What is Genre?• What is Horror?

– Setting– Plot– Character

• Critical elements

Colour CodingKeywordKey IdeaContrastChallenge – Optional if you feel more confident

What is Genre?

• Genres are used to organise literature into different types

• Stories of the same genre will normally share some important characteristics in terms of:– Setting– Character– Plot

What is Horror?

• Latin: horrere meaning to tremble or shudder

• Fear, shock or disgust

• Not simply about blood and gore!

• Designed not only to make us jump with surprise but to unnerve us.

The Horror Setting

• Fear of the unknown

• Some common settings include:–Wood: fairy tales, man vs. nature– Castle: evil tyrants, man vs. man– Graveyard: place of burial, man vs. society– Asylum: place of madness, man vs. self

Horror Settings

• Transgression(moving across) of a boundary: – Natural: Day/Night– Human: Mortality/Immortality– Societal: Innocent/Criminal– Personal: Sanity/Madness

Horror Settings

• The familiar made unfamiliar• The safe made dangerous

For example, Night timeChallengeHamlet Act 3 Scene 2“Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world.”

The Horror Plot

• Transgression: often a sin or error

• Results in a reaction or punishment

Challenge• Allows reader to learn through a

characters mistakes

Horror Plots

• An effective horror plot uses tension:– To evoke fear or shock– To emphasise the transgression and/or punishment

• Tension in a narrative is created by expectation

Horror Plots

• Playing with the readers’ expectations of what may happen can either:– Build tension and then release itorChallenge– Build tension to an anti-climax to be

built again

The Horror Character

• Horror characters often fall into two categories– Those who know too little and are naïve– Those who know too much and are

overconfident

• Both produce effective horror characters because they are likely to make mistakes

Critical Elements

• Setting– On a boundary– Exploits the unknown

• Plot– Transgressing/punishment– Builds tension

• Character– Makes a mistake– Naïve or over-confident