marija dalbello reading interests of adults horror rutgers school of communication and information...
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What is horror Definition _______________________________________ Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion. Horror Writers Association at:TRANSCRIPT
Marija Dalbello
Reading Interests of Adults
Horror
RutgersSchool of Communication and [email protected]
Image credit: Victor GAD
Overview _______________________________________ Introduction
What is Horror?
Genre characteristics and appeal
“The Formula” and narrative models
History and types
• Conclusion
What is horrorDefinition _______________________________________ Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science
fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion.
Horror Writers Association at: http://www.horror.org
What is horror? _______________________________________• Suspension of disbelief and unique emotional experience
• Post Enlightenment literary phenomenon
• Horror is about knowledge as theme
• Horror is about cosmic fear
Monsters are incidental
The politics of horror
What is HorrorSuspension of disbelief _______________________________________ “Paradoxes of the heart”
How can anyone be frightened by what they know does not exist? Why would anyone ever be interested in
horror, since being horrified is so unpleasant? Why are people attracted to unpleasant
emotions?
• Art horror - Natural horror Emotion caused by the characteristic
structures, imagery, and figures in the genre (art) Emotion caused by reality (natural)
Speculative fiction genre
Partial explanations
What is HorrorPost Enlightenment phenomenon _______________________________________ Reaction to the culture of post Enlightenment secular
rationality (Carroll, p. 162)
The effects of the Englightenment: Religious feeling in our culture was demeaned by
“materialistic sophistication” Intuition is denied by the culture of
materialistic sophistication Instinctual attraction and capacity for awe Horror evokes cosmic fear Coeval with religious feeling Experiencing the numinous in the form of horror
What is HorrorKnowledge as a theme _______________________________________ Concerned with knowledge as theme - rendering the
unknown known
Violation of schemes of cultural categorization (category mistakes are impure, dangerous, abominable)
Cognitive threat as a major factor in the generation of art-horror: how can you resolve contradictions (rationality)
• Non-rational element as object of religious experience (“numen”)
• Numinous experience (“mysterium tremendum fascinans et augustum”) at the core of being human
What is HorrorMonsters _______________________________________ Monsters - extraordinary characters in an ordinary
world
Incomplete representatives of their class - abominations
Monsters’ categorical incompleteness: disintegrating things, formless, rotting
Interstitial, indescribable, inconceivable, “It,” “Them”
Revulsion and disgust• In violation of schemes of cultural categorization• Category mistakes are impure
• What are monsters made of? Fission (spatial or temporal) - incompleteness Fusion - categories fused Monstrosities often take mass form
What is HorrorHorror as Carnival _______________________________________ Popular culture phenomenon
Rituals of inversion for mass society (resolves contradictions)
• Normal - abnormal - normal as allegory of reinstatement
• BUT, is abnormal always expelled? And, what does that mean when reinstatement does not work?
• Art-horror is ideological Xenophobic, progressive, misogynist, politically
repressive? Or, just pointing to the existing contradictions
in the world. Does horror present a cynical disposition at its
core? Is horror radical?
Genre characteristics and appeal What readers like _______________________________________• Interest in physical and emotional violence
• The thrill and visceral experience caused by fear
• Emotion of feeling art-horror
• Gratification of being in an emotional state
• Suspense integral to narrative structures in horror Programmed blanks propel narrative Relative probabilities and dual function
narratives create Use of weak models, keeping the evidence
indecisive
Genre characteristics and appeal - the formulaPlot structure _______________________________________ Complex discovery plot
onset discovery confirmation confrontation
Discovery plot
onset discovery confirmation
• Over-reacher plot (forbidden knowledge)
preparation experiment boomerang confrontation
Genre characteristics and appeal The Formula_______________________________________ 14 possible horror plot formulas (Carroll, p. 116)
Modification of the order of exposition:flashbacks, flashforwards, iteratives, nestings
Suspense - relative probabilities at the heart of horror appeal
Fantastic hesitation Fantastic uncanny versus fantastic marvelous Creating fantastic: use of weak models, keeping
evidence as indecisive as possible
Historical development and types _______________________________________ Precursors and foundational works
English gothic novel, Schauer-Roman, roman noir Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)
Popularity of gothic: 1820-1870 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819) Charles Robert Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer (1820) Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre
Modern horror Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and
Mr. Hyde (1886) Oscar Wilde, Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) Bram Stoker, Dracula (1897) H.P. Lovecroft, Cthulhu Mythos series (1920s) 20th century transmedia phenomenon, current concerns
• Current trends 1980s: Splatterpunk Stephen King type fiction 1990s: “horror goes underground” Revitalized as literary fiction in many types of horror
Types of Horror _______________________________________ Formal typology (Carroll, p. 4)
Historical gothic - imagined past without supernatural events Natural or explained gothic - introduces
supernatural and explains it away: Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) Supernatural gothic - supernatural events Equivocal gothic - supernatural origin of events
in the text rendered ambiguous by means of disturbed characters
• Subgenres Ghost literature, alien invasion, tales of vampires,
werewolves, zombies, demonic possession, etc. (more in Genreflecting guides)
Types of Horror _______________________________________ Thematic categorization approach
Apocalypse Cosmic horror Dark fantasy Demonic possession-invasion Ghost stories Haunted houses Monsters Psychological horror - serial killer Splatterpunk Vampires Witchcraft Zombies
Current trends at HWA site: http://www.horror.org/newsreleases.htm