The Horror Theory Reader
eBook - PDF

The Horror Theory Reader

  1. 501 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The Horror Theory Reader

About this book

A comprehensive guide to the timeless, paradoxical appeal of horror


Why do we enjoy horror? The emotional responses the genre provokes—fear, dread, and disgust—are ones we typically seek to avoid, so what is the appeal of narratives and artistic representations that seek to scare, startle, shock, and repulse? In The Horror Theory Reader, Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock assembles theorizations of the genre’s appeal from antiquity to the present day to explore the “paradox of horror” that has for millennia preoccupied theorists and consumers alike.

 

Beginning with an introduction situating the history of horror in the context of moral panics, this carefully curated volume then is organized into three sections that introduce early attempts to explain horror’s fascination; present perspectives from horror writers, filmmakers, and scholars; and offer nuanced considerations of horror’s intersections with disability, queerness, race, and gender. Featuring classic commentaries on the genre by H. P. Lovecraft, Alfred Hitchcock, and Stephen King alongside incisive essays by philosophers, literary and film scholars, cultural critics, and others, The Horror Theory Reader is indispensable for scholars and will be of interest to anyone curious about our paradoxical enjoyment of appalling and fearsome things.

 

Contributions by: Joseph Addison; Aristotle; Anna Letitia Barbauld; Dani Bethea; Edmund Burke; Noël Carroll, CUNY Graduate Center; Brigid Cherry; Mathias Clasen, Aarhus U; Douglas E. Cowan, Renison U College; Meghan Downes, Monash U; Berys Gaut, U of St. Andrews; Julian Hanich, U of Groningen; Sheri-Marie Harrison, U of Missouri; Matt Hills, U of Huddersfield; Alfred Hitchcock; David Hume; Mark Jancovich, U of East Anglia; Stephen King; Petra Kuppers, U of Michigan; H. P. Lovecraft; G. Neil Martin, Regent’s U London; John Morreall, College of William and Mary; Monika Negra; Nina Nesseth; Anne Radcliffe; Fredrich Schiller; Walter Scott; Tim Snelson, U of East Anglia; Christopher St. John Sprigg; Susan Stryker, U of Arizona; S. Trimble, U of Toronto; Kendall Walton, U of Michigan; Linda Williams, UC Berkeley; Robin Wood.

 

 

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Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Contents
  5. Introduction: “Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?!”: Thinking Horror Through the Lens of Moral Panic
  6. Part I: Early Inquiries and Quick Takes
  7. Chapter 1: From Poetics
  8. Chapter 2: Of Tragedy
  9. Chapter 3: On the Reason We Take Pleasure in Tragic Subjects
  10. Chapter 4: From A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful
  11. Chapter 5: From “Why Terrour and Grief Are Pleasing to the Mind When Excited by Descriptions”
  12. Chapter 6: On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror
  13. Chapter 7: On the Supernatural in Poetry
  14. Chapter 8: On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition; and Particularly on the Works of Ernest Theodore William Hoffmann
  15. Chapter 9: Introduction to Supernatural Horror in Literature
  16. Chapter 10: Introduction to Uncanny Stories
  17. Chapter 11: The Enjoyment of Fear
  18. Chapter 12: From Danse Macabre
  19. Part II: The Paradox of Horror
  20. Chapter 13: Fearing Fictions
  21. Chapter 14: The Paradox of Horror
  22. Chapter 15: From The Philosophy of Horror; or, Paradoxes of the Heart
  23. Chapter 16: Enjoying Negative Emotions in Fictions
  24. Chapter 17: Fear for Your Life: The Appeals, Functions, and Effects of Horror
  25. Chapter 18: An Introduction to the American Horror Film
  26. Chapter 19: From Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen
  27. Chapter 20: From “Discipline and Distraction: Psycho, Visual Culture, and Postmodern Cinema”
  28. Chapter 21: Frightening Fascination: A Phenomenology of Direct Horror
  29. Chapter 22: (Why) Do You Like Scary Movies?: A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films
  30. Chapter 23: Horror’s Long-Lasting Appeal
  31. Part III: Different Voices
  32. Chapter 24: Displaying Connoisseurship, Recognizing Craftsmanship
  33. Chapter 25: My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix: Performing Transgender Rage
  34. Chapter 26: Refusing to Refuse to Look: Female Viewers of the Horror Film
  35. Chapter 27: From “Horror at the Crossroads: Class, Gender, and Taste at the Rialto”
  36. Chapter 28: Critical Pleasures: Reflections on the Indonesian Horror Genre and Its Anti-Fans
  37. Chapter 29: New Black Gothic
  38. Chapter 30: Black Horror Beyond the White Gaze: A Conversation
  39. Chapter 31: Contemporary Horror and Disability: Adaptations and Active Readers
  40. Chapter 32: A Demon-Girl’s Guide to Life
  41. Publication History
  42. Contributors
  43. Index

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Yes, you can access The Horror Theory Reader by Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Gothic, Romance, & Horror Literary Criticism. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.