The Philosophy of Horror

Thomas Fahy

• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9780813136554, 9780813125732
• eBook ISBN: 9780813139548
• Topic: Filosofia
• Subtopic: Storia e teoria della filosofia

Sitting on pins and needles, anxiously waiting to see what will happen next, horror audiences crave the fear and exhilaration generated by a terrifying story; their anticipation is palpable. But they also breathe a sigh of relief when the action is over, when they are able to close their books or leave the movie theater. Whether serious, kitschy, frightening, or ridiculous, horror not only arouses the senses but also raises profound questions about fear, safety, justice, and suffering. From literature and urban legends to film and television, horror's ability to thrill has made it an integral part of modern entertainment. Thomas Fahy and twelve other scholars reveal the underlying themes of the genre in The Philosophy of Horror. Examining the evolving role of horror, the contributing authors investigate works such as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), horror films of the 1930s, Stephen King's novels, Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining (1980), and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960). Also examined are works that have largely been ignored in philosophical circles, including Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1965), Patrick Süskind's Perfume (1985), and James Purdy's Narrow Rooms (2005). The analysis also extends to contemporary forms of popular horror and "torture-horror" films of the last decade, including Saw (2004), Hostel (2005), The Devil's Rejects (2005), and The Hills Have Eyes (2006), as well as the ongoing popularity of horror on the small screen. The Philosophy of Horror celebrates the strange, compelling, and disturbing elements of horror, drawing on interpretive approaches such as feminist, postcolonial, Marxist, and psychoanalytic criticism. The book invites readers to consider horror's various manifestations and transformations since the late 1700s, probing its social, cultural, and political functions in today's media-hungry society.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

abandonment

Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)

abuse

accountability

adaptation

Adorno, Theodor

aesthetic interpretation

aesthetics

aggression

Aja, Alexandre

Alice (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master)

alienation

aliens

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Althusser, Louis

Amanda (Saw series)

America

Angel

Angelus (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel)

anger

animal

anxiety

Aristotle

art

“art-horror,”. See also natural horror

assumptions

Atlantic Paranormal Society, The (TAPS)

audience

authority

autonomy

avant-garde art

avian flu. See also flu pandemic

Baby Firefly (The Devil's Rejects)

Baier, Annette

barbarism

Baudrillard, Jean

Beauchamp, Christine

beauty

belief

Big Daddy (Land of the Dead)

Big Lebowski, The

biological terrorism

Birds, The

Black Cat, The

Bobby Carter (The Hills Have Eyes)

bourgeois

Brain That Wouldn't Die, The

Brenda Carter (The Hills Have Eyes)

bricolage

Bride of Frankenstein, The. See also Frankenstein

brutality

Buffy Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffyverse

Cabin Fever

Call of Cthulu, The

camp sensibility

cannibalism

Cantor, Paul A.

capitalism

capital punishment

Capote, Truman

Caravaggio

Carroll, Noël

Carter family (The Hills Have Eyes)

chaos

characterization

Child's Play

Chiller

Christine

cinematic genre

civilized

civil laws

Civil War (American)

Clarke, Gerald

class

struggle

cliches

Clover, Carol J.

Clutter family

code

Cokal, Susann

collapse

Collingwood parents (The Last House on the Left)

commodification

common sense

comm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Horror and the Idea of Everyday Life: On Skeptical Threats in Psycho and The Birds
• Through a Mirror, Darkly: Art-Horror as a Medium for Moral Reflection
• The Justification of Torture-Horror: Retribution and Sadism in Saw, Hostel, and The Devil's Rejects
• Hobbes, Human Nature, and the Culture of American Violence in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
• Making Their Presence Known: TV's Ghost-Hunter Phenomenon in a “Post-” World
• The Vampire with a Soul: Angel and the Quest for Identity
• Ideological Formations of the Nuclear Family in The Hills Have Eyes
• Zombies of the World, Unite: Class Struggle and Alienation in Land of the Dead
• The Fall of the House of Ulmer: Europe vs. America in the Gothic Vision of The Black Cat
• From Domestic Nightmares to the Nightmare of History: Uncanny Eruptions of Violence in King's and Kubrick's Versions of The Shining
• “Hot with Rapture and Cold with Fear”: Grotesque, Sublime, and Postmodern Transformations in Patrick Süskind's Perfume
• Shock Value: A Deleuzean Encounter with James Purdy's Narrow Rooms
• Making Monsters: The Philosophy of Reproduction in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and the Universal Films Frankenstein and The Bride of Frankenstein
• Kitsch and Camp and Things That Go Bump in the Night; or, Sontag and Adorno at the (Horror) Movies
• Contributors
• Index