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LITR 4533: |
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Genre Presentation 2000 |
Cara Skinner
Supernatural Story
Supernatural Story - Supernatural Story is defined as a comprehensive term which may be applied to any sort of story which in some way makes use of ghosts, specters, apparitions, poltergeists, good and evil spirits, and things that go bump in the night; not to mention magic, witchcraft, marvels, talismans, the eerie atmosphere, and the presence of the uncanny; what makes the flesh creep and the hair stand on end. J. A. Cudden, A Dictionary of Literary Term and Theory, 4th Ed. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.
The story patterns used in supernatural stories are: (1) a person injures another and may be punished by the ghost of his victim, (2) a person makes a deal with the Devil to improve his lot in life, (3) a hostile power destroys a person, (4) a friendly power helps a person, (5) a person is caught up and carried along by the established cosmic order, (6) a person undoes or repairs damage to the established cosmic order. The ghosts in these stories may simply be a mechanism to shout "boo" at the appropriate time, a symbol of justice, a symbol of the eternal nature of love or the memory of love, or a symbol of irony or satire. A wide range of subject, setting, and execution exists between these stories from adventurous to unsettling, operatic, and fantastic. E.F. Bleiler, Ed., Supernatural Fiction Writers, Fantasy and Horror. NY: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1985. http://www.conspire.org/articles/rm0207.html.
Related genres: gothic novel, fairy tales, horror, fantasy
Representative genre: Drama or dialogue
Narrative genre: Romance (Ichabod and Katrina become separated because he believes she is part of the plot to resurrect the Headless Horseman. They reunite and go to live in New York in the end.)
Example: Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.
Highlights of example: Headless horseman's ghost; dark, foggy night, long, dark, lonely road, witchcraft, dead bodies; the headless horseman's skull; a witch makes a deal with the Devil; the headless horseman metes out justice to the witch who resurrects him
Additional examples of genre: The Arabian Nights, Fairy Tales by the brothers Grimm, Tales of Mystery and Imagination by Edgar Allan Poe, A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, The Shining by Stephen King, Ghost Story by Peter Straub.
Questions:
a. How have modern day writers added to or altered supernatural stories?
b. Why are we so fascinated by supernatural stories?