The Scary Story

Horror Fiction- “Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. Although a good deal of it is about the supernatural, any fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, suspenseful or frightening theme may be termed "horror"; conversely, many stories of the supernatural are not horror. Horror fiction often overlaps with science fiction and fantasy, all of which form the umbrella category speculative fiction.” (http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Horror_fiction)

Many horror novels deal with the supernatural; Cara Skinner discussed this in her genre presentation. She described the “Supernatural Story 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, 4^th Ed. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.”(CS 2000). However, I find that the scariest novels are the ones that take an everyday action or occurrence and twist it into something sinister and evil.

Related genres: psychological thriller, mystery, suspense, fantasy, gothic, and science fiction

Representative genre: Narrator + Dialogue, Drama or Dialogue

Narrative genre: Romance, sometimes Tragedy. Most of the time, horror fiction begins with a problem and a journey to fix the problem. At the end of most horror novels, the problem is fixed and the hero and his love survive. This is the case in The Association. In some instances, however, the formula of a tragedy is followed and while there may be a restoration of good, the hero and/or his love do not survive or experience transcendence. An example of this can be found in Bentley Little’s The Town. The hero’s stubbornness and weakness eventually leads to his destruction and the break down of his family. 

Example: The Association by Bentley Little

Highlights of example: The Association takes on normally mundane events and twists them into something horrific. A seemingly benign Homeowner’s Association takes on a malignant air as those who do not conform are forced into indentured servitude, mutilated, or killed.

Additional examples of genre: Steven King novels, such as Cujo, Dean Koontz novels, such as Odd Thomas, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula

1. Many of the plays we have read have horrific elements in them. Hamlet and Desire Under the Elms used supernatural elements, Desire Under the Elms and Medea both deal with infanticide, and there are gruesome in scenes in Hamlet, Oedipus, and Medea.  Why do you think horror has played such a lasting role in literature?

2. Does a novel have more impact on the reader if it ends in tragedy, or would the reader rather have the hero triumph over evil in the end?

3. What is the appeal of fiction that deals with horror? Do you find the supernatural more horrific than a perversion of the mundane?