Horror fiction
Horror fiction is, broadly,
fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle or horrify the reader. Historically, the cause of the "horror" experience has often been the intrusion of an evil, or occasionally misunderstood,
supernatural element into everyday human experience. Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome,
surreal, exceptionally
suspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called "horror." Horror fiction often overlaps with
science fiction and/or
fantasy, all of which have sometimes been placed under the umbrella category
speculative fiction. See also
supernatural fiction.
Horrific situations are found in the the earliest recorded tales. Many
myths and
legends feature scenarios and
archetypes used by later horror writers. Tales collected by the
Grimm Brothers are often quite horrific.
Modern horror fiction found its roots in the
gothic novels that exploded into popularity in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, typified by
Ann Radcliffe's
The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) and
Horace Walpole's
The Castle of Otranto (1764). A variation on the Gothic formula that remains one of the most enduring and imitated horror works is
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's novel
Frankenstein (1818, revised version 1831).
Frankenstein has also been considered
science fiction, a
philosophical novel or a 'novel of purpose' by some literary historians. At the same time,
John William Polidori devised the kind of
vampire story that has since become familiar with his novella
The Vampyre. This kind of supernatural character, combining evil with sinister charm, has since been much used and elaborated by horror writers.
Later gothic horror descendants included seminal late 19th century works such as
Bram Stoker's
Dracula and
Henry James's
The Turn of the Screw. Early horror works used mood and subtlety to deliver an eerie and otherworldly flavor, but usually eschewed extensive explicit violence.
Other early exponents of the horror form number such luminaries as
Edgar Allan Poe and
H. P. Lovecraft who are widely considered to be masters of the art. Among the writers of classic English
ghost stories,
M.R. James is often cited as the finest. His stories avoid shock effects and often involve an
Oxford antiquarian as their hero.
Algernon Blackwood's
The Willows and
Oliver Onions's
The Beckoning Fair One have been called the best ghost stories. Lovecraft and
Sheridan le Fanu called some of their writing
weird fiction or
weird stories.
Some stories in
highbrow "literary" fiction could arguably be regarded as horror narratives: examples include
Franz Kafka's "
The Metamorphosis" (
Die Verwandlung) and "
In the Penal Colony" (
In der Strafkolonie) and
William Faulkner's
A Rose for Emily.
Some modern practitioners of the genre use vivid depictions of extreme violence to shock or entertain their audiences, often recalling
grand guignol theatre (see
splatterpunk). This development has given horror fiction a stigma as base entertainment devoid of
literary merit. Other writers, such as
Ramsey Campbell and
Thomas Ligotti, are cited as rejecting the portrayal of violent acts in favor of more psychological writing.
Nevertheless, popular contemporary writers such as
Dean Koontz,
Clive Barker, and
Stephen King will sometimes bring off the horror effect without the extreme violence that characterises much of the current mainstream of this genre.
*
List of horror fiction authors*
Fantastique*
Ghost story*
Psychological horror*
Body horror*
Internet Speculative Fiction DataBase*
dystopia*
horrorcore*
New Horror Authors Get A free page On Grimpuppy.com*
"Supernatural Horror in Literature" essay by H. P. Lovecraft on horror fiction antecendents*
Most Honored Horror Books at
Book Award AnnalsHorror fiction sites
* Devil's Work
* The First Mile - Interactive horror fiction
*Vault Of Evil
*Groovy Age Of Horror
*Gruesome Cargoes
*A Haunted Dolls House
*HorrorMasters
*Fic Of The Dead
