Author : Mathias F. Clasen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 48,99 MB
Release : 2017
Category : Art
ISBN : 019066651X
Why do humans feel the need to scream at horror films? In Why Horror Seduces, author Matthias Clasen looks to evolutionary social science to show how the horror genre is a product of human nature.
Author : Mathias Clasen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 209 pages
File Size : 46,77 MB
Release : 2021
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0197535895
"Films about chainsaw killers, demonic possession, and ghostly intruders. Screaming audiences with sleepless nights or sweat-drenched nightmares in their immediate future. What's going on here? Presumably, almost everybody has experience with horror films. Almost everybody has sat through a terrifying motion picture and suffered the after-effects, such as hypervigilance and sleep disturbances. Some people would even characterize themselves as horror fans. But what about the others-the ones who are curious about horror films, but also very, very nervous about them? This book delves into the science of horror cinema in an attempt to address common concerns about the genre. Why is the jump scare so effective, and so dreaded? What are the effects of horror films on mental and physical health? Why do horror films so often cause nightmares? Aren't horror films immoral ... and stupid, too? Are horror films bad for children and adolescents? What does the current profusion of horror films say about our society? Should we be concerned? Or can horror films be a force for good-do horror films have health benefits, can they be aesthetically and morally valuable, and might they even have therapeutic psychological and cultural effects? The book addresses these questions in short, readable chapters, peppered with vivid anecdotes and examples and supported by scientific findings. It notes that while horror films can have negative effects, they can also help people confront and manage fear"--
Author : Jess Nevins
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 18,93 MB
Release : 2020-01-07
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 1440862060
Providing an indispensable resource for academics as well as readers interested in the evolution of horror fiction in the 20th century, this book provides a readable yet critical guide to global horror fiction and authors. Horror Fiction in the 20th Century encompasses the world of 20th-century horror literature and explores it in a critical but balanced fashion. Readers will be exposed to the world of horror literature, a truly global phenomenon during the 20th century. Beginning with the modern genre's roots in the 19th century, the book proceeds to cover 20th-century horror literature in all of its manifestations, whether in comics, pulps, paperbacks, hardcover novels, or mainstream magazines, and from every country that produced it. The major horror authors of the century receive their due, but the works of many authors who are less well-known or who have been forgotten are also described and analyzed. In addition to providing critical assessments and judgments of individual authors and works, the book describes the evolution of the genre and the major movements within it. Horror Fiction in the 20th Century stands out from its competitors and will be of interest to its readers because of its informed critical analysis, its unprecedented coverage of female authors and writers of color, and its concise historical overview.
Author : Virginia Henley
Publisher : Island Books
Page : 546 pages
File Size : 24,46 MB
Release : 1994-01-01
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0440211352
Shorn of her glorious raven tresses and dressed as a man, Lady Antonia Lamb became Lord Anthony Lamb, desperate to keep the property entailed to her twin brother, who is missing at sea. Trapped—and liberated—by her masquerade, Tony meets her new guardian, the devastatingly dangerous Adam Savage, who has returned from his plantation in Ceylon, determined to turn the innocent “boy” into a worldly man. A rake whose scarred face and ice-blue eyes made strong women weak, Adam Savage, legendary adventurer, vowed to take young Tony to the fleshpots of London; to teach him everything a young heir should know. But not even Savage guesses Tony's deepest secret, a masquerade destined to erupt in passionate abandon on one scorching, unforgettable night.
Author : Laurell K. Hamilton
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 419 pages
File Size : 18,19 MB
Release : 2004-02-03
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 0345472063
I am Meredith Gentry, P.I. and Princess Merry, heir to the throne of Fairie. Now there are those among me who whisper I am more. They fear me even as they protect me. And who can blame them? I’ve awakened the dazzling magic that’s slumbered in them for thousands of years. But the thing is, I can’t figure out why. My aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, is no longer distracted by her usual sadistic hobbies. Her obsession has turned unwaveringly to me. The mission to get me pregnant and beat my cousin Prince Cel to the crown is taking longer than expected. Even though I spend each night with the Queen’s Ravens, my immortal guards, no child has come of our decadent pleasures. But something else is happening. My magic courses through me uncontrollably. And as I lock my half-mortal body with their full-Sidhe blooded ones, the power surges like never before. It all began with the chalice. I dreamed of it, and it appeared, cool and hard, beside me when I awoke. My guards know the ancient relic well—its disappearance ages ago stripped them of their vital powers. But it is here with us now. My touch resonates with its force, and they’re consumed with it, their Sidhe essences lit up by it. But even as they cherish me for this unexpected gift, there are those who loathe me for it. Me, a mongrel, only half fey and part mortal. The Unseelie court has suffered for so long, and there are some who would not have it weakened further by an impure queen. My enemies grow in number every day. But they do not know what I am capable of. Nor, for that matter, do I. . . . In Seduced by Moonlight, Laurell K. Hamilton brings the dark, erotic reign of the immortal fey to a startling new depth. Full of sensuality and the consuming anticipation of latent powers unleashed, this world of gods, shapeshifters, and immortal souls is unveiled in all of its supreme magnificence and its treacherous deceits.
Author : Christy Tidwell
Publisher : Penn State Press
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 32,39 MB
Release : 2021-05-10
Category : Literary Criticism
ISBN : 027109043X
Ecohorror represents human fears about the natural world—killer plants and animals, catastrophic weather events, and disquieting encounters with the nonhuman. Its portrayals of animals, the environment, and even scientists build on popular conceptions of zoology, ecology, and the scientific process. As such, ecohorror is a genre uniquely situated to address life, art, and the dangers of scientific knowledge in the Anthropocene. Featuring new readings of the genre, Fear and Nature brings ecohorror texts and theories into conversation with other critical discourses. The chapters cover a variety of media forms, from literature and short fiction to manga, poetry, television, and film. The chronological range is equally varied, beginning in the nineteenth century with the work of Edgar Allan Poe and finishing in the twenty-first with Stephen King and Guillermo del Toro. This range highlights the significance of ecohorror as a mode. In their analyses, the contributors make explicit connections across chapters, question the limits of the genre, and address the ways in which our fears about nature intersect with those we hold about the racial, animal, and bodily “other.” A foundational text, this volume will appeal to specialists in horror studies, Gothic studies, the environmental humanities, and ecocriticism. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Kristen Angierski, Bridgitte Barclay, Marisol Cortez, Chelsea Davis, Joseph K. Heumann, Dawn Keetley, Ashley Kniss, Robin L. Murray, Brittany R. Roberts, Sharon Sharp, and Keri Stevenson.
Author : Mary Downing Hahn
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 211 pages
File Size : 31,64 MB
Release : 2008-09-08
Category : Young Adult Fiction
ISBN : 054748772X
When sixteen-year-old Cynda goes to stay with her father and his second wife, Susan, at their remote bed-and-breakfast inn in Maine, everything starts off well despite legends about ghosts and a murder at the inn. But Cynda feels like a visitor in Dad's new life, an outsider. Then intense, handsome stranger Vincent Morthanos arrives at the inn and seems to return Cynda's interest. At first she is blind to the subtle, insistent signs that Vincent is not what he seems-that he is, in fact, a vampire. Can Cynda free herself-and her family-from Vincent's power before it's too late? Full-bodied characterizations and page-turning suspense ensure that this eerie, riveting novel will appeal to middle school fans of mystery and horror.
Author : William Kilpatrick
Publisher : Thomas Nelson Publishers
Page : 248 pages
File Size : 12,12 MB
Release : 1983
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780840753526
Author : Carrol L. Fry
Publisher : McFarland
Page : 218 pages
File Size : 16,75 MB
Release : 2019-04-16
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 1476674272
Why is horror in film and literature so popular? Why do viewers and readers enjoy feeling fearful? Experts in the fields of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology posit that behaviors from our ancestors that favored survival and adaptation still influence our actions, decisions and thoughts today. The author, with input from a new generation of Darwinists, explores six primal narratives that recur in the horror genre. They are territoriality, tribalism, fear of genetic assimilation, mating rituals, fear of the predator, and distrust or fear of the Other.
Author : Mathias Clasen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 201 pages
File Size : 48,87 MB
Release : 2017-09-29
Category : Performing Arts
ISBN : 0190666536
From vampire apocalypses, shark attacks, witches, and ghosts, to murderous dolls bent on revenge, horror has been part of the American cinematic imagination for almost as long as pictures have moved on screens. But why do they captivate us so? What is the drive to be frightened, and why is it so perennially popular? Why Horror Seduces addresses these questions through evolutionary social sciences. Explaining the functional seduction of horror entertainment, this book draws on cutting-edge findings in the evolutionary social sciences, showing how the horror genre is a product of human nature. Integrating the study of horror with the sciences of human nature, the book claims that horror entertainment works by targeting humans' adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe, allowing a high intensity experience within a safe context. Through analyses of well-known and popular modern American works of horror--Rosemary's Baby; The Shining; I Am Legend; Jaws; and several others--author Mathias Clasen illustrates how these works target evolved cognitive and emotional mechanisms; we are attracted to horrifying entertainment because we have an adaptive tendency to find pleasure in make-believe that allows us to experience negative emotions at high levels of intensity within a safe context. Organized into three parts identifying fictional works by evolutionary mode--the evolution of horror; evolutionary interpretations of horror; the future of horror--Why Horror Seduces succinctly explores the cognitive processes behind spectators' need to scream.
