The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the HeartNoel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a "transmedia" phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those "paradoxes of the heart" that make us want to be horrified? |
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aesthetic appear art-horror attempt attraction audience audience’s beliefs called character-identification characterization Charles’s Clive Barker cognitive complex discovery plot concept confrontation context cosmic fear course culture’s cycle demon disclosure disgust Dracula emotional responses example existence Exorcist experiment explanation fantastic fascination feeling fictional characters figure Frankenstein function fusion genuine Green Slime H.P. Lovecraft horrific creatures horrific monsters horror fictions horror film horror genre horror narratives horror novel horror plots horror stories human hypothesis identify impure insofar involves kind King’s literature Lovecraft macroquestion make-believe Moreover movie narration nature notion objects of art-horror one’s onset overreacher plot paradox of horror perhaps philosophical pleasure plot structures popular pretend theory protagonist psychoanalytic quasi-fear question ratiocination reader repression repulsive respect responses to fiction scene science fiction seems sense sort Stephen King subgenres supernatural suspension of disbelief Teen Wolf theme theory of horror things thought theory vampire Walton