Hi Folks:
Articles are starting to come in for the special edition of "Film and
Philosophy" on horror films, and I am thinking about my introductory essay.
In that essay, I want to sketch out the theoretical landscape, and thought I
might enlist your aid in that effort. The main theories of horror with
which I am familiar are:
1) the play theory, that we enjoy the adreniline rush, like a roller
coaster, while secure that there is no real danger.
2) the Freudian account of horror as the return of the repressed (Robin
Wood), i.e. as vicariously gratifying repressed desires that are then
re-repressed by the destruction of the monster
3) the cognitivist account of our fascination with the impossible, and how
it is disclosed and defeated in horror narratives (Noel Carroll)
4) feminist readings that either focus on a) the repressive impact of the
victimization of women that characterizes so many slasher
pics (folowing Laura Mulvey) or b) the liberating activity of many female
protagonists in more recent horror (Carol Clover)
5) the organicist reading that says that all horror (esp. gothic tales) deal
with our fears of death, dissolution and decay.
6) religious readings that focus on the supernatural aspects of horror
7) a Nietzschean view that it is to the power of the monsters that we are
attracted, and to their violations of moral norms (my favorite)
8) the Marxist reading of horror as critical of capitalism (esp. "Dawn of
the Dead", and Romero's films in general)
I'm sure I'm missing some. Pray, tell!
Many thanks.
Dan Shaw
PS Submissions for the special edition on the philosophy of horror will be
accepted by e-mail until December 1st. Reply to me only for further
information.
"For beauty is the beginning of terror that we are still able to bear, and
why we love it so is because it so serenely disdains to destroy us." Rilke's
First Elegy
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