I am currently teaching an online horror literature course in “Psychos and the Psyche” for graduate students in our MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill University. This month we are studying Freud’s article on “Das Unheimlich” and reading a fascinating new anthology of horror fiction called The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease,… Continue reading The New Uncanny: Tales of Unease — A Class Review
Category: Fiction
Analysis of Das Unheimliche in fiction and other written narratives.
Call for Papers: Ghosts and the Uncanny
The Canadian literary journal, Descant, is calling for submissions on the theme, “Ghosts and the Uncanny” (deadline: March 01, 2010): An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself. – Charles Dickens For this special issue, Descant turns ghost hunter and dares to explore the murky connections between… Continue reading Call for Papers: Ghosts and the Uncanny
Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson
Blankety Blank: A Novel of Vulgaria by D. Harlan Wilson This disturbing read is a breakthrough work of fiction that deserves a spotlight on the literary landscape as one of the best works of experimental writing of the year, if not ever. The story is quite a mess, and difficult to encapsulate in a review,… Continue reading Book Review: Blankety-Blank by D. Harlan Wilson
The Uncanny Hands of Horror Fiction
I’ve just posted an annotated list of “Classic Dismembered Hand Stories” on my creative writing weblog, The Goreletter. (This “hands” list was originally scheduled to appear in The Book of Lists: Horror, but was cut for space — but I do have another article in that book on “Top Horror Colleges”!). Stories about dismembered… Continue reading The Uncanny Hands of Horror Fiction
Giving Pinocchio Flesh
On Sarah Langan’s “Why I Write Horror” (The Humanities Review, Spring 2008) All genres have their intended effects. In mysteries, readers are asked to analyze. They solve puzzles. In science fiction, they imagine new, and occasionally better, worlds. But in horror, readers are asked to feel. That is why, when they put the book on… Continue reading Giving Pinocchio Flesh