My essay on the teaching of horror fiction — “The Unlearning: Horror and Transformative Theory” — just went live in the debut issue of the journal, Transformative Works and Cultures. Here’s the opening passage: I. Introduction: Fear is Never Itself The horror genre has many reasonable lessons to teach us, even though it is perhaps… Continue reading The Unlearning: Horror and Transformative Theory
Tag: horror
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
Hitchcock and the Uncanny Object
On Vanneman, Alan. “Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone.” Bright Lights Film Journal 42 (Nov 2003). In the “Dead or Alive?” section of his photo essay, “Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone,” mystery writer/film critic Alan Vanneman gives us a veritable slide show lecture that… Continue reading Hitchcock and the Uncanny Object