History of genre (Horror)

History of Horror

Horror is a genre of literature, which is intended to or has the ability to scare or startle those who watch or read these horror stories by creating an eerie atmosphere and creates a sense of horror or terror. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural. Horror tends to play on the fears of their society. The genre it self has ancient origins that were reformulated in the gothic 18^th century. Horror has its roots in religious traditions, focusing on death, afterlife, evil and the demonic, also things embodied in the person, these were shown through stories of witches, vampires, werewolves and ghosts. Eighteenth century gothic horror used these fears to create the very first gothic horror novel, which was the castle of Otranto (1764), which was created by Horace Walpole. This was the first novel to incorporate elements of the supernatural however it was first published as a medieval romance, which sparked a lot of controversy by people saying it was anachronistic or just in poor taste, but hate it or love it people couldn’t ignore it as it proved to be immediately popular and provoked the work of many other gothic horror novels around this time. A considerable amount of horror fiction was written by females in this era and was marketed towards females. A typical scenario would be a female protagonist facing an eerie and gloomy castle.

Although gothic horror began to blossom a lot more as it entered the 19^th century and turned into a more modern version of horror and was referred to as horror literature from this point on. Inspired by influential works such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) or Edgar Allen Poe’s short stories. Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Oscar Wilde's the Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Each of these novels was an enduring icon of seen in modern re-imaginings on the stage and screen.

Early 20^th century cinema was inspired by many aspects of horror literature, and early horror cinema started a strong tradition of horror films and subgenre based on horror fiction continues to this day. Up until the graphic depictions of violence and gore on the screen commonly associated with the 1960s and 1970's Slasher films and splatter films. Many modern novels claim an early description of the living dead in a precursor to the modern zombie tale. E.g. Richard Matheson's 1954 novel I Am Legend would also influence an entire genre of apocalyptic zombie fiction emblematic of the films of George A. Romero. One of the defining traits of the genre of horror is that it provokes a response; emotional, psychological or physical, within readers that causes them to react with fear. One of H.P. Lovecraft's most famous quotes about the genre is that: "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

Although Horror is not to be confused with the genre thriller, as this focuses on building suspense and tension as appose to focusing on fear and terror like the genre horror is supposed to provide.