Horror: Genre and Writing Mr. C Le Pard
Horror: Genre and Writing
Mr. C Le Pard
Contents
• What is Genre?• What is Horror?
– Setting– Plot– Character
• Critical elements
Colour CodingKeywordKey IdeaContrastChallenge – Optional if you feel more confident
What is Genre?
• Genres are used to organise literature into different types
• Stories of the same genre will normally share some important characteristics in terms of:– Setting– Character– Plot
What is Horror?
• Latin: horrere meaning to tremble or shudder
• Fear, shock or disgust
• Not simply about blood and gore!
• Designed not only to make us jump with surprise but to unnerve us.
The Horror Setting
• Fear of the unknown
• Some common settings include:–Wood: fairy tales, man vs. nature– Castle: evil tyrants, man vs. man– Graveyard: place of burial, man vs. society– Asylum: place of madness, man vs. self
Horror Settings
• Transgression(moving across) of a boundary: – Natural: Day/Night– Human: Mortality/Immortality– Societal: Innocent/Criminal– Personal: Sanity/Madness
Horror Settings
• The familiar made unfamiliar• The safe made dangerous
For example, Night timeChallengeHamlet Act 3 Scene 2“Tis now the very witching time of night, When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out Contagion to this world.”
The Horror Plot
• Transgression: often a sin or error
• Results in a reaction or punishment
Challenge• Allows reader to learn through a
characters mistakes
Horror Plots
• An effective horror plot uses tension:– To evoke fear or shock– To emphasise the transgression and/or punishment
• Tension in a narrative is created by expectation
Horror Plots
• Playing with the readers’ expectations of what may happen can either:– Build tension and then release itorChallenge– Build tension to an anti-climax to be
built again
The Horror Character
• Horror characters often fall into two categories– Those who know too little and are naïve– Those who know too much and are
overconfident
• Both produce effective horror characters because they are likely to make mistakes
Critical Elements
• Setting– On a boundary– Exploits the unknown
• Plot– Transgressing/punishment– Builds tension
• Character– Makes a mistake– Naïve or over-confident