Horror Fiction: An Introduction

by Gina Wisker

This is a series of introductory books about different types of writing. One strand of the series focuses on genres such as
Science Fiction, Horror, Romance, and Crime, and the other focuses on movements or styles often associated with historical
and cultural locations-Postcolonial, Native American, Scottish, Irish, American Gothic.
Authors covered in this volume include
William Peter Blatty, Ira Levine, Bram
Stoker, Shirley Jackson, Angela Carter,
Mary Shelley, Stephen King, Anne Rice,
and Washington Irving.

Genres: Nonfiction, Horror, Academic, Literature

249 pages, Paperback

First published July 13, 2005

Reviews

[Christy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're entering into a critical study of the genre and have little to no background in literary theory, this book provides some key concepts that will be useful. Otherwise, this book may not have much to offer. These key concepts are generally not new to the field of literary or horror studies, the discussion is incredibly repetitive across the different sections of the book, the coverage of major movements is thoroughly skimmable (and also likely to spoil lots of texts if you haven't read everything Wisker discusses yet), and the basic argument about the value of studying horror fiction is frequently overstated. In addition, I found myself wondering on multiple occasions why Wisker was focusing on films at the expense of the books they were based on (instances that stand out to me are The Shining [in which case she conflates the film and book without acknowledging doing so], Bladerunner [with absolutely no discussion of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?], and I, Robot [again, with no mention at all of Asimov's story]) and whether she understands or has conceptualized a distinction between horror and dystopian fiction. In her attempts to show the value of horror fiction, she sometimes tries to include texts that are normally considered science fiction. That would be okay (there's definitely overlap between the two in lots of cases) if she would just acknowledge this. But she doesn't. One example will serve to illustrate the problem: in all of her discussions of horror tropes, she doesn't mention environmental apocalypse at all but yet she wants to include The Day After Tomorrow, a global warming environmental apocalypse story, based in science, easily read as an apocalyptic or dystopian text, as horror. This is something that could be easily dealt with by including a little explanation or broadening the discussion of horror to include this kind of narrative, but this is just not done. One of the greatest irritations for me in reading theory and criticism about genre fiction is the tendency of apologists for various genres to try to make their genre the best and most widespread and influential genre (I've read a lot of SF criticism and I've definitely seen it there, too). That kind of overselling is really not necessary, however, and, as in this case, I find that it just dilutes the power of the central argument and weakens the credibility of the writer.

On the other hand, having presented all of this criticism, Wisker has some really interesting things to say (or point to) about feminist and post-colonial horror. These subsets of the field are clearly where she normally works and I will definitely look for more of her writing in those fields. I am also very happy to see feminist and post-colonial thought represented so well in an introductory book like this.

[Earline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me and this book have had a love/hate relationship. Although I do enjoy the author's view of the horror genre, I'm not sure it was a good idea for her to take on the entire of burden of Horror Fiction. Judging by Wisker's writing her focus is obviously in cultural and gender criticism and should probably stick to that. Although this book is labeled "An Introduction," I feel that a lot is left out or overlooked and her repetition is beyond annoying. Overall I liked the chapter on criticism the most and found many usable quotes, so not all is lost.

[Kike Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this book did an analysis of common tropes in horror, and a brief history of the genre as well. The author repeats herself constantly, but I think it's just the common theme too. I think the best part was her definition of the genre and the historical analysis of where horror comes from.

An interesting read if you love horror and are willing to put up with some heavy pages.

[Robin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting perspectives in there but extremely repetitive. Every chapter does the same arguments but with a different structure. Probably a problem caused by the series' formula.

[sofie]

made me so excited for my dissertation but why do parts read like it was never ever edited … entire paragraphs repeated multiple times and spelling mistakes …