Supernatural Horror in Literature

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Supernatural Horror in Literature is a 1926-1927 incurred essay of the US, especially in horror - genre became known author Howard Phillips Lovecraft . The German translation was published in 1995 by Suhrkamp Verlag under the title "Literatur der Angst". The essay deals with the characteristics and history of horror literature .

Subject

Lovecraft identifies the fear of the unknown as the source of horror. At the same time, he regards this fear as an anthropological constant and concludes that the resulting narratives are and will always be found throughout history.

Definition of the horror genre

According to the author, the essential characteristic of horror is neither the literary form nor the plot, nor the possible intention of the writer, but only the feeling of horror that the work evokes in the recipient : "The one test of the really weird is this - wether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread [...]. « [German: » The only test criterion for the really uncanny is this - whether or not a profound sense of fear is evoked in the reader [...] . « ] According to Lovecraft, the spread of horror is limited by two factors: On the one hand, only a small part of humanity is receptive to this type of narrative because not all have the necessary imagination. On the other hand, the ability to horror varies with ethnicity or race.

History of horror literature

According to the author, horror already appears in the oldest known stories. It takes different forms, in classical antiquity for example prose, in the Nordic myths, on the other hand, that of verse. As a separate genre of modern literature, horror emerged with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace Walpole and developed further afterwards. However, it can only be regarded as actual art after the publication of Edgar Allan Poe's works . Lovecraft regards it as Poe's achievement to have recognized the psychological basis of horror and to have led the genre from the previously blindly followed literary conventions to hitherto unknown realism - a development that the authors continued after Poe.

Publication history

The essay first appeared in 1927 in The Recluse, edited by W. Paul Cook . It later appears in The Fantasy Fan as a series from 1933 to 1935 in a revised version and then in HP Lovecraft Omnibus 2 · Dagon And Other Macabre Tales from 1965. ST Joshi brought The annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature, an annotated form of the Essays out.

literature

  • Baumann, Hans: Horror. Die Lust am Grauen , Heyne, Munich 1993
  • Derleth, August: Introduction , In: ders. (Ed.): HP Lovecraft Omnibus 2 Dagon And Other Macabre Tales , HarperCollins, New York (NY) 2000
  • Mosig, Dirk: Lovecraft: The dissonance factor in the fantastic literature , In: HP Lovecraft et al .: City without a name , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1997

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HP Lovecraft: Literature of Fear. On the history of fantasy, Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1995
  2. ↑ See HP Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature , In: Derleth, August (Ed.): HP Lovecraft Omnibus 2 · Dagon and Other Macabre Tales , HarperCollins, New York (NY) 2000, pp. 423-426. - See also Baumann, Hans: Horror. Die Lust am Grauen , Heyne, Munich 1993, pp. 294–295. - Cf. also Mosig, Dirk: Lovecraft: The dissonance factor in the fantastic literature , In: HP Lovecraft et al .: City without a name , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt a. M. 1997, pp. 280-285.
  3. ↑ HP Lovecraft: Supernatural Horror in Literature , In: Derleth, August (Ed.): HP Lovecraft Omnibus 2 · Dagon and Other Macabre Tales , HarperCollins, New York (NY) 2000, p. 426.
  4. ↑ See ibid., Pp. 423-432.
  5. ↑ See ibid., Pp. 428-512.
  6. ↑ Cf. Derleth, August: Introduction , In: ders. (Ed.): HP Lovecraft Omnibus 2 · Dagon And Other Macabre Tales , HarperCollins, New York (NY) 2000, p. 9 and passport.

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