Sir Charles Bell, Essays on Expression Wellcome L0021920

The distinction between terror and horror is a standard literary and psychological concept applied especially to

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and

horror fiction Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian ...

. ''Terror'' is usually described as the feeling of dread and anticipation that ''precedes'' the horrifying experience. By contrast, ''horror'' is the feeling of revulsion that usually ''follows'' a frightening sight, sound, or otherwise experience. Terror has also been defined by

Noel Carroll Noel or Noël may refer to: Christmas * , French for Christmas * Noel is another name for a Christmas carol Places *Noel, Missouri, United States, a city * Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, a community * 1563 Noël, an asteroid *Mount Noel, Britis ...

as a combination of horror and revulsion.

Literary Gothic

The distinction between terror and horror was first characterized by the

writer Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823), horror being more related to being shocked or scared (being horrified) at an awful realization or a deeply unpleasant occurrence, while terror is more related to being anxious or fearful. Radcliffe considered that terror is characterized by "obscurity" or indeterminacy in its treatment of potentially horrible events, something which leads to the sublime. She says in an essay published posthumously in 1826, 'On the Supernatural in Poetry', that terror "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high degree of life". Horror, in contrast, "freezes and nearly annihilates them" with its unambiguous displays of atrocity. She goes on: "I apprehend that neither

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

nor Milton by their fictions, nor Mr Burke by his reasoning, anywhere looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies the great difference between horror and terror, but in uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting the dreader evil." According to Devendra Varma in ''The Gothic Flame'' (1966):

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

Horror fiction

Horror is also a genre of

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

and

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a tradi ...

that relies on horrifying images or situations to tell stories and prompt reactions or jump scares to put their audiences on edge. In these films the moment of horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build up, often using the medium of scary music. In his non-fiction book '' Danse Macabre'',

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

stressed how horror tales normally chart the outbreak of madness/the terrible within an everyday setting. He also elaborated on the twin themes of terror and horror, adding a third element which he referred to as "revulsion". He describes terror as "the finest element" of the three, and the one he strives hardest to maintain in his own writing. Citing many examples, he defines "terror" as the suspenseful moment in horror before the actual monster is revealed. "Horror," King writes, is that moment at which one sees the creature/aberration that causes the terror or suspense, a "shock value". King finally compares "revulsion" with the gag-reflex, a bottom-level, cheap gimmick which he admits he often resorts to in his own fiction if necessary, confessing:

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.

Psychoanalytic views

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts i ...

likened the experience of horror to that of the

uncanny The uncanny is the psychological experience of something as not simply mysterious, but creepy, often in a strangely familiar way. It may describe incidents where a familiar thing or event is encountered in an unsettling, eerie, or taboo context. ...

. In his wake,

Georges Bataille Georges Albert Maurice Victor Bataille (; ; 10 September 1897 – 9 July 1962) was a French philosopher and intellectual working in philosophy, literature, sociology, anthropology, and history of art. His writing, which included essays, novels ...

saw horror as akin to ecstasy in its transcendence of the everyday; as opening a way to go beyond rational social consciousness.

Julia Kristeva Julia Kristeva (; born Yuliya Stoyanova Krasteva, bg, Юлия Стоянова Кръстева; on 24 June 1941) is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, psychoanalyst, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who ha ...

in turn considered horror as evoking experience of the primitive, the infantile, and the demoniacal aspects of unmediated femininity.

Horror, helplessness and trauma

The paradox of pleasure experienced through horror films/books can be explained partly as stemming from relief from real-life horror in the experience of horror in play, partly as a safe way to return in adult life to the paralysing feelings of infantile helplessness. Helplessness is also a factor in the overwhelming experience of real horror in

psychological trauma Psychological trauma, mental trauma or psychotrauma is an emotional response to a distressing event or series of events, such as accidents, rape, or natural disasters. Reactions such as psychological shock and psychological denial are typical ...

. Playing at re-experiencing the trauma may be a helpful way of overcoming it.O Fenichel, ''The Psychoanalytic Theory of Neurosis'' (London 1946) p. 542-3

References

Bibliography

*Steven Bruhm (1994) ''Gothic Bodies: The Politics of Pain in Romantic Fiction''. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. *Gary Crawford (1986) "Criticism" in J. Sullivan (ed) ''The Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the Supernatural''. * Ann Radcliffe (1826) "On the Supernatural in Poetry" in '' The New Monthly Magazine'' 7, 1826, pp 145–52. *Devendra Varma (1966) ''The Gothic Flame''. New York: Russell and Russell. *Gina Wisker (2005) ''Horror Fiction: An Introduction''. New York: Continuum. *Angela Wright (2007) ''Gothic Fiction''. Basingstoke: Palgrave. *Julian Hanich (2010) ''Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers. The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear''. New York:

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

. *

Noël Carroll Noël Carroll (born 1947) is an American philosopher considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary philosophy of art. Although Carroll is best known for his work in the philosophy of film (he is a proponent of cognitive film theory ...