Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction
Abstract
The notion of the haunting could be regarded as paradigmatic for the modern
horror genre. Haunted buildings, villages, and even mechanized objects, such as
trains, cars, puppets, etc. act as sources of supernatural threat in the genre’s bestknown works. The concept of a haunted item of material culture differs, however
– in quality, as well as in ontological implications – from the notion of a haunted
natural landscape: the first is more closely related to human cultural worlds (past
and present) and can be described as largely anthropocentric; while the other is
conceptualized as fundamentally alien to humans, provided that it emanates
from (pre-human) realms of nature. This paper analyses three classical horror
stories in which the natural environment is portrayed as a doorway to other
dimensions of physical being, awareness, and cognition: Algernon Blackwood’s
The Willows (1907), Clark Ashton Smith’s Genius Loci (1933) and Ramsey
Campbell’s The Voice of the Beach (1977). ...The aim of the paper is to provide
answers to three analytical questions: how such spaces are narratively
constructed, what meanings do they communicate, and how do they persuade us to imagine the limits – as well as potential transformative properties – of human
body, perception, and intellect.
Keywords:
Space / liminality / genius loci / human body / human cognition / horror fictionSource:
Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion, 2022, 55-56Publisher:
- The International Association for Comparative Mythology
- Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia
URI
dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/handle/123456789/15298/IACM_Belgrade_2022_program_online.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=yhttp://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/6438
Collections
Institution/Community
Etnologija i antropologija / Ethnology and AnthropologyTY - CONF AU - Pišev, Marko PY - 2022 UR - dais.sanu.ac.rs/bitstream/handle/123456789/15298/IACM_Belgrade_2022_program_online.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y UR - http://reff.f.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/6438 AB - The notion of the haunting could be regarded as paradigmatic for the modern horror genre. Haunted buildings, villages, and even mechanized objects, such as trains, cars, puppets, etc. act as sources of supernatural threat in the genre’s bestknown works. The concept of a haunted item of material culture differs, however – in quality, as well as in ontological implications – from the notion of a haunted natural landscape: the first is more closely related to human cultural worlds (past and present) and can be described as largely anthropocentric; while the other is conceptualized as fundamentally alien to humans, provided that it emanates from (pre-human) realms of nature. This paper analyses three classical horror stories in which the natural environment is portrayed as a doorway to other dimensions of physical being, awareness, and cognition: Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows (1907), Clark Ashton Smith’s Genius Loci (1933) and Ramsey Campbell’s The Voice of the Beach (1977). The aim of the paper is to provide answers to three analytical questions: how such spaces are narratively constructed, what meanings do they communicate, and how do they persuade us to imagine the limits – as well as potential transformative properties – of human body, perception, and intellect. PB - The International Association for Comparative Mythology PB - Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia C3 - Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion T1 - Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction EP - 56 SP - 55 UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6438 ER -
@conference{ author = "Pišev, Marko", year = "2022", abstract = "The notion of the haunting could be regarded as paradigmatic for the modern horror genre. Haunted buildings, villages, and even mechanized objects, such as trains, cars, puppets, etc. act as sources of supernatural threat in the genre’s bestknown works. The concept of a haunted item of material culture differs, however – in quality, as well as in ontological implications – from the notion of a haunted natural landscape: the first is more closely related to human cultural worlds (past and present) and can be described as largely anthropocentric; while the other is conceptualized as fundamentally alien to humans, provided that it emanates from (pre-human) realms of nature. This paper analyses three classical horror stories in which the natural environment is portrayed as a doorway to other dimensions of physical being, awareness, and cognition: Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows (1907), Clark Ashton Smith’s Genius Loci (1933) and Ramsey Campbell’s The Voice of the Beach (1977). The aim of the paper is to provide answers to three analytical questions: how such spaces are narratively constructed, what meanings do they communicate, and how do they persuade us to imagine the limits – as well as potential transformative properties – of human body, perception, and intellect.", publisher = "The International Association for Comparative Mythology, Institute of Archaeology, Belgrade, Serbia", journal = "Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion", title = "Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction", pages = "56-55", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6438" }
Pišev, M.. (2022). Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction. in Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion The International Association for Comparative Mythology., 55-56. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6438
Pišev M. Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction. in Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion. 2022;:55-56. https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6438 .
Pišev, Marko, "Haunted Landscapes In Anglo-Saxon Horror Fiction" in Fifteenth Annual International Conference on Comparative Mythology Sacred Ground: Place and Space in Mythology and Religion (2022):55-56, https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_reff_6438 .