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The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart.
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References
1991
Year
Literary HistoryHumanitiesLiterary CriticismNoel CarrollPhilosophical QuarterlyHauntologyNew YorkPhilosophy (Philosophy Of Mind)PsychodynamicThanatologySocial SciencesIrrationalityPhilosophy Of Mind
The book offers the first serious philosophical examination of horror aesthetics, exploring its narrative structures and transmedia nature through a comprehensive survey of obscure and classic works. Carroll seeks to explain why people derive pleasure from being frightened, investigating the paradoxes that motivate a desire for horror.
Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a transmedia phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those paradoxes of the heart that make us want to be horrified?