1.2 The characteristic features and types of horror novels and stories

As noted by M. Hills, “category of horrible plays one of the leading roles in Gothic aesthetics and in general pre-romanticism aesthetics, as according to pre-romanticists, horror and fear can evoke strong feelings as well as bring aesthetic pleasure” [18,p. 42 ].

The success of horror novel directly depends on the writer’s ability to create a tense atmosphere and stir up readers’ strong feelings.

In childhood a person may be afraid of shadows in the dark or “monsters” under the bed. Kids’ imagination is especially boisterous. Grown-ups have more sophisticated and reasonable dreads. Adults’ fears are: fear of illness or death of their nearest and dearest, fear of losing control of their lives, fear of not being recognized by a society or inability of realizing their ambitions. Horror itself is virtually an interference with a person’s comfort zone [17, p.28].

It can be distinguished the following specific features of horror fiction:

• unbelievable and unexpected events, taking place in common situations, but somehow connected with supernatural elements;

• these events happen on a routine life background, so a reader could compare him/herself with main characters;

• this genre investigates the dark side of the human’s personality;

• characters are mostly ordinary people, whose inner world can be associated with that of ours. Although heroes often shown as a bit weird and reserved;

• lives often depend on main hero’s luck;

• the mood of the story is dismal, ominous and immediately affects the reader’s perception;

• the plot contains sudden terrifying events;

• violence can be present in a story and even described in details;

• in majority of cases a story is told in a third person;

• writing style is simple [19, p.59].

Horror literature has its own different thematic varieties.

Here are the main of them :

• Horror novels about appearance change and supernatural events. People and places that used to be safe and friendly become threatening and at any moment they may rise against those who remained unchanged or even replace them. Inability to recognize people and environment scares people splits personality and forces to change. After all, one can not expect that his/her own home can become dangerous for him/her and his/her family.

• Supernatural horror novels that cover a lot of themes: these may be tales about personality disorders and changes of a shape; ghost stories; stories about somnipathy – dreams and conscious intrusion; reviving of sinister nocturnal creatures – zombie tales.

• Gothic novels

• Horror novels with a house as a scene. Such tales are based on a human’s need of safety

• Ghost novels

• Multiple personality; mind and body possession by other forms of life (aliens) novels

• Cosmic horror novels

• Vampire novels; Werewolf novels etc. [16, p.75].

The contemporary horror tale differs from its predecessors in its representation of female victim. In the Gothic tale all the fright and fluster were evoked at the expose of female character. Traditionally, the heroine was present or future wife of the male protagonist. Her dismay awoke villain’s imagination and libido and compelled a hero to fall upon risk. According to T. Magistrale and M. Morrison, “modern heroine of Gothic and horror novels, however, often have to fight with the monster without the support of courageous men shoulder” [20, p.5].

But not only has an image of a female hero changed, but an image of the modern monster as well. In horror novels written before the 1960’s monster rarely resembled a human being. There always was something that referred him to alien: clothing, body composition or similarity to the animal. However, since then they have acquired more “human” resemblance. As noted by R. Salomon, “ubiquitous monster in the books of the 1980s usually appears as a serial murderer. He gripped by terrible feelings inside, but doesn’t differ from us outside”[21, p.21].

N.Carroll suggested that “modern horror novels are too bloody in comparison to their predecessors” [16,p. 28]. Such a tendency can be explained by the daily stress experienced by readers every day. People are exposed to so much violence – both real and fictional – that they take its depiction the literature absolutely composedly. Therefore, the authors have to invent even more horrific images.